Gerhard Kubik
Encyclopedia
Gerhard Kubik is an Austrian
music ethnologist from Vienna
. Kubik studied ethnology
, musicology
and African languages
at the University of Vienna
. He published his doctoral dissertation in 1971 and achieved habilitation in 1980.
Kubik went to Africa every year for the past 48 years. From 1958 he has published over 300 articles and books on Africa
and African-Americans, based on his field work in fifteen African countries, in Venezuela
and Brazil
. Kubik's topics are music and dance, oral traditions and traditional systems of education, the extension of African culture to the Americas (especially Brazil) and the linguistics of the Bantu languages
of central Africa.
Kubik has compiled the largest collection of African traditional music worldwide, with over 25,000 recordings, mostly archived at the Phonogrammarchiv Wien in Vienna.
Gerhard Kubik, perhaps the most broadly knowledgeable and prolific scholar of the musical traditions of Africa and the Black Diaspora first came to Tanganyika in 1960, after having already spent some months in Uganda in 1959.
When not studying and writing on the music of Africa, Professor Kubik performs as a clarinettist with a neo-traditional kwela Jazz Band from Malawi that has been highly successful performing throughout Europe and Brazil. The band accompanied him on his return-visit to Tanzania (late July 2007). They performed at the University of Dar es Salaam and at the National Museum. This trip was organised by Professor Mitch Strumpf and his right hand man Khalifa Kondo (graduate of Music class- University of Dar es Salaam).
While in Tanzania, Professor Kubik presented 100 CD recordings of Tanzanian music traditions he collected since 1960 to the Department of Fine and Performing Arts, University of Dar es Salaam. This valuable collection, sponsored by a generous grant from the German Embassy in Dar es Salaam, will be used for research purposes by students and staff of the Department and the University, as a whole.
In Tanzania, Professor Kubik has spent much time especially in the central and southern parts of the country and has released an LP record in 1989 of multipart singing of the Wagogo, Uatumbuka, Wakisi and Wanyakyusa.
For further information on Kubik contributions in African music (particularly Tanzania) please contact Khalifa Kondo, University of Dar es Salaam. Cellphone +255713515855.
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
music ethnologist from Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. Kubik studied ethnology
Ethnology
Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...
, musicology
Musicology
Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...
and African languages
African languages
There are over 2100 and by some counts over 3000 languages spoken natively in Africa in several major language families:*Afro-Asiatic spread throughout the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the Sahel...
at the University of Vienna
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...
. He published his doctoral dissertation in 1971 and achieved habilitation in 1980.
Kubik went to Africa every year for the past 48 years. From 1958 he has published over 300 articles and books on Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and African-Americans, based on his field work in fifteen African countries, in Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
and Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
. Kubik's topics are music and dance, oral traditions and traditional systems of education, the extension of African culture to the Americas (especially Brazil) and the linguistics of the Bantu languages
Bantu languages
The Bantu languages constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages...
of central Africa.
Kubik has compiled the largest collection of African traditional music worldwide, with over 25,000 recordings, mostly archived at the Phonogrammarchiv Wien in Vienna.
Gerhard Kubik, perhaps the most broadly knowledgeable and prolific scholar of the musical traditions of Africa and the Black Diaspora first came to Tanganyika in 1960, after having already spent some months in Uganda in 1959.
When not studying and writing on the music of Africa, Professor Kubik performs as a clarinettist with a neo-traditional kwela Jazz Band from Malawi that has been highly successful performing throughout Europe and Brazil. The band accompanied him on his return-visit to Tanzania (late July 2007). They performed at the University of Dar es Salaam and at the National Museum. This trip was organised by Professor Mitch Strumpf and his right hand man Khalifa Kondo (graduate of Music class- University of Dar es Salaam).
While in Tanzania, Professor Kubik presented 100 CD recordings of Tanzanian music traditions he collected since 1960 to the Department of Fine and Performing Arts, University of Dar es Salaam. This valuable collection, sponsored by a generous grant from the German Embassy in Dar es Salaam, will be used for research purposes by students and staff of the Department and the University, as a whole.
In Tanzania, Professor Kubik has spent much time especially in the central and southern parts of the country and has released an LP record in 1989 of multipart singing of the Wagogo, Uatumbuka, Wakisi and Wanyakyusa.
External links
- List of publications (until 1994)
- Transformations and Interpretations of American Jazz: An Inside Account of Jazz Performance in South Africa 1960s-1990s" talk at University of Minnesota, 2008
For further information on Kubik contributions in African music (particularly Tanzania) please contact Khalifa Kondo, University of Dar es Salaam. Cellphone +255713515855.