Interconnections in music is not always apparent. Many times when analyzing the musical traits we must find connections between the musical components. Many of the components thread very nicely into each other for the song “Mwi Bushru” by the Bomas. Ties between social, ideas, activities, and material culture is interconnected between the context of the song, and certain musical traits such as: repetitive melodic lines, vocals harmonies and simplistic rhythmic structure.
In the song “Mwi Bishiru”, there are many music components that are tied in closely to each other such as the activity component of dance and the idea component as the function as an emotional outlet. During this tribal song, the activity of dance is hilighted by the use of rhythmic layering and a steady duple meter. In the Kenyan culture dance is a very important social connector and allows people to express their creativity. In any culture certain movements (such as drinking, smoking, playing instruments and dancing) provide people with emotional relief from their everyday problems. For example, in the U.S.A, many people like to go ‘clubbing after a hard week of work’, and find it relaxing and a way to escape from their problems. In this song, the activity of dance truly allows the audience to become involved in the act of ‘dancing’ and encorages them to act out all of the emotional problems they have within their minds. This is displayed by certain musical traits such as the strong rhythmic pattern to keep a steady beat. The correlation between ideas of this song and the activity of dance is very apparent.
Of course, activities and ideas are not the only components that display similarities to each other. The material culture of certain costumes and the social organization in regards to sexual demographics also share similar ties to each other. The costuming of this song involves certain outerwear that represents the ritual aspects of the tribal song. Most of the time, the man wears a costume that is different from the choruses clothing. Since, in this song, the chorus is usually comprised of women, one can see the specific sexual demographics that are silently entailed. Since this song is generally geared toward the male sex, the clothing does create a even stronger wall between the two sexes. Of course, this is hilighted by the call and response voices; as the male would call and the women would respond. One can see the strong correlation between these two musical components in reference to the musical traits.
In conclusion, the correlation between all of these musical components create a well-rounded song that is finely incorporated into the Kenyan culture.
