Emotion and music: The Ethiopian lyre bagana

Abstract

The bagana is a paraliturgical lyre played by the Christian Amhara of Ethiopia. It is used to perform spiritual music. Bagana is an intimate instrument, accompanied by the singing voice only. It has a special role in Christian Amhara music, as its myth of origin closely connects it to God, the biblical King David and King Menelik I. It is reputed to be very powerful and its performances arouse intense reactions in both players and listeners. Some of these reactions were observed directly (immediate calming, tears, overwhelmed faces). Inner reactions to bagana were investigated by means of 108 statements collected from 32 participants (from virtuoso players to simple listeners) during interviews or discussion. Statements were classified by using the Strong Experiences related to Music (SEM) descriptive system (Gabrielsson & Lindström Wik, 2003). Results show that the inner reactions bagana elicits are varied (statements fall into six of the seven categories of the SEM descriptive system) but a majority of the statements can be classified into the Feelings/Emotions (5) and Existential and Transcendental (6) categories. The least commonly admitted reactions fall into the Physical Reactions and Behaviours (2) and the Perception (3) categories. These results are discussed in detail and confronted with the direct observations. The utility and difficulties of the SEM descriptive system in ethnomusicological contexts are also discussed.

Keywords

emotion ethnomusicology music SEM descriptive system

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