The Art of the African Instrument

The Art of the African Instrument

Africa’s rich cultural heritage encompasses a tremendous range of music, musical instruments, and performing arts. Music is enjoyed recreationally, as part of celebrations, festivals, processions, masquerades, ceremonies, rituals, royal occasions, and community events. The variety of instruments made and used in Africa ranges from drums, xylophones, and zithers, to imported electric guitars and keyboards. Many traditional musical instruments appear utilitarian, while others are embellished with geometric, anthropomorphic, and zoomorphic features, allowing them to simultaneously serve as works of art. 

The remarkably imaginative musical instruments that will be on view are from the Fowler Museum at UCLA from the West and Central African countries of Gabon, Nigeria, Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Cameroon. Bells, rattles, harp lutes, slit gongs, and lamellophones or thumb pianos are some of the many captivating forms that will be exhibited in The Art of the African Instrument.

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