Gestaltungsformen moderner Popularmusik
Drei Repertoirebeispiele der Rockgruppe "Santana"
Starting-point for this study is the idea that Afro-American Popular Music cannot be adequately understood using the analytical apparatus of traditional western musicology. Afro-American music's phenomenological affinity with certain manifestations of African cultures leads one in the course of analysis to try to base one's investigations upon the cognitive and terminological directives of recent African studies. Methodological basic concepts, such as the fundamental beat, cycle, form number and timeline-formulae, together with their structural footing in the Derler-System, and also the tonal organisation model of the On- and Off-Position, are all called upon in the analysis and transcription of three compositions by the group Santana, and consequently, in the fields of Rock and Jazz Rock respectively. For a comprehension of the formal specifics in instrumental Rock, Jazz Rock and Modal Jazz, the terms "Ordinal-formula" and "Directing-formula" are proposed. The evidence provided by the analysis results of the methodical approach justify the conclusion that certain varieties of Rock and Jazz should be seen rather as modern variants of African music than as an African-influenced part of the European music tradition. The application of this system of analysis, stemming from African music concepts, in the study of Afro-American music leads almost inevitably to a call for a re-examination of the apparently self-evident differentiation made in Rock, Jazz, Blues, Latin etc., or rather, for an investigation into its validity, using music-internal criterion. Independent of various difficulties which come to light (this also being a result of investigation) the methods applied in this analysis, which was carried out in such an exemplary fashion, can be seen as providing the foundations for a practicably objective, aesthetic evaluation of Afro-American music.