EMAC-Dataset-CAR

Musical Traditions

The Central African Republic harbours a rich mosaic of oral music traditions associated with its diverse ethnic communities. CAR traditional music is characterised by complex polyrhythmic structures, call-and-response vocal patterns, and the intertwining of music with oral narrative in genres such as the chante-fable. The musical traditions represented in this dataset belong to the sphere of community oral literature and ceremonial performance, where song functions both as an aesthetic expression and as a vehicle for the transmission of cultural knowledge. The EMAC corpus for CAR was constituted during a period when the national ethnomusicological infrastructure was still nascent, making these recordings among the earliest systematic collections of CAR traditional vocal music.

Genres Represented

• Chante-fable (CHF): A hybrid narrative genre combining sung passages with spoken prose. Two sessions are represented: CHF_001 (1 audio file) and CHF_002 (3 audio files, parts 1–3 of 3).

• Musique épique / Mélopée (MEP): A genre of extended melodic vocal performance with an epic or lyrical character. One session is represented (MEP_001, 1 audio file).

Mode of Oral Transmission

The musical traditions represented in this dataset are transmitted exclusively through oral and performative channels. No written notation system is employed for these genres in their traditional transmission context. The chante-fable is communicated through performance events where singers and storytellers alternate or combine melodic and spoken registers. The mélopée / musique épique is a melodically sustained form requiring specialised vocal technique, learned through extended community exposure. The EMAC recordings constitute elicited performances in a controlled environment and serve as primary archival documentation of these traditions.

Source

The recordings in this dataset were collected by researchers and technicians of the EMAC project in the Central African Republic, approximately between 1979 and 1982. The project engaged the Service des Musées of the CAR as its principal institutional partner. Jean-Marie Toninga, maître d'éducation musicale and cultural affairs officer, represented the CAR at the Sangmélima founding meeting. The original recordings were stored on magnetic tape at CERDOTOLA and digitised in 2015 under the coordination of Dr. Emmanuel Ngue Um.

Domain

The recordings represent two genres of traditional vocal music from the Central African Republic: chante-fables (combining narrative and song) and an extended epic melodic performance (musique épique / mélopée). All performances were elicited in a controlled recording environment at the request of the EMAC project.

Size

Total audio duration: approximately 57 minutes (3,408 seconds), distributed across 5 WAV audio files. IMDI 3.03 XML metadata files: 1 (corpus-level only), in IMDI/ subfolder.

Structure

The dataset comprises 5 WAV audio files organised as follows:

• EMAC_CF_CHF_001-1-1.wav — Chante-fable 001 (1 part of 1)

• EMAC_CF_CHF_002-1-3.wav — Chante-fable 002 (part 1 of 3)

• EMAC_CF_CHF_002-2-3.wav — Chante-fable 002 (part 2 of 3)

• EMAC_CF_CHF_002-3-3.wav — Chante-fable 002 (part 3 of 3)

• EMAC_CF_MEP_001-1-1.wav — Musique épique 001 (1 part of 1)

File naming convention: EMAC_{CC}{GENRE}{NNN}-{part}-{total}.wav

• CC = ISO country code (CF = Central African Republic)

• GENRE = genre code (CHF, MEP)

• NNN = zero-padded session number

• part / total = part index and total number of parts for multi-file sessions

IMDI metadata files (IMDI/ subfolder):

• EMAC_Centrafrique.imdi — Corpus-level (Ethnomusicologie de la République centrafricaine)

Sample