EMAC-Dataset-Gabon

Musical Traditions

Gabon is home to a rich diversity of oral and musical traditions associated with its many ethnic communities, including the Fang, Beti, Myene, Kota, Punu, and others. Gabonese traditional music is characterised by polyrhythmic percussion, elaborate vocal polyphony, and a strong tradition of ceremonial and initiation music — most notably the Bwiti initiation ceremony, which involves extended musical performances of great ritual significance. The genres represented in this EMAC dataset — the chante-fable and the poème épique pastoral — belong to the sphere of community oral literature and lyric poetry, where song serves as a medium for narrative transmission and the expression of collective memory and aesthetic values.

Genres Represented

• Chante-fable (CHF): A hybrid narrative genre combining sung passages with spoken prose, widely attested across Central Africa. One session is represented across four consecutive audio files (CHF_001, parts 1–4 of 4).

• Poème épique pastoral (PEP): A genre of pastoral epic poetry performed in a sung or melodic declamatory style. This genre, attested here for Gabon, is characterised by extended lyrical sequences dealing with pastoral, heroic, or community themes. One session is represented (PEP_001, 1 audio file).

Mode of Oral Transmission

The musical traditions represented in this dataset are transmitted exclusively through oral and performative channels. No standardised written notation system is employed for these genres. The chante-fable circulates through community performance events; the poème épique pastoral is associated with specialised performers who master extended lyrical repertoires through community apprenticeship. The EMAC recordings document elicited performances in a controlled environment and constitute primary archival evidence of these traditions.

Source

The recordings in this dataset were collected by researchers and technicians of the EMAC project in Gabon, approximately between 1979 and 1982. The EMAC project did not produce a detailed country-level description for Gabon at the time of the Sangmélima meeting, making these audio recordings a particularly significant primary source. 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 Gabon: a chante-fable in four parts and a pastoral epic poem. All performances were elicited in a controlled recording environment at the request of the EMAC project.

Size

Total audio duration: approximately 50 minutes (3,005 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_GA_CHF_001-1-4.wav — Chante-fable 001 (part 1 of 4)

• EMAC_GA_CHF_001-2-4.wav — Chante-fable 001 (part 2 of 4)

• EMAC_GA_CHF_001-3-4.wav — Chante-fable 001 (part 3 of 4)

• EMAC_GA_CHF_001-4-4.wav — Chante-fable 001 (part 4 of 4)

• EMAC_GA_PEP_001-1-1.wav — Poème épique pastoral 001 (1 part of 1)

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

• CC = ISO country code (GA = Gabon)

• GENRE = genre code (CHF, PEP)

• NNN = zero-padded session number

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

IMDI metadata files (IMDI/ subfolder):

• EMAC_Gabon.imdi — Corpus-level (Ethnomusicologie du Gabon)

Sample