What language is Kwela?
Zulu
The word kwela is a Zulu word that means “to climb.” It is used as an invitation to dance.
How do you define terms words?
1 : a word or expression that has an exact meaning in some uses or is limited to a subject or field legal terms. 2 : a period of time fixed especially by law or custom a school term. 3 terms plural : conditions that limit the nature and scope of something (as a treaty or a will) the terms of a contract.
What is a Kwela in music?
Kwela is a pennywhistle-based street music from southern Africa with jazzy underpinnings and a distinctive, skiffle-like beat. It evolved from the marabi sound and brought South African music to international prominence in the 1950s.
Which instrument was prominent to Kwela?
Kwela dance music The tune was played using the pennywhistle flute, which is popularly referred to us as the Kwela or African flute. The flute sounds were often accompanied by the guitar, banjo, or the saxophone, which added more flavour to it.
What is a Kwela flute?
Kwela flute instrument This wooden pennywhistle flute is used to produce sounds that are vibrant and have a jazz and African sound. The flute can be played solo or as an ensemble instrument.
What is the function of Kwela?
The word ‘kwela’ has two meanings – the literal meaning is ‘get on board’, and it could also refer to getting onto the police vans, which people called ‘kwela-kwela’. The music would predominantly be played at shebeens where people would gather to drink, dance and socialise.
What is a kwela in music?
Where does the term kwela come from?
Coined by Elkin Sithole in the 1940s to refer to choral response in Zulu vocal music, the term kwela had been broadened by the 1950s to refer to the music of street bands featuring the pennywhistle, who also performed at township dances.
How did kwela get its name in South Africa?
Also khwela, quela, qwela, and with initial capital. Xhosa and Zulu khwela climb on. Several factors led to the use of this word as a name for the music. Firstly, it was used in the figurative senses ‘join in’, ‘get going’, as a call to dancers or band members.
When did kwela music become popular in South Africa?
‘Kwela’ music developed in Soweto during the 1940s and 1950s. 1958 Time 16 June 37 The haunting sound of penny-whistle jazz has become the favorite music of South Africa’s slum-caged blacks — and of a great many white hipsters. In the dusty streets, urchins rock to the penny-whistle’s fast kwela beat.
Why did Elias Lerole use the term kwela?
Secondly, it was used in the slang word kwela-kwela (police van), which is to be heard in the spoken introduction to the 1956 recording ‘Tom Hark’, by Elias Lerole and his Zig-Zag Flutes; it may have been due to the popularity of this record that the term became widely associated with the music.