Preliminary analysis of Lusoga songs

The musical transcriptions that follow represent a generalized norm of children’s songs and are derived from audio recordings made by the author. The transcriptions and annotations are a symbolic representation of the melody and the rhythmic accompaniment of the handclaps. To have a good idea of the timing (the tactus) of the song, handclaps are notated under the lyrics. Score notation is a Western way and idiom of representing and annotating music. African musicologist including Kwabena Nketia, DjeDje Jaqueline, Kofi Agawu and David Locke implement Western score notation techniques in transcribing, representing and analysing songs coming from the traditional idiom of music making in Africa. The use of score notation in transcribing and annotating songs coming from field recordings has become a standard in African Musicology