CD Song Texts
To compensate for the lack of space available in CD booklets, transcriptions and translations of songs in my two CD compilations are available here.
The Kings Musicians: Royalist Music of Buganda - Uganda
Topic Records TSCD 925
Recordings and text by Peter Cooke and Klaus Wachsmann. Produced in association with the British Library, National Sound Archive
Download the song texts and translations here
OUGANDA: Ensembles villageois du Busoga/ Village Ensembles of Busoga
VDE Gallo AIMP CD 926
Recordings and text by Peter Cooke. Busoga, a district in Eastern Uganda has some of the liveliest and most varied forms of music-making in Africa.
Download the song texts and translations here
Some related Reading
Buganda
"Ssematimba ne Kikwabanga : The music and poetry of a Ganda historical song", World of Music, xxix/2, 1987, p 49-68 (with F. Katamba)
"Music in an East African Court", Early Music, XXIV/3 August 1996 , 439-453
Busoga
"Orchestral Melo-rhythm in Southern Uganda", in Festschrift for Gerhard Kubik 1995 pp 147-160 (Publisher Peter Lang, Frankfurt)
James Micklem, Andrew Cooke & Mark Stone: "Xylophone music of Uganda: the Embaire of Nakibembe, Busoga", African Music, vol 7/4 1999 p. 29-46