Music of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Congolese music incorporates a variety of musical traditions. The traditional music serves as entertainment and as a means of expressing customs, emotions, and social values, with each ethnic group developing its own styles of singing, dancing, and vocal expression, which are typically performed at important ceremonies such as births, marriages, initiations, and funerals. Instruments, typically crafted by local artisans, range from drums and slit gongs used for communication to melodic instruments such as the lamellophone sanza and arched harp. These traditions are characterized by polyrhythmic percussion, pentatonic scales, collective polyphonic singing, improvisation, vocal exclamations, handclapping, and dance.