Abstract: Cameroonians essentialize their Bamiléké populations as highly disciplined, hard working, successful in commercial ventures, and exceptionally devoted to their traditions, qualities captured popularly in the phrase 'le dynamisme bamiléké.' Given that music is commonly regarded as an entertainment and pastime and thus perhaps as distracting from discipline and hard work, it comes as something of a surprise that traditional musical performance permeates village and urban life of a subgroup of the Bamiléké the Ngiemboon. In this study, I argue that musical performance in fact contributes to and is consistent with Bamiléké dynamism rather than detracting from it. To make this argument, I develop a model of reciprocal communication, which I apply to rural and urban contexts of musical performance. Through this exploration of the physical, musical, and social infrastructures undergirding Ngiemboon communicative strategies, I show that musical performance does indeed invigorate Bamiléké culture, not only in affective arenas, but in economic and material areas as well. In particular, I argue that music powerfully mediates and energizes reciprocal communication with givers, enforcers, and protectors of traditional Ngiemboon values and social structures, both living and dead. I further suggest that this musically invigorated communication creates physical and symbolic feedback resonance, thereby helping to perpetuate, strengthen, and extend le dynamisme bamiléké.' Information on how to obtain a DVD containing the audio and video clips referred to in the dissertation is available at www.sil.org/∼schragb.