Transcript African Music - Uniservity CLC

African Music
Drums
• Drums play a big part in African culture.
• Drums get a lot of respect and are thought of as one of
the best instruments.
• Drums play an accompaniment for singing, dancing and
even working.
• Drums are used to call people together for important
community events e.g. church bells in Europe are used
to announce a wedding or a funeral. In Africa there are
different drum beats for different events.
• African drum music is not written down.
Main Types of Drum
• The djembe is played in Guinea and Mali in West Africa.
It has a single head and is shaped a bit like a goblet. The
size of the drum affects its pitch – smaller drums are
higher pitched.
Main Types of Drum
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The dundun is played in Guinea and Mali too. Dunduns are
cylindrical drums played with sticks. There is a drum skin at each
end, so they are played horizontally.
There are 3 types of dundun
Kenkeni – a high pitched drum that keeps the pulse
Sangban – a mid-pitched drum
Doundoun – a large low-pitched drum
Main Types of Drum
• The donno from Ghana is also known as the hourglass or talking
drum. The player holds it under one arm and with the other arm hits
the drumhead with a thin curved stick.
• There are strings round the side which are attached to the
drumhead. The player can squeeze and release the strings as they
play to change the pitch of the drum.
Main Types of Drum
• The kagan ( a small barrel – shaped drum) and the kidi
(a medium –sized barrel drum) are both from Ghana.
Playing Techniques
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There’s a bit more to African drumming than hitting a drum with a
stick or a brush – there are several different playing techniques.
One technique is hitting the drum with a stick
A lot of African drummers use their hands. There are three basic
strokes:
Slap – hit the edge of drum with fingers splayed open
Tone – hit the edge of the drum with fingers held together
Bass – hit the centre of the drum skin with a flat hand
Dampening is resting one hand or stick on the drum skin whilst
you play with the other.
On some styles of drum you can change pitch as you are playing,
by tightening the skin.
To get a contrasting sound, you can strike the wood instead of the
skin.
African Music
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Drums have a special place in African music but the
voice and other instruments are important too:
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the Thumb Piano
the Balafon
the Kora
The Thumb Piano
• The mbira or thumb piano is really popular – partly
because it is pocket sized. It makes a liquid, twangy
sound.
• The thumb piano is played all over Africa.
The Balafon
• The balafon is a wooden xylophone. The lumpy things
hanging under the keys are dried gourds (a hard skinned
fleshy fruit found in Africa).
• They create a warm, mellow sound.
• It is mostly played in West Africa.
The Kora
• The kora is made and played by the Mandingo people. It
has 21 strings and you play it by plucking the strings like
a harp.
• It is mostly played in West Africa.
African Rhythms are Complex
• African music is based on rhythmic cycles
• Drummers accent particular beats in a rhythmic cycle
• Sometimes different rhythmic cycles, with accents in
different places are played together – this effect is called
polyrhythm
• Sometimes you have 2 or more rhythms that don’t fit
easily together. They kind of against each other, creating
tension. This is called cross-rhythm.
• Notes that don’t fall on a strong beat can be
emphasised, giving a syncopated effect.
Performances
• Performances are long and involve the audiences e.g.
shouting and cheering or repeating a phrase sung by the
main performers. It is often a capella (unaccompanied
singing).
• African music often uses call and response.
• Call and response is often an improvised style of music
where someone sings or plays a musical ‘question’ and
another ‘responds’.
• Listen to Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s work. They
became world-famous when they featured on Paul
Simon’s album Graceland.
African A Capella Singing
• A capella means in the style of the chapel which refers to the
Georgian monks singing chants in churches
• This music is ‘unaccompanied’ or ‘without an accompaniment
• A lot of African singing is a capella
Mbube = a zulu word meaning lion, a type of South African
a capella singing, loud and powerful, all-male choirs (some
female too), homophonic/polyphonic
Isicathamiya = means to tip-toe, it is another form of Zulu a
capella singing, it is soft and gentle, again mostly all male, focus on
blending the voices together in harmony, call and response used (used
a lot in the Lion King)
Singing
Singing is important in Western Africa – Burkina Faso
It plays an important part in the community e.g. celebrations, birthdays,
weddings, funerals, harvests and rituals.
As well as singing, instruments like the balafon, kora and mbira are
used to play tunes and create harmony.
Here are the key features of this music. Learn them as you may have to
identify them in the Listening Exam:
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Cross rhythms and polyrhythms
Polyphony (polyphonic) lots of parts weaving in and out of each other
Repetition
Call and response
Heterophony (all parts play different versions of the same tune at the same
time, often at different pitches)
Improvised melodies