Download A Survey of Traditional Music of West Africa-Ghana

A Survey of Traditional Music of
West Africa
A look at the musical practices of the
people of Ghana
African Map
The map of Ghana
Regional map
Socio-Cultural Influences/Issues
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External influence- Europeans.
Western Classical Music- Practiced and enjoyed by very small segment of various
societies.
Western derived music- a preponderance of African musical elements married to
certain foreign elements, especially those of the Western musical practices.
Music performed on tribal basis and which, if it transcended its boundaries, did so
because people who belonged to that tribe had travelled outside their tribe and
had cause to use their music as a means of communication and social interaction.
This tribal music , which has, for most part, successfully resisted the impact of
acculturation and is still performed in its traditional contest, is what is classified as
traditional African music. Example, Adowa, Bewa, Agbadza, Kete, Fontonfrom etc.
After independence, African nations began to emphasize the projection of African
personality and traditional cultures. Concert promoters were encouraged to put
traditional African music in the theatre. Example is the Yoruba folk opera, Oba
Koso, (The king did not hang), performed by Duro Ladipo and his cultural group
from Nigeria in the 1970s. This kind of music has been designated “Neotraditional” by Akin Euba.
Organization
1.Societies
• Africans have lived in distinct societies, what we might think of as ethnic
groups or tribes or clans.
• There are over seven hundred languages spoken and within these
languages are thousand more dialects.
• Ghana alone has over 45 ethnic groups, each with it’s own language and
dialects.
• Separates societies and diverse geographical locations and occupations,
along with differences in languages led to diverse musical practices.
• Either through economic trade, political conquest, or social interaction,
Africans have experienced cultural exchange between tribes.
• We can divide Ghana into four broad categories:
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Southeastern Ghana- occupied by the Ewes and Gas
Northwestern Ghana- occupied by Dargarti, Lobi, Wala and Sissala people
Southern and Central Ghana- dominated by various Akans
Northeastern Ghana- Dagombas, Mamprusi, Frafra. Talking drums.
Organization
2.Music
• In Africa, music is life; that is it permeates all daily activities. Music
is the soul which is ultimately concerned with various customs and
religious practices.
• Some types of music or certain instruments might be restricted to
specific events only. Adabatram music of the Asogli of Ghana, Kete
of the Ashanti royal, Mmenson etc. There are also specified modes
of music- men do not sing dirges, women do not play drums.
• Because music forms an integral part of socio-cultural behavior, it
may be organized as a form of entertainment, as an outlet for mass
expression of sentiments and in connection with events of national
significance.
• Organization of music may be classified thus:
– Recreational
– Incidental
– Ceremonial
Performing Medium: Musical Instruments
• Africans use musical instruments that vary greatly in construction and
tone color.
• We have five scientific classification of instruments: idiophones,
menbranophones, chordophones, aerophones, and electrophones.
Electrophones however do not form part of the African music tradition.
Idiophones
• Instruments the sound of which is produced by the vibration of the body
of the instrument. These are usually solids that produce sound when
beaten, and they are most widespread instruments in African musical
environments.
• Musical roles of the Idiophones include:
– Provision of rhythmic accompaniment
– Some, like the mbira and xylophone are used to generate songs in addition to
the rhythmic accompaniment they provide
– Used to provide signals-ceremonies and rites etc.
• Division of the Idiophones:
– Primary: include rattles, bells, clappers and xylophones- their
sound are produced directly by hitting or shaking the
instrument.
– Secondary: include jingles, ankle/knee/wrist bells. The body of
these instruments are set in vibration by the motion of
something else, e.g. dancers leg.
– Tuned Idiophones- xylophones and thumb piano are tuned to
definite pitches and are therefore capable of producing
melodies.
– Non-tuned Idiophones produce only indeterminate pitches and
cannot be used to play singable melodies: they are used to
provide rhythmic accompaniment.
• The basic role of the idiophone is to provide rhythmic patterns in
accompaniment of music, but in some instances, idiophones may
be used as talking “drums”-the slit drum is used to carry message
from one person to the other.
• Membranophones- instruments the sound of which is produced
by the vibration of a stretched membrane or skin over a frame.
These are generally known as drums; they may be made out of
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Logs of wood
Strips of wood bound together by iron hoops- atimevu of the Anlo people
Earthenware vessels
Gourds etc.
• Modes of Drumming:
– Signal- short repetitive rhythmic patterns meant to carry messages to the
community
– Speech- characterized by steady flow of beats often lacking in regularity of
phrasing but distributed between/among a number of tones frame work.
– Dance –drumming is characterized by selective use of rhythms and tone
patterns in recurring and contrasting sequences, manipulated unilinearly
and/or multilinearly. Unlike the signal and speech modes of drumming, the
dance mode is founded on regularity of pulse, crystallized by some of the
rhythms of the subordinate drums/instruments in the ensemble.
Bada & Donno (Dagomba)
Fontonfrom Set (Akan)
Kete Set (Akan)
Atsiagbekor Set (Ewe)
Kpalongo Set (Ga)
• Chordophones– Instruments whose sound generator is a stretched string. Chordophones come
in different types and sizes most are plucked or struck perhaps reflecting the
African musicians predilection for percussive sounds.
– Suitable for solo singing, or accompanying recitation of poetry, praise songs or
narrative songs, Griots.
– When found in heterogeneous ensembles, the accompanying instruments are
usually played soft since string instruments are soft tuned.
– Number of strings may vary from one instrument ranging from one string to as
many as twenty-one strings.
• Types:
– The musical bow: the mouth bow and the earth bow.
– Fiddles, includes the gonje played with a horsetail bow; harps and lutes,
zithers.
– Harp-lutes: The kora of Mandingo people of Sene-Gambia and the seprewa of
Ghana are good examples of the Harp-lute.
Gonje
Kora
• Aerophones:
– Musical instruments whose sound is produced by the vibration of an aircolumn.
– This category of instruments is less common in Africa.
– The most common found includes flutes made out of bamboo, husks of cane,
stalks of millet or the tip or “horn” of gourd, or they may be carved out of
wood.
– Some flutes are made out of clay while others are fashioned out of the shell of
fruits or sea shells.
– They may be played in transverse or end-blown position
– There are also horns and trumpets which are made from animal horns,
elephant tusks, wood, bamboo and gourds.
– Mmenson of Ghana may be carved out of horns, ivory tusks of elephants or
out of woods.