Download Paper - Ross School Senior Projects

Ancient Traditions,
Future Grooves
By
Peter Reale
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Introduction
Perception of rhythm varies from culture to culture. In the West we focus on
music that is written in four or three pulses with equal value. We feel that four provides a
“danceable rhythm,” and to dance or feel the groove in music from a culture with a
different rhythmic system feels awkward. If you have ever been to a Greek wedding or a
Klezmer dance party you may have been in awe of how people were dancing in rhythms
in time signatures such as seven and five or found yourself unable to predict the dance as
you could with the fox trot.
This course is designed to help western high school age musicians understand
rhythm in the way that the people of the Ewe and Shona cultures understand it. Often
times when music of different cultures is interpreted by western ethnomusicologists and
musicians, they try and mold it into a western system for which the music was not
designed. This causes misconceptions among students. To notate music of these cultures
in the most effective way possible, one should use a system in which all notes and their
relationships to each other are shown. The Time Unit Box System (“TUBS”) was
developed by Philip Harland and James Koetting as a simpler way to notate African
music.(Reid, 1977). It uses a series of boxes each of which have an equal value in time.
This will be explained in further depth within the Ewe and Shona sections of the paper.
This course is to be discussion-based although there will be lectures and notetaking. Ideally the classroom should be set up in a large band room with a large circular
table for discussion and note-taking, a chalk board or any kind of writing board, and
percussion instruments which I will discuss later. The class size should not exceed 15.
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This small class size allows every student to participate in every discussion, and allows
for a more intimate learning environment.
Grading will be divided into three parts. The first section will be class
participation. The grade should not express the frequency of contributions to the class but
should focus on the content of discussion and how students participate in the learning and
playing of rhythms. Some students tend to dominate conversation but do not contribute
meaningful points to the discussion; this should be discouraged. Students should be
reminded to be fair in allowing other students to voice their opinions. Friday presentation
grades will also be part of the class participation grade. The second part will be process.
Students must document their process in learning the material in notebooks or “processfolios.” This can be either a composition book or a sketchpad because some students like
to add drawings or their own artistic flair to the “process-folio.” Students should write
entries biweekly as well as take notes in this book. The entries can be reflections on the
classes of the week or independent work that applies to the class. At the end of the course
the students must hand in these process-folios for grading. The third part of the grade is
papers and projects. There will be one paper which will be assigned at the end of the Ewe
unit then revised to include Mbira at the end of that unit. There will also be a final project
that I will explain later. Students should be notified and reminded of this final project
quite frequently, to avoid the inevitable, “I wasn’t here when you assigned that” or “I
never heard you say that.”
The choice of which cultures to use in this curriculum was based upon the idea
that I needed a musical culture which was strictly rhythmically based, having no
notational scale within the drumming and a culture which applied polyrhythmic concepts
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to an instrument which uses a notational scale. The Ewe music was chosen because of my
previous study of it, along with the large amount of published materials on Ewe music.
The music comes from an area from which Africans were captured and brought to
America as slaves. Ewe music is a drumming-based music in which rhythmic time comes
from distinct bell patterns. The choice of Shona music was suggested by my mentor
Kenneth Sacks, who showed me the rhythmic motifs and how they are used in the duet
style of the Mbira music; and how each part plays melodic lines, which are complete and
incomplete at the same time. I found the Shona music very interesting and felt that the
ideas used in Mbira music could be applied to contemporary arrangement and
composition.
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An Overview of Rhythm
The first section of this course is an overview of rhythm. The first two classes will
focus on answering the first essential question, “What is Rhythm?” A basic
understanding of what our preconceived notions are about rhythm will open up a
discussion of the ambiguous nature of the term. The students should come to a consensus
on a definition of rhythm; this definition should be on the first page of the students
process-folio. This allows for students to look back in the middle or end of the course to
judge their progress as they work towards a deeper understanding of rhythm.
The second day of the class the teacher should bring in music that is rhythmically
challenging to the students. Some examples of music that could be used are Gagaku
music from Japan. This is the traditional imperial court music. Another example could be
Balinese Gamelan music, which works in long rhythmic cycles only determined by the
composer of the song. The songs can range from 12 beats a cycle to over 100 beats in a
cycle. Mrdangam music from southern India is another good example of challenging
rhythm. After two or three of these selections are played as well as recordings of Ewe
and Shona music, the teacher should play an example of music uniquely western, such as
Mozart, The Beatles, or Barbra Streisand. Students should discuss the similarities and
differences. This should help them rethink their original definition of rhythm.
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Ewe Music
After the brief overview of rhythm in the first week, the class starts its first
endeavor, which is learning how to play Ewe music. Gahu is one of the most basic and
well-known rhythms from the Ewe culture, but it shows all of the themes that are
important to this course. This unit will be broken up into two sections: the first being the
history, geography, and cultural context of the music. The second section will consist of
actually teaching the rhythm. The context is as important to learning the music as the
music itself. It explains why each part falls in the place that it does and what the music
means in the eyes of the African performer. The history and social context should only
take one week. This should consist of lectures and discussions for the first four days of
the week. Every Friday, to break things up a bit, one or two students should do 5-minute
presentations on music they find rhythmically interesting, and allow students to discuss it.
The presentations will be assigned to the students the Friday before. This is a good way
to add to the musical vocabulary of the students as well as hone their skills at rhythmic
dissection and analysis.
The essential questions for this unit should include the following: “What is
rhythm for the Ewe people?” and “How does the Ewe view of rhythm differ from the
initial definition of rhythm put together by the students?” Students should understand the
three parts that make up the Ewe style of rhythm, “The Call,” “The Response” and “The
Time.” These terms are explained in depth on page eight.
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The Ewe people are located mostly in Ghana, Benin and Togo. Due to the fact
that early African history is only handed down through oral traditions, much of it is
vague. The history of the Ewe is much debated, but most stories state that the group
migrated from the north after some kind of conflict. It is generally believed that they
were from east of the Niger River and eventually settled down in what is now Togo and
Ghana. It is hard to tell what actually happened leading up to their final destination in the
Volta region of Ghana, but by the early 1700’s they had finally settled. (Ladzekpo, 1994)
Ewe society is patri-lineal, which means property is passed down from father to
son. Because of this, men mainly do drumming, unlike in other Ghanaian societies in
which women have larger roles in society. Men mostly take Ewe political and leadership
roles, as well.
Present day Ghana achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1957, the
first in sub-Saharan Africa. Before its independence it was called Gold Coast. Its first
trade contact with Europe was through the Portuguese in 1482 when the Portuguese built
their first castle with the aim of trading gold. During the colonial era different ethnic
groups would take sides in colonial wars. This caused a lot of tension between tribes in
Ghana that did not exist before colonial rule. During colonial rule, Ghana’s gold was
mined, major coco plantations were started and the slave trade increased. Ghana was the
center for European slavers: most of the European slave castles are located on the coast
of Ghana.
Ghana’s current population is 22,931,299 and its territory comprises 239,460 sq
km. Ghana has the largest man made lake in the world, Lake Volta. It is a constitutional
democracy with a multiparty system. The country is 68 percent Christian. (CIA, 2007)
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Ghana currently is one of the most powerful nations in sub Saharan Africa, and Ghana
has recently been making headlines as it is becoming more of a player in international
politics. it is currently head of the African Union and at the forefront of the movement to
label the Darfur conflict a “genocide”. Students should keep an eye out in the media for
news stories about Ghana because they can add a lot to the classroom discussion during
the learning of the music’s social context.
In Ewe tradition, musical performance is beyond that of just a music performance.
It is as much about the dance and costumes as it is about the music. David Locke refers to
these performances as “multimedia events.” The music varies siginficantly from piece to
piece; each has its own aesthetic. Some pieces are for specific events or ceremonies,
others such as Gahu are social music for festivals, weddings and just good times. Gahu is
a fairly recent piece of music only coming into being in the 1950s. Kobla Ladzekpo
claims that Gahu was actually made by Yoruba speakers from Nigeria and Benin as a
satire of the modernization of Africa; it is a social commentary on Africans who abandon
their traditions and try to become as western as possible in an attempt to be successful.
The name “Gahu” directly translates as airplane or iron vehicle, which is a sign of
modernity. Gideon Alorwoyie, a professor at the University of North Texas, has traced
Gahu back to a single man from the town of Anlo-Afiadenyigaba. He also claims that
Gahu became popular due to the “playfully erotic, fun loving quality of its music and
dance and the gorgeous style of its costuming.”(Locke, 1998)
The important themes of Gahu that the students must understand are: musical
“conversation,” polyrhythm, and repetition. Musical “conversation” is how each part
interacts with one another. All instruments as a whole respond to the atsimevu master part
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and the bell pattern. The problem with teaching this is you cannot explain it without
either an aural or visual model. For the visual model, one must use the TUBS notation
system. To understand polyrhythm and musical conversation, the stacking of parts is
important. When the parts are stacked on top of each other, you can see the different uses
of rhythm and the calls and responses, see figure 1.1. Students should be able to hear the
conversation. David Locke divides the parts into sections he calls “The Call,” “The
Response” and “The Time.” “The Call” is made up of the master drum part, either the
Atsimevu or the Boba because it signals to the other drums to start, stop, or move into a
different part of the song, as well as sends and receives signals to and from the dancers.
“The Response” is made up of the Kidi and Sogo parts. These parts respond to the master
drum parts and change according to those actions; their emphasis is during the
unemphasized or rest notes of the master part. Kidi and Sogo are midrange drums. They
are lower than the Kaganu, but higher than the Atsemivu. The bell, rattle, and Kaganu
parts make up “The Time.” These parts are unchanging throughout the song and keep the
steady pulse from which all other drums follow. The interplay between these three parts
is what creates the polyrhythmic features of the music. The Kaganu is the highest pitched
drum in the ensemble; it should cut through the other parts and be steady, as it is an
important aspect of the time keeping. Like most African music, Gahu does not have a
fixed length as a song. It is cyclical; it repeats for however long the master drummer feels
is necessary or however long the dance lasts. The repetition, however does not get
monotonous because of the depth of the music. The drum interplay is what stimulates the
audience.
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Many people who try to teach world music try to force the music into western
notation and apply a western view of rhythm. Often teachers explain African music as
having a “hidden beat” which is a fixed pulse that western music with time signatures
has. The only reason westerners hear a “hidden beat” is actualy because due to their
musical training they innately try and find it, when in fact Ewe music is based upon a bell
pattern. “The Time” section of the music is based around the time given by the bell, not
an unheard count of four or six. The problem encountered when giving something a
“hidden beat” is that because the music is polyrhythmic, it cannot have only one way of
counting it. For that reason the only true time comes from the bell pattern.
The teacher should only play the improvisatory parts of the master drum. It is
hard for younger students to see improvisation as a way to enhance other parts as
opposed to bring attention to themselves. Also, there is not enough time to teach the
students the traditional forms of improvisation; if there is time left over at the end of the
course, the teacher can show basic master parts to the students. The teacher should do
more studying beyond this course description. Recommended reading for the teacher
would be Drum Gahu by David Locke. After reading this book the teacher should have a
grasp of traditional improvisation.
The learning of the rhythms themselves should take around two weeks. Ideally
the class would have a full Ewe drum setup, but alas this is hard to come by. This
problem, however can be overcame very easily. The music might not sound exactly like a
traditional group, but it still can show the rhythmic motifs necessary for the course. First,
the teacher must get together as many drums as possible from snare drums to congas. The
only requirement is that they can be tuned. Second, the drums must be organized from
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lowest tone to the highest tone. Finaly assign the parts to the drums based on their tone.
The best replacement for a Kaganu would be a snare drum with the snares turned off due
to its ability to cut through the lower tones of the other drums. One could also use a highpitched Djembe for this. The Kidi Sogo and Atsimevu parts could all be played on
differently tuned congas.
The classroom should be set up with the drums in a crescent shape. The teacher
should be in front of them with the Atsimevu. The parts should be taught to the students
through call and response with the bell always playing so students understand the
interaction between the part and the bell. On the first day of playing the students record
the notation of the partsin their processfolios. The notation should be on a black board in
plain sight during practice, so students can look up at it and see how the part is fitting in
with the others. It helps students understand the positive aspects of this form notation.
After learning the different parts through a call and response technique, which is when
the teacher plays the part and every one else plays it back, the students should rotate
through the different parts so they have learned all of them. By the time all of the students
have learned all of the parts, the two weeks should be up. This is when students should
start to reflect. They should write their first essay comparing and contrasting Ewe views
of rhythm to the western views. There are similarities in jazz in structure and time, but
there are also many differences. This should get the students thinking and they should be
able to produce some interesting work.
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Shona
After working strictly on rhythm, moving to the Mbira music of the Shona people
is a logical step to take. Shona music uses polyrhythms in a similar way: the music is
cyclical, and to the western ear there could be multiple interpretations of time. Shona
Mbira is an important part of being able to use polyrhythm in music because it brings use
of tones and melody into play. I found it fascinating because the Mbira duets complement
each other rhythmically and the arrangement adds to the melodic features. Each player
plays three independent melodic lines: bass, tenor, and alto. The use of these parts can be
applied in a similar duet style to any instrument that has multiple octaves. This allows
application to contemporary western music.
The Shona people live in present day Zimbabwe, and parts of Mozambique and
Zambia. There are roughly 7,000,000 people who speak the Shona language. The Shona
live in the southwest of the Zimbabwean Plateau. They are bordered by the Kalahari
Desert and the Indian Ocean. In the first half of the 19th century Nguni warriors from the
south invaded the Shona land. The Ndebele invaded in 1838 and carved out a large chunk
of land from the Shona on the plateau for themselves. To this day there is still tension
between the groups. In the 1880’s the British took over what is today Zimbabwe, and
named it Rhodesia after Cecil Rhodes who was a British politician and founder of De
Beers diamonds. The nation was a colony of the United Kingdom until Ian Smith, who
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was the prime minister, declared independence in 1970 but by 1979 the nation reverted to
a colonial holding. Then, in April of 1980, the nation of Zimbabwe was created and
became independent once more.
The main instrument of the Shona is the Mbira Dzavadzimu (referred to from here
as the Mbira). There are other kinds of Mbira but the Dzavadzimu is the most popular.
Mbira Dzavadzimu translates to “Mbira of the Ancestral spirits.”(Sacks,1992) Mbira is
an instrument that most westerners would describe as a thumb piano, or if you went to
grad school, a plucked idiophone. The Mbira is much more than a thumb piano. It is
made up of twenty-two metal keys attached to a wooden soundboard. For the sake of
simplicity I will refer to each row based on its tonality, alto, tenor, and bass. The left side
of the Mbira has two rows on top of each other. The tenor is on the top and the bass is
below it. The left side is played with only the left thumb. The right side has the alto keys,
which are played with the right thumb and forefinger. The right pinky is placed in a hole
in the soundboard. The Mbira is played inside of half of a large dried out gourd as a
resonating chamber. Around the gourd and sometimes on the soundboard bottle caps or
snail shells are attached to add a buzzing sound.
The traditional and most significant use of the Mbira in Shona culture is at the
Bira ceremonies. It is an event, which is organized by a family to consult with deceased
ancestors. The point of the Bira ceremony is to evoke a spirit to come through a medium
so the family can consult with the ancestor. The sprits of these ancestors are called
“Vadzimu”(Sacks,1992). It is incredibly important in the traditional beliefs to honor the
memory of your deceased parents or grandparents. If the spirits feel that you are
forgetting them they can cause you or your children to become sick and possibly die. It is
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determined that a Bira needs to be held when a child’s illness cannot be cured by
traditional medicine. The family members must plan the Bira ceremony for weeks in
advance, musicians, mediums and attendants need to be gathered as well as brewing a
ritual beer which is a time consuming process. The location of the Bira is generally in the
largest Banya in the village, which may accompany around 50 people. The amount of
time it takes to channel the spirit depends on the quality of the music and if the music
played is that of the spirits musical taste. The ceremonies start at sundown and generally
end by sunup. When the spirit that has been upset is channeled the spirit will request for
some form of appeasement such as to brew a pot of beer in its honor. Before the spirit
may talk the people in the Banya test if the medium is faking by making them drink a
mixture of beer and snuff, if the medium vomits they know he is faking and is kicked out
of the Banya.(Sacks,1992) This is the basics of the Bira ceremony if the teacher or
students want to learn more about this I recommend that they read from Paul Berliner’s
Soul of Mbira.
Mbira can be played as a solo instrument but, for the sake of developing
intertwining polyrhythmic phrases I am making this course focus on the group style of
Mbira playing. The group style is generally two or three Mbira’s accompanied by a
Hosho (rattle) player. Hosho are two hollowed out gourds filled with buckshot and kept
in with plugs made from dried corn. The Hosho are the timekeepers in this music keeping
a steady rhythm through out the piece much like the role of the bell in Ghanaian
drumming as Kenneth Sacks points out in The Dialectic of Shona Mbira Dzavadzimu.
Mbira pieces are made up of a cycle of 48 beats. The cycle is divided up into segments of
12 beats that are slightly different from each other. The cycle is continually varied and
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repeated. The lead part of the group is called the Kushaura. The second part, or the
following part is called the Kutsinhira.
The Mbira music uses a style in which each player plays three independent
melodies at once, bass, tenor, and alto. When both players play their parts at once there
are an incredible amount of melodic lines being created. In Mbira music no part has any
priority over the other so when played new melodies are being created between different
parts of the instrument by ones mind that are not heard when the instrument is played
solo. Kenneth Sacks recalls when he first understood the power of the relationship
between the Kushaura and Kutsinhira parts.
Nothing in my musical experience has been equivalent to the disorienting
effect of my teacher suddenly playing a Kutsinhira part along with my
rendition of a Kushaura part that I had just mastered. Initially, I would do
my best to ignore the intrusion while focusing on my own part. Soon,
however, I would face up to the fact that in light of the Kutsinhira
part…my ears would begin to hear something entirely new coming from
my Mbira. Perhaps the main beat which I had been hearing in
correspondence with the bass notes would suddenly coincide with the alto
pattern; or a melody which I believed was carried by the alto register alone
would be shared between alto and bass…Mbira patterns can
simultaneously carry diverse meanings.
This interplay between parts adds a melodic depth similar to that of the rhythmic depth of
Ewe drumming. This further expands on the idea that David Locke states in his book
Drum Gahu that repetition does not need to be monotonous. This is an overarching
understanding that students should leave the class with.
Unfortunately most schools don’t have Mbiras to teach students on, so in working
with my mentor Kenneth Sacks we came up with a way that the ideas can be expressed
and heard by students. A group of six students would be assigned to two keyboards with
at least three octaves on each keyboard. We worked together in notating the Mbira so that
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the song Nemamusasa, Figure 2.1, which translates to “building houses”, can be played
on this set up. The set up does not have the true Mbira sound but it does help students
understand the themes discussed. Each student will play one register of the Mbira. Each
keyboard would play the one of the two parts of the song. Two other students should play
the Hosho part, which can be played with maracas or shakers. The key that we chose was
D. the tenor part would be normal d, the alto in d+1 and the bass in d-1. In total teaching
the history and the students learning each part and how they fit together should take four
weeks. The final assignment of the Mbira unit is for students to add Mbira into the paper
they wrote previously about the differences between Ewe and western music.
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Course Wrap up: Contemporary Application
The last two weeks will be devoted to the final project. The final project can either be a
group collaboration or a solo effort. Students are given the option of either creating there
own piece of music that follows the rhythmic ideas that were taught over the course and
also includes contemporary influences, or writing an effective 3 to 5 page rhythmic
analysis of a form of music of their choice. Only the creation of music can be a group
effort if the piece is intended to be preformed. If it is just a score it should be done by
only one person, this is the same with the essay. Students will have class time the last two
weeks to work on this project, this should be supervised by the teacher to make sure the
kids are actually doing work. This amount of time allows critiquing by the teacher and
multiple drafts. the final project should be graded fairly harshly due to the large amount
of time students are given.
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Boamah, E (1999). Akom and adowa bell patterns in a traditional west African region.
Unpublished Masters Thesis, Wesleyan University
Hartigan, R (1995). West African rhythms for drumset. Miami, FL; Manhattan Music
Holmes, M (1984). The pulse of adowa. Unpublished Masters Thesis, Wesleyan
University
Ladzekpo, K (1994). anlo-ewe history. Retrieved December 17, 2007, from
dancedrummer.com Web site: http://www.dancedrummer.com/history.html
Locke, D (1998). Drum gahu: an introduction to african rhythm. Gilsum, NH: White
Cliffs Media.
Montfort, M (1985). Ancient traditions- future possibilities. Mill valley, CA: Panoramic
Press.
Nketia, J.H. (1953). Funeral dirges of the akan people. Exeter, UK: James Townsend and
Sons LTD.
Sacks, K (1992). The dialectic of shona mbira dzavadzimu. Unpublished Masters Thesis,
University of California Los Angeles
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Wiggins, G (1998). Understanding by design. Alexandria, VA: Association for
Supervision and Ccurriculum Development