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• 1 2018-07-18T21:06:10-07:00 MUSICAL TRADITIONS OF SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA 22 plain 2018-08-12T00:20:56-07:00

  INTRODUCTION

  Four sub-Saharan African musical practices are central to the growth and identity of popular Cuban and African-American music.
  1. Music made with percussion instruments
  2. The practice of polyrhythm 
  3. Call and response singing
  4. A pentatonic pitch system, and bending/sliding pitches

  PERCUSSION INSTRUMENTS

  Historically, Europe had few important percussion instruments involved in making instrumental music, whereas Africa has a vast array of drums and percussion instruments. Drumming is important in religious ceremonies, communal dancing, communication, and for pleasure, praise, militancy, and work.  
  
  Percussion instruments have a long important history in Afro-Cuban religions and in dance music.  In America, where drumming was effectively banned, percussion instruments were not introduced until the twentieth century when the drum set became a standard component in social dance music and jazz. 
  
  African traditional percussion instruments are not confined to drums, but are also made of metal, wood, plants, and other material. Some, like the amadinda and balafon, produce definite pitches. Others--shakers, rattles, hand claps--are unpitched.  The photo below includes string instruments and wind instruments in addition to percussion instruments, to show the diversity of musical instruments on the African continent. 
  
  

  Polyrhythm 

  Polyrhythm is the art of layering independent rhythmic patterns to create an intricate composite pattern.
  
  Polyrhythm is pervasive in much of the traditional and contemporary music of sub-Saharan Africa. It is a defining practice in Latin American dance music and is reflected in the American genres of ragtime, funk, and salsa. 
  
  Two principles are essential to polyrhythm: a time cycle (an overall length that can be measured in equal time units); and the practice of interlocking rhythmic patterns.  
  
  The figure below shows two simultaneous rhythmic patterns within a time cycle of six units. Drum strokes are indicated by the black X's (pattern 1) and red X's (pattern 2). The drum strokes coincide at the beginning of the cycle, then interlock on units 3, 4, and 5. Once a configuration like the one shown below is established, it repeats continuously, that is, it cycles or "loops." Individual players may improvise slight variations in a pattern, so that the music is not simply repetitive.
  
  Time Cycle of 6 units            1     2     3     4     5     6   |   
  Pattern 1                                  X           X            X          |   
  Pattern 2                                 X                   X                 | 

  EXAMPLES of polyrhythm

  FOLI - Everything is rhythm.
  Scenes show how the djembe (drum) and agogo (double bell) are made and played polyrhythmically; the melding of music and dance; transmission of music-dance culture. (10:50)
  
  The Kouyate Family performing in Guinea, West Africa
  After a solo on balafon, a xylophone-type instrument, the group sings a song and then begins a performance on drums. Each of the drummers in the background plays a repeating rhythmic pattern, and all of the patterns together create a complex polyrhythm. One soloist, then a second, comes forward and improvises complicated ideas on top of the group's repeating patterns. (7:30)
  

  CALL AND RESPONSE

  The call and response format is an exclusively vocal medium in traditional sub-Saharan African music. A soloist (the leader) sings phrases, and other singers (the group) respond in unison. The leader's phrases can be improvisational but the response must be fixed. Singers may recount royal history, tell stories, sing the praise of a patron, or discuss political and civic affairs.  
  
  Call and response is a common practice in Cuban and American popular music, where it takes on many different forms through modifications and transformations of sub-Saharan call and response.

  EXAMPLES of traditional African call and response

  Malian singer Sekouba Traore playing the traditional harp of hunters.
  This ceremonial event demonstrates the leader-group type call and response. (2:00)
  
  Call and response in a traditional dance performance in Botswana.
  Overlapping call and response format. This performance is also an excellent example of polyrhythmic interaction between music and movement. (2:45)
  

  PENTATONICISM AND PITCH FLEXIBILITY

  Melodies in the Sahel and other parts of Africa are derived from a pentatonic (five-tone) scale similar to the minor pentatonic scale of European folk music. For instance, the tones of the E-minor pentatonic scale are E G A B D but in sub-Saharan African music the tones G and D are tuned just slightly lower than in standard Western tuning.
  
  In European music each tone is fixed with little or no pitch flexibility. Pitch flexibility -- the bending of pitches and sliding from one pitch to another --  is a fundamental stylistic characteristic in African singing and playing of variable-length string instruments. 
  
  Pentatonicism and pitch flexibility are at the core of all popular American musical styles that have been created African-Americans, or touched by African-American music, including sacred and secular musical genres such as the blues, rhythm and blues, gospel, jazz, and rock. 

  EXAMPLES of pentatonicism and pitch flexibility

  E-Minor Pentatonic scale with bent and sliding pitches on electric guitar (2:45)
  
  "Yer Bounda Fara" by Malian singer/songwriter/guitarist Ali Farka Toure  (4:20)