Music in Global America

MUSICAL TRADITIONS OF SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

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)
From the top: flutes, horns, bowed strings, harps, xylophones  rattles, bells, mbiras, drums

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