Transcript Beethoven’s Works - Manhattanville College

Global Perspectives
African Drumming
Key Terms
• Syncopation
• Polyrhythms
• Beat syncopation
African Drumming
• Central to most West African
traditional music
• Came to Americas via slave trade
• Influenced many styles including
jazz
Yoruba Drumming
• Yoruba people of Togo, Benin, and
Nigeria
• Many religious and nonreligious uses of
drumming
Polyrhythms
• Overlapped, contrasting rhythms
• One drum lays down a basic pulse
• Other drums play variety of rhythms
– Duplication of main rhythm
– More complicated and varied rhythms
with extensive syncopation
– An entirely different pattern
“Ako”
• From the Egungun festival repertory
• Played by virtuoso Yoruba drummers
• Some clear polyrhythmic interactions
Polyrhythms in “Ako”
• Omele ako plays constant pulse
• Eki plays recurring syncopated
pattern
• Iya ilu (mother drum) departs freely
from main pulse throughout
– At one point plays 3 + 3
– Feeling of triple meter against 4 + 4