Sub-Saharan Africa

This week, we listened to three music selections from Sub-Saharan Africa. The first song is called “Atsia Suite” and it is performed by the Ewe people of Ghana. The second selection is “Choral Song” from the Congo. The last piece is called Music for Divination by the the Aka Pygmies located in the Central African Republic. All of these songs have different sounds to them but they also share some similarities even though all of the pieces come out of different countries. 

Something that I learned this past week that I found to be really cool about Sub-Saharan African music is how music and dance is used in so many different social contexts in the region, and how music and dance is an extremely crucial aspect of community. Music is not just used for entertainment purposes, it is a highly important form of tradition, spirituality and expression. 

The first piece, "Atsia Suite" seemed to by played with only metal instruments until the middle of the song when drums come in. The higher pitched instruments play the same rhythm over and over again throughout most of the piece, which is called ostinato. The lower instruments play a pattern that does not stay consistent the entire time. These instruments played on the beat through some of the song and then towards the middle began being played on off beats. It was hard for me to hear any sort of structure in this song, but there very well could have been because my ears have been trained to songs that usually stay very consistent in their rhythm. 

I really enjoyed listening to the second piece, "Choral Song". There was definitely distinct rhythm in this song, but it was only through voices. The singers chanted throughout this song in differing pitches, holding some words out lingering than others. I loved the harmonies in this song and the way that the voices blended together. 

The final piece, "Music For Divination", started out with only voices too. The singing reminded me a bit of the Tuvan throat singing we had been listening to in class mixed with yodeling. About four measures into the song, drums join in with the singers along with people clapping, making in polyphonic. I could really picture this song being performed in some kind of community setting, with lots of people joining in to sing and drum and dance. The rhythm in this song seemed to stay mostly consistent, especially when listening to the people singing and clapping. The drum rhythm seemed to maybe have little sections were it may have been improvised a little bit. 

I most enjoyed listening to "Choral Song" and "Music For Divination". I think that this is because those two songs had a more consistent rhythm than "Atsia Suite", which just seemed kind of random rhythmically to me and made it kind of hard to listen to, plus it was really long compared to the other two songs. I have really enjoyed learning about the interesting culture that makes up Sub-Saharan African music!