COMM 337: African roots, polyrhythm, call-and-response

Polyrhythm is just a $13.95 word for playing two (or more) rhythms at the same time. According to Lorenzo Candeleria and Daniel Kingman, authors of "American Music: A Panorama," all African music is marked by polyrhythm, which they define as "the dominance of rhythm, manifested in ... the sense of an inexorably steady pulse governing the music [at the same time as] a high degree of rhythmic complexity and diversity" (18) In vocal music Candeleria and Kingman speak of the same "steady pulse governing the music" as in the instrumental piece, with "the basic 'drumbeat' is present in the foot tapping that is steadily followed by a clap of the hands ... on what is called the offbeat (or backbeat)." They were talking about American church music, but it also holds true for work songs or any other group singing. Before we listen to anything else, let's go to Wikipedia's explanation of polyrhythm. Listen to the sound files as I play them, and compare the 3-against-4 polyrhythm (the second clip) with the musical notation in 4/4 time.

Candeleria and Kingman also have a simple definition of "call-and-response singing," which is another common feature of African vocal music: "In call-and-response we typically hear a lead vocalist 'call out' a statement, or even a question, that is followed by a 'response' from a group of participating singers" (10). We will hear both again and again.

On YouTube today we'll watch several video clips. As we do, listen carefully for the rhythms. Do you hear what Candeleria and Kingman would hear? Polyrhythms or other complex patterns? Any call-and-response?

First we'll watch a short clip of "Singing Fisherman of Ghana," work songs of a fishing community in Ghana shot on location in 1964 by Pete and Toshi Seeger. It's old, and the music is a very traditional work song. Listen for the polyrhythms, and note especially the call-and-response vocals toward the end as the guy standing up in the boat calls out a phrase and the oarsmen respond to it.



When Nigerian drummer Babatunde Olatunji died in 2003, NPR's Scott Simon remembered the musician and played some of his music (3:32). "He opened up the world of African music to many people in the West," said Simon.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1230139

We'll also watch schoolchildren learning a variety of traditional dances at secondary schools funded by the WildiZe Foundation in Tanzania. Listen for complex patterns of rhythm, also for all and response. As you watch, think: This isn't just about music, it's about kids learning their cultural heritage.



African influence is worldwide. Listen for African-sounding polyrhythms in this performance of a dance called the Cutumba by Ballet Folklórico Cutumba de Santiago, Cuba. They sound African because they're derived from Africa. Cuba and the United States share a cultural heritage derived in large part from Africa.



And a steel drum band from Trinidad and Tobago, an independent nation in the West Indies that was once a British colony and now belongs to the British Commonwealth of Nations, playing in London's Trafalgar Square.



We hear it in reggae as well. We'll watch a performance by Bob Marley of his song "Exodus" live In Dortmund, Germany. Marley, of course, was from Jamaica, another former colony and Commonwealth nation with a culture that is heavily influenced by Africa. American music, in turn, has been heavily influenced by Jamaica. Hip hop, in fact, owes its origins to Jamaican deejays in New York City.



Finally, we'll see a video of Michael Franti and Spearhead singing "Hole In The Bucket"(1994). The song is old, a traditional ballad from Europe, but this version takes the old song in a new direction. Music, as jazzman Charlie Parker keeps reminding us, knows no boundaries.



If we get time ... We can't go back in time, and we don't have sound recordings before the early 20th century. But we can get a feel for what early African American music would have sounded like from a book called "The Sounds of Slavery: Discovering African American History through Songs, Sermons, and Speech" written in 2005 by two Australians, Shane White and Graham White.

If you want to read the first chapter, follow the link to the PDF file on Beacon Press' website. It explains the role of music in the daily life of African American slaves. Gena Caponi Tabery, former professor of American studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio and a church pianist in Austin, Texas, says in a review in Christian Century magazine, compares it to the role of music in today's society. She says:

Thanks to our individual, portable, downloadable personal stereo units, we are the most aurally privatized society that has ever lived. More than ever we work, walk and drive to the beat of different drummers. We create our own soundtracks.

That makes it difficult for us to get into a culture in which ".. there was a continuity of the sacred and secular, of work, worship, leisure and play, so that no part of daily life was too lofty or too trivial to be excluded from the commonest work chant or song of praise." DIfficult, but not impossible.

White and White wrote their book around a collection of "recorded hollers, stories, prayers, sermons, work songs and, yes, spirituals" dating from the early days of sound recordings. They were sung by the children and grandchildren of slaves, but they give us the only window we'll ever have into the actual sounds of slavery.

We'll listen to some of them in class.