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The Rhythmic Structure of West African Music Author(S): V The Rhythmic Structure of West African Music Author(s): V. Kofi Agawu Reviewed work(s): Source: The Journal of Musicology, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Summer, 1987), pp. 400-418 Published by: University of California Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/763699 . Accessed: 20/01/2013 21:12 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of Musicology. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded on Sun, 20 Jan 2013 21:12:39 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The Rhythmic Structure of West African Music* V.KOFI AGAWU he music of Africa has long intrigued many Westerners. From scattered comments in the accounts of explorers of the so-called Afrique Noire to the full-fledged ethnomusicological studies of the last fifty years, the constant theme has been the fundamental role of music-making in African life and society. And of all the elements of that music, rhythm has received the most attention.' 400 *This essay is based on a paper read at the Spring Meeting of the American Musicological Society-Southwest Chapter, Durham, North Carolina, April, 1985. I Although the literature on African rhythm is fairly extensive, only a handful of stud- ies confront the fundamental issues of rhythmic organization. The most important early study is W. E. Ward, "Music in the Gold Coast," Gold CoastReview III (1927), 199-223. In contrast to Ward's intra-musical approach, Erich von Hornbostel, in "African Negro Mu- sic," Africa I (1928), 30-62, develops an approach that takes into consideration the physi- cal dimension of performance-lifting and lowering of hands and their effects on our perception of downbeats and upbeats. John Blacking seeks to provide an empirical basis for Hornbostel's more speculative ideas in "Some Notes on a Theory of Rhythm Ad- vanced by Erich von Hornbostel," African Music I (1955), 12-20. A useful summary of African rhythmic devices is Richard Waterman, " 'Hot' Rhythm in Negro Music,"Journal of theAmerican Musicological Society I (1948), 24-37. By far the most comprehensive trea- tise on African rhythm is A. M. Jones, Studiesin AfricanMusic, 2 vols. (London, 1959), not merely for its provocative viewpoint but also for the transcriptions in extensowhich, al- though based on debatable assumptions, nevertheless provide a useful introduction to the dance repertoire and the analytical issues it raises. An abbreviated statement of these ideas is A. M. Jones, "African Rhythm," Africa XXIV (1954), 26-47. A dependable and culturally sensitive study is S. D. Cudjoe, "The Techniques of Ewe Drumming and the Social Importance of Music in Africa," Phylon XIV (1953), 280-91. Among recent stud- ies, the clearest transcriptions may be found in David Locke, "Principles of Off-beat Tim- ing and Cross-Rhythm in Southern Ewe Dance Drumming," EthnomusicologyXXVI (1982), 217-46. Of interest in the development of notation are James Koetting, "Analysis and Notation of West African Drum Ensemble Music," SelectedReports in Ethnomusicology I (1970), 115-46 and Hewitt Pantaleoni, "Toward Understanding the Play of Atsimevu in Atsia," AfricanMusic V (1972), 64-84. Two recent studies by Simha Arom continue the search for organizing principles in African ensemble music: "The Constituting Features of Central African Rhythmic Systems: A Tentative Typology," The World of Music XV (1984), 51-64 and "Structuration du temps dans les musiques d'Afriques Centrale: pe- riodicite, metre, rhythmique et polyrhythmie," Revue de musicologieLXX (1984), 5-36. Among the more general studies of African rhythm, the most useful are Alan Merriam, This content downloaded on Sun, 20 Jan 2013 21:12:39 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions WEST AFRICAN MUSIC There is something to be gained from looking closely at the early writings on African music, for although they represent the work of non-specialists, and for all their ethnocentricism and anthropocentri- cism, these accounts touch on the fundamental questions regarding the nature of African rhythm. Thomas Bowdich, writing in 1819, remarks that the "wild music of the (Ashantee) people is scarcely to be brought within the regular rules of harmony."2 The reference, no doubt, is to the vibrant rhythmic character of African dance drumming, especially that which accompanies ceremonial occasions in Ashanti society. There are references to "irregular rhythms,"3 to the "cacophony of drums and music,"4 and to the "incoherence" of African music.5 In one report sent by a British Colonial officer to the home Government in 1899, we encounter an attitude which, although disparaging, dramatizes, rather than obscures, some of the fundamental aspects of African musical ex- pression: "Iteration and reiteration of the same airs never seem to weary the West African. His chief musical treat, however, is the tom- tom. In season and out of season, all day and all night, he is prepared to abandon himself to the delight of a noisy demonstration on this instru- ment of torture, and it is more often exhaustion on the part of the per- formers than boredom by the audience that puts a period to the deaf- 401 ening and monotonous noise."6 The use of repetition as an organizing principle; the importance of drumming; and the constancy of music making: these are all well-known aspects of African music.7 And the "African Musical Rhythm and Concepts of Time-Reckoning," in Thomas Noblitt (Ed.), Music East and West:Essays in Honor of WalterKaufmann (New York, 1981), Gerhard Ku- bik, "Emica del ritmo musicale africano," Culturemusicali: Quaderni di ethnomusicologiaXI (1983), 47-92, Robert Kauffman, "African Rhythm: a Reassessment," Ethnomusicology XXIV (1980), 393-415 and V. Kofi Agawu, " 'Gi Dunu,' 'Nyekpadudo,' and the Study of West African Rhythm," EthnomusicologyXXX (1986), 64-83. A most valuable contribu- tion to ethno-aesthetics is John Miller Chernoff, African Rhythmand African Sensibility (Chicago, 1979). Although scattered throughout his various writings on African music, the views of J. H. Kwabena Nketia on rhythm are most illuminating. See especially Afri- can Music in Ghana (Evanston, 1962), pp. 64-93 and TheMusic of Africa (New York, 1974), pp. 125-38 and 169-74. 2 Thomas E. Bowdich, Missionfrom Cape Coastto Ashantee(London, 1819), pp. 278-81; quoted inJ. H. Nketia, Ethnomusicologyin Ghana (Accra, 1970), pp. 12-13. 3 Richard A. Freeman, Travelsand Life in Ashanti andJaman (London, 1898), pp. 257- 61; quoted in Nketia, Ethnomusicology,p. 13. 4 Laura Boyle, Diary of a Colonial Officer'sWife (Oxford, 1968), p. 12. 5 Richard Freeman, Travels, p. 261; quoted in Nketia, Ethnomusicology,p. 13. 6 Lieutenant-Colonel H. P. Northcott, Reporton theNorthern Territories of the Gold Coast (London, 1899), p. 39; quoted in Nketia, Ethnomusicology,p. 12. 7 On the general characteristics of African music, consult Alan P. Merriam, "Charac- teristics of African Music,"Journal of theInternational Folk Music Council II (1959), 13-19; Gilbert Rouget, "La Musique d'Afrique Noire," in Roland-Manuel (ed.), Histoirede la mu- sique I (Paris, 1960); Klaus Wachsmann, "Africa," The New GroveDictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie, (London, 1980); and Atta Annan Mensah, "Music South of the Sahara," in Elizabeth May (ed.), Musics of Many Cultures(Berkeley, 1980). This content downloaded on Sun, 20 Jan 2013 21:12:39 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY fact that the author emphasizes the functional rather than the contem- plative role of music reminds us of some of the issues addressed by later students of African music. What is the nature of the relationship be- tween a given activity and the music that accompanies it? How can anal- ysis of such musical cultures take into account these "extra-musical" considerations? Is there an aesthetic dimension to what is apparently a purely functional mode of expression?8 It may seem out of place to subject the impressions of explorers and colonial administrators to scholarly scrutiny, but because these statements embrace fundamental aspects of African musical structure and aesthetics, they have supplied a point of departure for the more consciously scholarly work of ethnomusicologists. While some of the ethnocentricism has disappeared-being now sanctioned as antitheti- cal to the discipline-scholars have continued to devote their energies to examining those very aspects of African music that the nineteenth- century explorers commented upon. And rhythm, again, emerges as the predominant concern. According to Simha Arom, African rhyth- mic systems are "the most complex of all those which are known all over the world,"9 while A. M. Jones puts it more strongly: "The importance 402 of rhythm in the music of Africa is an unquestioned principle; in fact, it bulks so large that African music could perhaps be set off as a musical culture area dominated by this concept and opposed to other equally large culture areas."'0 The underlying credo would seem to be that to study African music is to study its rhythmic structure. It is significant, however, that with few exceptions," the exclusive concern of scholars has been with a very specific aspect of West African rhythm, namely, the rhythm of instrumental dance drumming. The majority of these studies deal with a single ethnic group, the Anlo-Ewe of southeastern Ghana, whose rich heritage of dance and drumming 8 Attempts to expand the horizons of music analysis to take into account so-called "extra-musical" factors are becoming increasingly common in the ethnomusicological lit- erature.
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