AFRICAN MUSIC

Area of Study 4

The History
Social gatherings
Passed on through Oral Tradition Communication

Music for every occasion

The Culture

Accompany singing, dancing and work

Emotions

Feelings Drums have a lot of respect

Polyrhythms Syncopation

Call and response

Improvisation

African Music
Repetition & use of ostinato Pentatonic Scales Cross rhythms

Part of everyday life - Traditions & rituals

Influence on modern music

Background to the set work Yiri

The set work comes from Burkino Faso situated in West Africa.
Burkino translates as: Men of Integrity and Faso means: Fathers house The piece focuses on:
Fight for survival Looking after the environment Creation Community celebrations Friendships

Structure of the Yiri

There are three clear strands: 1. The Balaphone Ostinati In combinations, these produce a complex polyphonic texture 2. The Drum Ostinati They play a relentless one-bar pattern 3. The Vocal Line This is a simple pentatonic call and response structure

The Yiri is divided into three sections

Section 1
Free tempo high balaphone improvise Monophonic texture Solo is simple and repetitive Moderato tempo is established when the Second Balafon joins in lower than the first one Heterophonic texture Rhythms mainly semiquavers and quavers with some tied notes

Section 2
Drums all play the same rhythm repeated all the way through the piece: OSTINATO

Section 3
Vocals firstly sing in Unison Tune is quite repetitive

Later on in piece there The rhythm is a call and response changes very slightly at the end The call is longer than the response Near the end they sing in unison again x

Constant features that does not change throughout

The tempo is unvaried The beat is regular and unvarying The drum ostinato persists throughout the music The pattern of voices followed by instrumental breaks The dynamics are largely unvaried