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Archive for the ‘Ethnomusicology’ Category
I like t-shirts; they’re comfortable, cool and fun to wear! Therefore, I was delighted to see this one, being worn by a motorcyclist in Bamako, and even more delighted that my friend had a camera to capture it:
It says: “When we unite in song, we find a common ground: our love for music.” What a great motto – I agree 100%. Let’s have more singing! Finding this on a t-shirt in Bamako is all the more rare and bizarre given that Mali is a French-speaking country and this is in English! I wonder if the owner even knows what it means… By the way, I also blogged about t-shirts here, here and here. Have a look! WOOOHOOOO! After a year’s reasearch and a couple of years’ transcribing, analysing and writing-up, Rob’s thesis is finally complete:
The title of the thesis is “The Reclamation of Vodun Song Genres for Christian Worship in the Benin Republic” and looks at how those converting from vodun (voodoo) to Christianity have taken their music with them and modified it for church use. Is this bad for the church? Is there such a thing as evil music? Can a drumbeat alone cause someone to fall into a trance? Will music of vodun origin in church call evil spirits in? What do the vodun folk think about Christians using ‘their’ music? All of these are issues treated in the thesis (plus many more!) I’ve come to some pretty clear conclusions based on my extensive research in southern Benin, but am not about to share all of those on a blog! You’ll just have to read the finished article when it’s available! Meanwhile, here are a couple of ‘sneak previews’:
More info will follow in a subsequent post on what I learned – directly and indirectly – in doing this thesis and how this will be of use to my work and to the broader fields of ethnomusicology, anthropology, chuch history and African studies.
Bamako has to be one of the most musical cities in Africa! There’s always something musical going on and numerous venues scattered around the city, where you can hear immensely gifted musicians playing on a regular basis! Furthermore, folk are generally happy if you sit down and jam along with them (although it probably helps if you can actually play!) So, here I am having ‘fun’ and being musical outside the French Cultural Centre in Bamako a while back, with Monsieur Coulibably and Monsieur Traoré (at least, I think those were their names!)
If you want to find some live music, then the French Cultural Centre is a good place to start. Other venues include the ‘Blonba’ in Faladie (where I saw Toumani Diabaté), ‘Le Diplomate’ on the Route de Coulikoro and the Palais de la Culture in Badalabougou Ouest (near the old bridge). I was at a FREE concert at the CCF the other night and various folk ran up on stage and began dancing in front of the artists performing! This is very common in W Africa and not particularly frowned-upon like is would be in the West. Lots of fun too (although I’ve never plucked up the courage to do it yet…) Happy music-making! Is one of Mali’s most prestigious virtuoso Kora players, and I got to see him perform in Bamako recently:
The photo above was taken at said concert, which was a great occasion with some fab playing! His entourage was a band of around 15 people, including guitars, djembe, tamanin, vocalists and the balafon (seen at the bottom of the picture). The only minor disappointment was that, given the size of the band, Toumani himself played relatively few solos, even though most of us had come to here him! Great gig, nonetheless, and definitely worth seeing. I was surprised, I must confess, to discover that Toumani was only born in 1965, as he seemed much older than that to me. Find out more about him on Wikipedia: here and also click here for his ‘My Space’ page. UK readers – I see he’s doing a few concerts in ‘Old Blighty’ in the next couple of months, notably: Belfast on Wednesday 5th May Unfortunately, you’ll have to pay significantly more than the £4.30 (3000 cfa) it cost me to see him in his home country, but still worthwhile if you can afford it! Finally, here’s a vid of Toumani in action – amazing stuff! Thanks for reading. …just got smaller!
My Edirol R1 finally gave up the ghost after faithfully serving me for four years in numerous village locations in Togo, Benin and beyond! So, it was time to find a replacement. After much web-based reasearch, I came up with the Yamaha Pocketrak CX; it’s about a quarter of the size of my old one, but does everything I need it too. Neat display screen too, and a pair of decent built-in mics:
However, most of my recording will be through five external microphones and the Behringer Eurorack mixing desk (click here to see my usual set-up), so it’s good it has a ‘line in’ socket.
Other cool features include a record limiter, high pass filter, record standby (so you can set the level before recording), and a peak indicator light which comes on when the level is too high. It also takes a TINY micro-SD card – I have an 8gb one, which will hold around 12 hours of decent quality WAV:
One thing which drove me crazy with the R1 (apart from the ‘dalek noises’ it would make when it got too much sun) was the battery consumption. Two AA’s would last me 30 mins, maybe an hour, which was somewhat frustrating! The Pocketrak CX claims to run for 20 hours on one AA battery and even comes with special ‘eneloop’ battery, which is rechargeable via a USB lead.
The only slight limitation I have found is that it does not record in 24 bit WAV, only 16 bit, but – honestly – who can tell the difference? Also, given the size, ease of use, and price (ie about half the cost of it’s larger counterparts), I’d give it 10/10! I even has a tiny speaker in the back so you can listen to what you’ve recorded! Still, don’t take my word for it; have a listen, firstly mp3 (128kbps): Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. And now the same thing, recorded in WAV format (44.1k, 16 bit). This one may take a few seconds to download, but you can hear the quality: There you go! I suppose there’s no excuse for not bringing back ‘Tuesday Tunes’ next week! I’ll do my best… Watch out for the Pocketrak CX in future ethno blog posts!
Travelling back from Dogon country recently, we stopped for a picnic by these baobab trees:
I love baobabs with their HUGE trunks and sinuous branches – fabulous, majestic trees! The pod of the baobab is often used as a percussion instrument in West Africa, including amongst the Dogon:
Also, remember this post of my workshop with the Gangam people of Togo? Here’s the photo and here’s the YouTube video of the lady playing her baobab pod – amazing stuff! Anyway, back to our picnic! Baobabs are also handy for shade from the hot sun, so we parked up next to one but moved again rather quickly, because of this:
It’s a bees nest in the tree! All quite peaceful at the time, but I wasn’t about to risk eating my sandwiches within its range. There are tales of folks who’ve received literally 100′s of stings in such situations and there was no handy lake or river for miles! That said, there were wooden pegs in the trunk as a ‘ladder’ up to the hive (you can see a couple of them in the photo), so local folk obviously enjoy the honey. As the well-known African proverb goes: “If you want to eat the honey, you’ve first got to deal with the bees.” Have a closer look (but only through a zoom lens) :
There you go! Thanks for reading. Rob is just back from a fascinating, exhausting and extremely worthwhile trip across the Dogon Plain in Mali.
The purpose of the visit was (basically): (i) To investigate the attitudes towards music in the community (including in the church). Starting in Sangha, I met with some great musicians, including these two blokes, who were making rope out of old rice sacks:
From Sangha, we travelled down the cliff and across the plain all the way to Koro. This was a good 40 miles and almost entirely on dry sand track like this one:
Of course, the instruments are always insteresting to see and study. Here are just a few of the ones I discovered on my trip: TL: The kere, a four-holed flute with – interestingly – a stopped end. Plays (of course) the pentatonic scale.
There you go! I shall be glad to return to the “relative coolness” of Bamako after temps of up to 42 Celsius on the plain. That said, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world! Thanks for reading. The balafon is a bit like a xylophone or marimba and is played in many parts of West Africa, including Mali.
I was recently in Southern Mali, working with the Jo people and had the privilege of recording the instrument you see above. Underneath the wooden bars hang several gourds; these serve as resonators to amplify the sound of the instrument. Ingenious! Here’s what it sounded like: Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. Great sound and a lovely instrument! However, it may come as a surprise to you if I tell you that this is by no means an indigenous instrument for the Jo people. What you see here is the kind of balafon played by the Bambara. The Jo have their own balafon, known as the saba, but for the time being, churches are not playing it – maybe one day…
Time for a lesson from one of our timeless pioneers in the field of ethnodoxology: Roberta King, who worked with the Nyarafolo (Senufo) in northern Cote d’Ivoire and successfully reclaimed their balafon. The local folks decided to use only their local percussion instruments because (she says): “They claimed this provided a truly indigenous sound and an authentic rhythm that fit the message of their song [...] Such a sophisticated development came only after many years of working together toward worship songs that would speak meaningfully to them.” Wow! So there’s hope for me yet then! Download and read Roberta’s full article here – it’s very interesting.
…and it all happened just down my street!!
Yes, on Friday evening, there was a wedding celebration just down the road. I heard it from my house, so ventured out to investigate and ended up dancing with the ladies and playing one of the drums! (Some of those trees in the distance are in my garden!) Wehay, just like the old days in Benin, but without all the driving first! Here are the musicians: two djembes, a small barrel drum and a HUGE double-headed barrel drum (played horizontally):
There was also a boy playing a pressure drum:
Anyway, I’m sure you’d rather hear what it sounded like than look at photos, so here are three short extracts for you: Of course, a toubab can’t get his camera out in public without this happening:
Also, remember to click here to read about the African funeral, which happened down my street in Benin. Thanks for reading – that’s all for now. One thing I LOVE about Africa is the incredible drumming, which is almost everywhere! Wow! This guy knows how to drum, eh? For my thesis, I had to transcribe the rhythms of various drumming ensembles in Benin – a real challenge, I can tell you! It’s not so much a case of what is the time signature of the piece? but more what time signature is each individual playing in and how on EARTH do these all fit together?! Western rhythmic notation falls short for such a task. What’s the difference between transcription and notation? I know, but do you??? If you don’t, then take this course and find out! Finally, here are a few more cool African drumming videos I have recorded over the years: A Nawdm lady playing double drums in northern Togo The amazing blind drummer in central Benin, playing home-made drums with great skill! Ngangam musicians in north-eastern Togo, including a lady playing a kapok pod filled with stones. The old bloke in central Togo, who puts one beater in his mouth, then removes it when he needs it. |
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