Agbekor Dance - Addy

• Originates from the Ewe people as a War dance (lived on western Africa)

• This was performed to the village before or after battles. Nowdays it is witnessed in community/social gatherings (or for tourists) 

• Agbekor translates to 'clear life' 

• No formal structure to the dance - dancers changed moves according to changes in accompaniment. 

• This is an oral tradition which passed from generation to generation without written music. 

• Ewe people have skilled drummers and believe them to have inherited spirit of ancestors. 

Three main instruments playing in the dance

• Gankogui - has two bells with one high pitch and one low pitch approx. an 8vte apart. Played with wooden stick. Acts as time keeper. 
• Sogo - 'father' drum, barrel shaped and played with sticks + hands. Acts as supporting drum in this piece.
• Atsimevu - 'grandfather'/'master' drum. Largest drum in Ewe music. Play similar to sogo but finger, hands + sticks can use diff parts of drum head to create diff timbres. Can hit side of the drum.

African music drumming + speech connected. Wide range of pitches leads Atsimevu to being called 'talking drum'. 

'Master' drum is played by master drummer = most skilled. He communicated perforamance directions to other players + responisible for most complex parts (improvisations). 

Mustapha Tettey Addy is master here (famous Ghanaian musician).

• Opening section is monophonic gankogui. 

• Ganjogui plays ostinato

• 2 part texture 1/2 way through b1 with entry of Atsimevu

• 3 part texture b3 - arrival of sogo, polyrhythmic

• Variant b29-30 arsimevu + gankogui rhythmic unison for 2 ostinato cycles

• Homorhythm final 3 notes

Structure is related to function (in this piece dance). Repetition is main structural feature. Sutble variations to create interest. 

• Gankogui ostinato is repeated all the way through with no alteration

• This ostinato commonly found is sub-Saharan Africa and called 'standard bell pattern'

• Sogo contains repetition of 3 quaver figure. Simple variants (added semiquavers b6 - dotted rhythm b36)

• Atsimevu begins with dotted crotchets but patterns later grows in complexity. 

• Apart from Gankogui part all pitches are approximate and cannot be considered melodic

• Some sense of pitch with Sogo and Atsimevu

• Atsimevu has high + low notes with 4 different pitches almost extending to range of an 8tve. 

• Gankogui contains octave interval from A to A. 

• Neither tonality nor harmony can emerge from this piece. 

• Main beat fundemental to music. Gankogui empahsised this by playing low octave note on downbeat in ostinato

• Polyrhythmic throughout. 

• Crossrhythms are common. (b14) 

• Atsimevu part contains: triplets (b41), ties (b44), double dotting (b8), unusual accents (b14), irregular rhythms (b38)

• Syncapations are permanent feature

• Sogo plays 3 quaver pattern but rhythmically displaced - gives anapaestic effect through piece

• Master drummer b14 displaces his rhythm one quaver before main beat

• Metrical disruption in Atsimevu part(b35)