Title of piece: Interpretation of Fanga
Performers: Babatunde Olatunji and two other unnamed performers
Origin: Africa
Orchestration: Various djembes, agogo bells, African drum, conga, various other drums
With the topic of authenticity this week, I decided to choose African hand-drumming. Since I am a percussionist, African drumming is something that I like to touch on with my students. This past year, I educated my percussionists in this area during their recess time. In this video, there are many aspects of authenticity. It stems from the authentic percussive instruments to the technic used and the culture that is held behind the music. Babatunde was a drummer from Nigeria who was also also an educator, social activist, and recording artist. Listening to this piece, you can feel the groove that is set into place and how you feel the authentic African underlying rhythms and beats.
Vincent,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this music-making session. I am impressed at the variety of timbres which can be created using such a relatively small assortment of percussion instruments. It is also interesting how much the texture can change simply by the sequences or repetitions played on one drum versus another. For example, when observing the 3 drums the leader is playing, from what I can tell the drum in the center is the one which creates what I would describe as a “higher” or “thinner” texture, compared to the drums on the left and right. By any chance would you happen to know what type of context this sort of drum playing may occur? Just curious because I do not know a great deal about this type of music, and throughout this course I am learning how specific everything really is! I also like how the ensemble makes an accelerando about halfway through the piece.
Thanks!
Good description of the piece but you did not reflect on Koops’ models.
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