Papers by Dominik Phyfferoen
The GLOCAL 2023 The Global Council for Anthropological Linguistics 2023 in Africa, 2024
In this paper, we present the theoretical model of the Sahelian factor in the music and dance of ... more In this paper, we present the theoretical model of the Sahelian factor in the music and dance of Northern Ghana. The Sahelian factor is a research model that functions as an imaginary filter to approach our field materials and contains key components from our audiovisual field data. The Sahelian factor disconnects music-making from the phenomenon of local languages and ethnicities in this part of Africa. The model shows that the prevailing ethnolinguistic anthropological classification of languages in Northern Ghana cannot be fully applied to the classification and division of music and dance cultures in the area. The traditional model of dividing musical cultures based on tribal groups and local ethnicities is no longer sufficient to fully capture the current dynamics of music-making in the Sudanic Savannah Belt of Northern Ghana.
In this paper we discuss the results of a survey study we conducted in the cosmopolitan city of T... more In this paper we discuss the results of a survey study we conducted in the cosmopolitan city of Tamale on the local urban informal popular music industries we called the Dagbon Hiplife Zone in Northern Ghana. By means of music examples, we show how traditional African idioms of music-making creatively blend with cross-cultural and cross-musical components that stem from Africa, Afro-American, Bollywoodish and Western inspired idioms of music making. The aim of the survey study was to map the radius, location, and organization of the local informal popular urban music industries in and around Tamale, including its artists, stakeholders and various distribution channels. We conducted a survey research on the consumption of music in this city in both the digital idioms and the traditional idioms of music making and a survey on transformational processes, continuity and change in the traditional and contemporary idioms of music making in several Senior High Schools in and around Tamale....
Hidden Cities: Understanding Urban Popcultures, 2012
The aim of this research is to come to a better understanding of the organization, the richness a... more The aim of this research is to come to a better understanding of the organization, the richness and the diversity of the urban popular music industry in Tamale 1 , a cosmopolitan African city in the Northern Region of Ghana, which is growing, changing and expanding very fast at the moment. The focus of this research is on the different social-and economic structures of the local urban popular music cultures. Special attention was given to the informal music market, the airplay of the radio stations, the subaltern position of some musicians, the organization of music education in the area, the music sales of the vendors and distributors, the public domain versus copyright law, music ownership, piracy, the opening of numerous music NGO's, and the flood of music recording studios in and around Tamale. We organized two surveys, the first one on "Music Identities and Identities in Music" conducted among the people of Tamale, and a second one on "Correlation of Gestural Musical Audio and Perceived Expressive Qualities" conducted in several Senior Secondary Schools in and around Tamale. We were very impressed by the presence of the various musical talents in the area, the creative minds of the local male and female artists and the use of advanced computer software and applied multimedia in their music compositions. The popular music industry in Tamale is quite young (with the introduction of electricity in the region roughly 25 years old). Due to this urbanization and globalization processes the local urban popular music industry has been able to establish a new urban music style in the area which they call "Hiplife". Apparently, hybridization processes can be found in the continuity and change between traditional and popular urban music cultures and in the intercultural dynamics and cultural identities between Hiplife, contemporary highlife, a reggae revival, Bollywood influences and in particular, the "Sahelian" Factor in Northern Ghana 2. It is this rich mix of the Northern and Southern, internal and external, old and new, secular and sacred, male and female that will all contribute to the future development of Tamale's popular urban music culture.
Celebrating a legend : emeritus professor Joseph Hanson Kwabena Nketia (1921-2019), 2019
orn to parents of modest means in Asante Mampכn on 22nd June 1921, Joseph Hanson Kwabena Nketia... more orn to parents of modest means in Asante Mampכn on 22nd June 1921, Joseph Hanson Kwabena Nketia often recalled a childhood where he frequently played and mingled with other children. Education was not originally in the hand dealt to the young Kwabena Nketia. He was the only child of nonliterate parents, Opanin Akwasi Yeboa and Maame Akua Adoma, which afforded him a lot of playtime. This was until age seven, when his mother witnessed other kids in their town going to school and out of the blue decided she wanted the same for her Kwabena. In 1958 he went to the United States, attending Columbia University, Juliard School of Music, and Northwestern University to do courses in musicology and composition for a year before returning to Ghana.
International Journal of Music Science, Technology and Art, 2022
The music and dance culture of Dagbon, which is located in the Sudanic Savannah Belt of Northern ... more The music and dance culture of Dagbon, which is located in the Sudanic Savannah Belt of Northern Ghana, functions in symbioses with social, religious, and traditional political structures of each Dagbon community, and is linked to the extended family clans. In this part of Africa, music, dance, sound, movement, and sentiment are strongly connected to each other, often through rituals and annual festivals. By means of various examples from audiovisual and ethnographic fieldwork that we conducted in Dagbon during the period 1999-2010, we report in this paper on the dynamics of music-making in Dagbon seen from the angle of embodied music interaction and expressive timing. On the one hand, the paper is illustrative and descriptive in nature but at the same time also arguing about some specific culture-bound key aspects within both the traditional and the contemporary idioms of music-making in Dagbon. Special attention is given towards the ban and the restrictions of music-making during the period 2002-2006, the period we named and identified as the cultural hibernation of Dagbon, a liminal cultural in-betweenness, a dynamic and powerful transitional period located in-between two homeostasis states in Dagbon music and dance history. The dynamics of music-making in Northern Ghana is currently characterized by transformational and hybridization processes between the traditional idioms of music-making and the contemporary idioms of music-making. This leads to new intercultural dynamics and cultural identities between Hiplife music, contemporary Highlife, dancehall music, Jamal music, a reggae revival and Bollywoodish influences. The paper starts with an introduction and background to the audiovisual archiving project and explain the bottom-up constructivistic grounded theory model as our main field methodology for conducting ethnographic and audiovisual research in Dagbon. At the end of the paper, we explain the implementation of structural and cultural analysis within the field of ethnomusicology in that part of Africa and how we choose to conduct music and dance analysis within the embodied music interaction and expressive timing research paradigm using and implementing imaginary filters on the data e.g., the Dagbon Hiplife Zone in Northern Ghana, The Sahelian Factor in the music of Dagbon and the Intensity Factor in the ritual music of Dagbon. This paper contains synopsis of my doctoral dissertation.
In this study we present the results of an analysis of the traditional idiom of music making in D... more In this study we present the results of an analysis of the traditional idiom of music making in Dagbon. In the first part of the paper we define the key expressive elements of music making in Dagbon such as the “intensity factor” and the “African hemiola style”. Examples of these elements are: The call and response style of singing, the improvisational character of the music-dance, the existence of homeostasis states and rhythmical transition zones, the phenomenon of a ‘movable one’ that interlocks with the common ‘elementary pulsation’ that forms part of the architecture of the music-dance, the superposition of simple rhythmical patterns that interlock with each other, simultaneous double elementary pulse-lines, distinctive costumes, make-up, and objects related to the occasion of the ritual performance e.g. amulets and regalia, the sacrifice of animals, giving of coins to the dancers and musicians, trance and narrowed consciousness. We made computer analyses of audiovisual field r...
International Journal of Music Science, Technology and Art, 2021
This paper presents some results of the rhythmic analysis we conducted on the dance song Igicunda... more This paper presents some results of the rhythmic analysis we conducted on the dance song Igicunda of Rwanda. To realise this, we implemented, during the structural analysis of the historical field recording, a wide range of methods and techniques such as rhythmic onset detection, spectral analysis in combination with manual score annotation techniques and an audio sound synthesis of the annotated dance song. The audio synthesis of the annotated score notation was done using midi-code in combination with the real audio of the field recording. Our analysis model consists of two parallel tracks that complement each other. On the one hand, we used a standard manual score notation analysis that shows the general structure of the dance song, combined and supplemented with cyclic rhythmic annotation techniques to analyse the drum patterns and the handclaps in the dance song.
On the other hand, to extract the cyclic drum patterns and the handclaps out of the audio signal, we implemented a section of the audio field recording an onset detection combined with a spectral decomposition of the tone complex. Later, we conducted a dynamic data-driven audio analysis using rhythmic onset detection and a rhythmic algorithm. Both signals were subjected to the analysis. The result was a perfect match for both the rhythmic analysis of the ingoma drum pattern and the handclaps, as for the hochetus singing style of the leading cantor and the call and response of the choir. During the analysis, we were able to extract several structural key components out of the audio signal belonging to the traditional idioms of music-making, e.g., homeostasis states, transitional states, state transitions, free rubato rhythms, call and response singing style, hochetus singing style, frequency modulation and the tempo stability factor. With this paper, we aim to contribute to the ongoing discourse on the study of polyrhythms in African musical traditions and to illuminate on its relationship to music-making in the traditional idioms; this from the research paradigm embodied music interaction and expressive timing. So far, we can present a working model that allows us to detect and extract complex rhythmic patterns from African music. Our analysis model shows that traditional score annotation techniques and rhythmic cyclic annotation, in combination with onset detection and sound synthesis of the audio signal, is a solid and robust method to analyse and present traditional music and dance in Africa on a rhythmic level. We hope that our contribution can inspire and encourage teachers and students in African Studies to gain a deeper understanding and inside of the richness of the traditional idioms of music-making among African music cultures.
International Journal of Music Science, Technology and Art, 2020
In this paper we present a theoretical concept of cultural co-resonance in the Dagbon Hiplife Zon... more In this paper we present a theoretical concept of cultural co-resonance in the Dagbon Hiplife Zone in Tamale, a dynamic cosmopolitan city located in the Sudanic Savannah Belt of Northern Ghana. The paper is a case study on the WhatsApp Music Platform of Sherifa Gunu, an international Ghanaian soul artist. We present some effects artists have-as a specific cultural influencer-on their neo-tribes and cyber-tribes in the formation of music identities and the cultivation of civic responsibilities through online music interaction and mediated technologies. The study shows that an online music platform functions as a dynamic but unstable crystalized cyber-tribe, a micro subculture in the cloud with a common focus, goal and mind-set, that contributes to the sustainability of the music industry in Ghana by promoting cultural activities and aspects of cultural heritage e.g. online music concerts, broadcasting, educational film productions, new book releases, fashion shows, etc. Moreover, the data shows that the cultural and aesthetic aura around an artist has an online impact in the way neo-tribes and cyber-tribes interact and communicate with each other. The data shows also that the radius of cultural co-resonance from an artist, has a large community based offline impact on the consumption behaviour and music identity formation and development of the school-going youth and young adults, which is linked to an open neo-traditional urban cultural and social experience of music and dance in Tamale. Online music platforms are digital communication tools artists, managers and stakeholders in the music industry apply to connect with the col-lectivistic consciousness of the group, but also to the masses, meaning to the school-going youth, young adults and adult music consumers in general. The common ground and the mind-set of the cyber-tribe functions as a mental program for that specific subculture. The radius of impact an artist has-as a specific cultural influencer-on their neo-tribes, cyber-tribes and especially the young adolescents is what we define in this article as the phenomenon of cultural co-resonance. The responses of the "Masses" (meaning the school-going youth, young adults and adult music consumers in general), on the phenomenon of cultural co-resonance is a controlled collectivistic herd behaviour linked to the formation of music identities and identities in music by these young adolescents. The data shows that within an online music platform, an artist like Sherifa Gunu takes on a whole range of different roles and functions, ranging from the artist who inspires the cyber-tribe in a cultural and aesthetic way, to the artist who acts regularly in the group as a mediator and moderator between the different members. The paper highlights various techniques artists apply with the help of their online social network and music platform to create career sustainability within the music industry in Ghana and far beyond. So far we were able to extract nine key factors. Each of these key components is a factor that interacts in the Dagbon Hiplife Zone in Northern Ghana, an intangible imaginary liminal transitional zone of cultural ambivalence and musical interaction. On the one hand neo-tribes and cyber-tribes form part of the dynamics of music-making in Northern Ghana and functions as a cultural transmitter to educate the youth in the reappraisal of Ghana's rich traditional cultural heritage by using digital distribution channels such as the mobile phone linked to social media platforms. On the other hand cyber-tribes contributes enormously to the career sustainability of the artist, e.g. the crowdfunding for digital production and reproduction of songs and video clips, the digital distribution and online marketing strategies, online broadcasting of the intellectual property of the artist, the image and aura of the artist in the cloud, the cultural and musical identities of the artist that resonates towards the fans and the fan-based social network in cyber-space.
© RMCA/Dominik PHYFFEROEN http://music.africamuseum.be , 2005
This text is a case study on ceremonial funeral music in Techiman, anno 2004, focussing on the d... more This text is a case study on ceremonial funeral music in Techiman, anno 2004, focussing on the dynamics of traditional music- making during the funeral ceremony of the chief of Techiman.
The data and meta data are part of fieldwork we conducted during the periode 1999-2004 in collaboration with the RMCA Tervuren, Belgium and ICAMD, The International Centre for African Music and Dance, the University of Ghana, Legon
The audio-visual field recordings are stored at the above institutes.
International Journal of Music Science, Technology and Art, 2019
In this paper we discuss the results of a survey study we conducted in the cosmopolitan city of T... more In this paper we discuss the results of a survey study we conducted in the cosmopolitan city of Tamale on the local urban informal popular music industries we called the Dagbon Hiplife Zone in Northern Ghana. By means of music examples, we show how traditional African idioms of music-making creatively blend with cross-cultural and cross-musical components that stem from Africa, Afro-Ameri-can, Bollywoodish and Western inspired idioms of music making. The aim of the survey study was to map the radius, location, and organization of the local informal popular urban music industries in and around Tamale, including its artists, stakeholders and various distribution channels. We conducted a survey research on the consumption of music in this city in both the digital idioms and the traditional idioms of music making and a survey on transformational processes, continuity and change in the traditional and contemporary idioms of music making in several Senior High Schools in and around Tamale. The paper starts with a small introduction on the dynamics of music making in the traditional and contemporary idioms in Dagbon society with the emphasis on the Dagbon Hiplife Zone in Ta-male. The Dagbon Hiplife Zone is an intangible cultural in-betweenness where transformational processes are taking place. It as a mind-set where new musical idioms are developed. Traditional idioms of music making are blended and merged with contemporary idioms of music making. The fusion of traditional structural and cultural components into new idioms of music making is in Dagbon represented in "The Hiplife Zone", an intangible liminal imaginary creative time space zone of cultural interaction. Music components coming from the traditional idiom interact with components coming from the local, regional and global contemporary idioms of music making. It is a mind-set of the young talented creative artists, working and exploring new ways, methods and ideas of making and creating music by interacting with each other on the level of the local informal music industry in Tamale. The concept of the "Northern Ghanaian Artists" as a cultural cosmopolitan identity for the local artists in Tamale is a very interesting phenomenon and a good example how cultural identities are blended, created and represented in a cosmopolitan city and in cyberspace.
International Journal of Music Science, Technology and Art, 2019
In this article we present the results on rhythmic analysis we conducted on Tindana ritual music ... more In this article we present the results on rhythmic analysis we conducted on Tindana ritual music and dance in Dagbon, a music-dance culture located in the Northern Region of Ghana. The paper elaborates on the “Intensity Factor” in the traditional idiom of music making and explains how this expressive key component contributes to the dynamics of the ritual The depth of our analysis shows that the intensity factor has a direct impact on the interaction between the produced sound of the lunsi-ensemble, (the tom-tom beaters), the bodily movements of the dancers and the input and expectations of the local community. Our results shows that the Tindana ritual Tolon Jaagbo consist of intra-musical structural components and extra-musical cultural components and has homeostasis states, and transitional states inside the architectural structure of the music-dance. Our focus is on how expressive components have a direct impact on the dynamics of music making in Dagbon society. Several important concepts that characterize aspects of timing, such as "movable one" and "intensity factor", have been introduced by different authors. However, the focus was often on single aspects of timing and an overall framework was lacking. Here we attempt at integrating different concepts of expressive timing in an overall framework of embodied music interaction. An overall framework based on embodied music interaction has not yet been applied to expressive timing in African music. Instead, what we have are different concepts that define aspects of expressive timing.
Symposium on Scientific Approaches in Sound and Movement Research, 2019
In this study we present the results of an analysis of the traditional idiom of music making in D... more In this study we present the results of an analysis of the traditional idiom of music making in Dagbon.
In the first part of the paper we define the key expressive elements of music making in Dagbon such as the “intensity factor” and the “African hemiola style”. Examples of these elements are: The call and response style of singing, the improvisational character of the music-dance, the existence of homeostasis states and rhythmical transition zones, the phenomenon of a ‘movable one’ that interlocks with the common ‘elementary pulsation’ that forms part of the architecture of the music-dance, the superposition of simple rhythmical patterns that interlock with each other, simultaneous double elementary pulse-lines, distinctive costumes, make-up, and objects related to the occasion of the ritual performance e.g. amulets and regalia, the sacrifice of animals, giving of coins to the dancers and musicians, trance and narrowed consciousness.
We made computer analyses of audiovisual field recordings in combination with video analyses and wrote transcriptions and annotations in western score notation. Our results show that the music-dance in Dagbon has a highly polyrhythmic character, and consists of different characteristic parameters. Among these key elements are: Embodied Music Interaction of the different musicians, the dancers and the audience; the superposition of simple rhythmic patterns that form rhythmical layers showing a cyclic character and are based on a common microtiming, the interlocking of intermediate rhythmical layers – superposition of simple rhythmical patterns - through the stimulation of an ‘elementary pulsation’ also called ‘the smallest units’, and referred to in this paper as ‘microtiming’, the existence of simultaneously double elementary pulse-lines, e.g. ziem, tindana waa, and a duple and triple meter in the architecture of the music-dance: e.g. simultaneously simple triple meter and compound duple meter, e.g. ziem, tindana waa, jera waa and simultaneously simple duple meter and compound duple meter, 2-beat and 3-beat grouping, referred to as the “African hemiola”. Analysis of polyrhythmic structures in music-dance in Dagbon shows that there is a superposition of rhythmical cycles - 2-beat and 3-beat grouping. The stable rhythmical periods or states are called “homeostasis” states in this paper. Between two stable states is a transitional zone that we call the liminal zone, which has an unstable rhythmic character that transforms into a stable state. These short liminal zones provide extra energy and contribute to the intensity of the performance and the dynamics of the ritual dance. Liminal transitional periods between two rhythmically stable periods occur in the audio-visual field recordings. We named the stable periods homeostasis and transitional periods the “intensity factor”. These transitional periods of temporarily unstable rhythmic transformational processes are periods that lie between two homeostasis periods, which are short but contain much intensity/energy and thus the rhythm pushes the music and the bodily movements of the dance during the ritual.
© RMCA/Dominik PHYFFEROEN http://music.africamuseum.be , 2005
© RMCA/Dominik PHYFFEROEN http://music.africamuseum.be , 2005
This contribution is a case study based on field recordings we made in 2003-2004 in several villa... more This contribution is a case study based on field recordings we made in 2003-2004 in several villages in southern Ghana with the cooperation of the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren and the International Center for African Music and Dance (ICAMD) at the University of Ghana, Legon . We have also referred to a collection of field notes taken on location in Mankessim and Cape Coast. The mmensoun ensemble, which means “seven horns”, comprises a set of seven wooden horns that are divided into four registers, modeled on the human voice. The size of the horn depends on its tessitura and register.
© RMCA/Dominik PHYFFEROEN http://music.africamuseum.be , 2005
© RMCA/Dominik PHYFFEROEN http://music.africamuseum.be , 2005
© RMCA/Dominik PHYFFEROEN http://music.africamuseum.be , 2005
© RMCA/Dominik PHYFFEROEN http://music.africamuseum.be , 2005
© RMCA/Dominik PHYFFEROEN http://music.africamuseum.be , 2005
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Papers by Dominik Phyfferoen
On the other hand, to extract the cyclic drum patterns and the handclaps out of the audio signal, we implemented a section of the audio field recording an onset detection combined with a spectral decomposition of the tone complex. Later, we conducted a dynamic data-driven audio analysis using rhythmic onset detection and a rhythmic algorithm. Both signals were subjected to the analysis. The result was a perfect match for both the rhythmic analysis of the ingoma drum pattern and the handclaps, as for the hochetus singing style of the leading cantor and the call and response of the choir. During the analysis, we were able to extract several structural key components out of the audio signal belonging to the traditional idioms of music-making, e.g., homeostasis states, transitional states, state transitions, free rubato rhythms, call and response singing style, hochetus singing style, frequency modulation and the tempo stability factor. With this paper, we aim to contribute to the ongoing discourse on the study of polyrhythms in African musical traditions and to illuminate on its relationship to music-making in the traditional idioms; this from the research paradigm embodied music interaction and expressive timing. So far, we can present a working model that allows us to detect and extract complex rhythmic patterns from African music. Our analysis model shows that traditional score annotation techniques and rhythmic cyclic annotation, in combination with onset detection and sound synthesis of the audio signal, is a solid and robust method to analyse and present traditional music and dance in Africa on a rhythmic level. We hope that our contribution can inspire and encourage teachers and students in African Studies to gain a deeper understanding and inside of the richness of the traditional idioms of music-making among African music cultures.
The data and meta data are part of fieldwork we conducted during the periode 1999-2004 in collaboration with the RMCA Tervuren, Belgium and ICAMD, The International Centre for African Music and Dance, the University of Ghana, Legon
The audio-visual field recordings are stored at the above institutes.
In the first part of the paper we define the key expressive elements of music making in Dagbon such as the “intensity factor” and the “African hemiola style”. Examples of these elements are: The call and response style of singing, the improvisational character of the music-dance, the existence of homeostasis states and rhythmical transition zones, the phenomenon of a ‘movable one’ that interlocks with the common ‘elementary pulsation’ that forms part of the architecture of the music-dance, the superposition of simple rhythmical patterns that interlock with each other, simultaneous double elementary pulse-lines, distinctive costumes, make-up, and objects related to the occasion of the ritual performance e.g. amulets and regalia, the sacrifice of animals, giving of coins to the dancers and musicians, trance and narrowed consciousness.
We made computer analyses of audiovisual field recordings in combination with video analyses and wrote transcriptions and annotations in western score notation. Our results show that the music-dance in Dagbon has a highly polyrhythmic character, and consists of different characteristic parameters. Among these key elements are: Embodied Music Interaction of the different musicians, the dancers and the audience; the superposition of simple rhythmic patterns that form rhythmical layers showing a cyclic character and are based on a common microtiming, the interlocking of intermediate rhythmical layers – superposition of simple rhythmical patterns - through the stimulation of an ‘elementary pulsation’ also called ‘the smallest units’, and referred to in this paper as ‘microtiming’, the existence of simultaneously double elementary pulse-lines, e.g. ziem, tindana waa, and a duple and triple meter in the architecture of the music-dance: e.g. simultaneously simple triple meter and compound duple meter, e.g. ziem, tindana waa, jera waa and simultaneously simple duple meter and compound duple meter, 2-beat and 3-beat grouping, referred to as the “African hemiola”. Analysis of polyrhythmic structures in music-dance in Dagbon shows that there is a superposition of rhythmical cycles - 2-beat and 3-beat grouping. The stable rhythmical periods or states are called “homeostasis” states in this paper. Between two stable states is a transitional zone that we call the liminal zone, which has an unstable rhythmic character that transforms into a stable state. These short liminal zones provide extra energy and contribute to the intensity of the performance and the dynamics of the ritual dance. Liminal transitional periods between two rhythmically stable periods occur in the audio-visual field recordings. We named the stable periods homeostasis and transitional periods the “intensity factor”. These transitional periods of temporarily unstable rhythmic transformational processes are periods that lie between two homeostasis periods, which are short but contain much intensity/energy and thus the rhythm pushes the music and the bodily movements of the dance during the ritual.
On the other hand, to extract the cyclic drum patterns and the handclaps out of the audio signal, we implemented a section of the audio field recording an onset detection combined with a spectral decomposition of the tone complex. Later, we conducted a dynamic data-driven audio analysis using rhythmic onset detection and a rhythmic algorithm. Both signals were subjected to the analysis. The result was a perfect match for both the rhythmic analysis of the ingoma drum pattern and the handclaps, as for the hochetus singing style of the leading cantor and the call and response of the choir. During the analysis, we were able to extract several structural key components out of the audio signal belonging to the traditional idioms of music-making, e.g., homeostasis states, transitional states, state transitions, free rubato rhythms, call and response singing style, hochetus singing style, frequency modulation and the tempo stability factor. With this paper, we aim to contribute to the ongoing discourse on the study of polyrhythms in African musical traditions and to illuminate on its relationship to music-making in the traditional idioms; this from the research paradigm embodied music interaction and expressive timing. So far, we can present a working model that allows us to detect and extract complex rhythmic patterns from African music. Our analysis model shows that traditional score annotation techniques and rhythmic cyclic annotation, in combination with onset detection and sound synthesis of the audio signal, is a solid and robust method to analyse and present traditional music and dance in Africa on a rhythmic level. We hope that our contribution can inspire and encourage teachers and students in African Studies to gain a deeper understanding and inside of the richness of the traditional idioms of music-making among African music cultures.
The data and meta data are part of fieldwork we conducted during the periode 1999-2004 in collaboration with the RMCA Tervuren, Belgium and ICAMD, The International Centre for African Music and Dance, the University of Ghana, Legon
The audio-visual field recordings are stored at the above institutes.
In the first part of the paper we define the key expressive elements of music making in Dagbon such as the “intensity factor” and the “African hemiola style”. Examples of these elements are: The call and response style of singing, the improvisational character of the music-dance, the existence of homeostasis states and rhythmical transition zones, the phenomenon of a ‘movable one’ that interlocks with the common ‘elementary pulsation’ that forms part of the architecture of the music-dance, the superposition of simple rhythmical patterns that interlock with each other, simultaneous double elementary pulse-lines, distinctive costumes, make-up, and objects related to the occasion of the ritual performance e.g. amulets and regalia, the sacrifice of animals, giving of coins to the dancers and musicians, trance and narrowed consciousness.
We made computer analyses of audiovisual field recordings in combination with video analyses and wrote transcriptions and annotations in western score notation. Our results show that the music-dance in Dagbon has a highly polyrhythmic character, and consists of different characteristic parameters. Among these key elements are: Embodied Music Interaction of the different musicians, the dancers and the audience; the superposition of simple rhythmic patterns that form rhythmical layers showing a cyclic character and are based on a common microtiming, the interlocking of intermediate rhythmical layers – superposition of simple rhythmical patterns - through the stimulation of an ‘elementary pulsation’ also called ‘the smallest units’, and referred to in this paper as ‘microtiming’, the existence of simultaneously double elementary pulse-lines, e.g. ziem, tindana waa, and a duple and triple meter in the architecture of the music-dance: e.g. simultaneously simple triple meter and compound duple meter, e.g. ziem, tindana waa, jera waa and simultaneously simple duple meter and compound duple meter, 2-beat and 3-beat grouping, referred to as the “African hemiola”. Analysis of polyrhythmic structures in music-dance in Dagbon shows that there is a superposition of rhythmical cycles - 2-beat and 3-beat grouping. The stable rhythmical periods or states are called “homeostasis” states in this paper. Between two stable states is a transitional zone that we call the liminal zone, which has an unstable rhythmic character that transforms into a stable state. These short liminal zones provide extra energy and contribute to the intensity of the performance and the dynamics of the ritual dance. Liminal transitional periods between two rhythmically stable periods occur in the audio-visual field recordings. We named the stable periods homeostasis and transitional periods the “intensity factor”. These transitional periods of temporarily unstable rhythmic transformational processes are periods that lie between two homeostasis periods, which are short but contain much intensity/energy and thus the rhythm pushes the music and the bodily movements of the dance during the ritual.
The traditional idioms of music-making are in this study described as a hybrid and dynamical zone represented at the local courts, in the local villages and the urbanized towns. The contemporary idioms of music-making are in this study represented as a hybrid intangible liminal zone where all these cultural transformational processes are taking place. Both idioms interact with each other in the Cosmopolitan city of Tamale and the urbanized towns. At the center of the cultural transformational processes in music lies dynamic liminal zone of cultural co-resonance and the vibrating local Hiplife and Dancehall youth music scene. The unique combinations of transforming and blending endogenous musical and cultural elements in combinations with foreigner (western cultural) digital techniques and elements makes the Dagbon Hiplife Zone in Tamale a vibrating cosmopolitan entertainment scene and an intangible liminal place of cultural production, reproduction and distribution of digital arts e.g. contemporary music, dancehall music and a booming local Bollywoodish inspired film industry. Elements coming from Afro-American rap and hip-hop cultural identities are embedded with traditional cultural elements, creating a hybrid cosmopolitan youth music identity. This phenomenon of cultural co-resonance by the local artists in the Dagbon Hiplife Zone in Tamale creates a form of collectivistic behavior of the youth (neo-tribes) around the artists. The term cyber-tribes is used to describe the human collectivistic behavior around the formation of a hybrid cosmopolitan music identity of the youth around popular artists and media stars but then in cyberspace. e.g. Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram etc. collectivistic herd behavior of cyber tribalism and online cyberspace behavior of fan cubs in Dagbon are cultural phenomenon that are indispensable from the globalization discourse of the upcoming young generation in Tamale
The Sudanic Savannah Belt is an immense geographical area that accommodates a huge diversity of music traditions and music cultures. The Northern Region of Ghana is part of this dynamic belt and therefore has a wide variety of cultural forms of expression, including traditional and contemporary idioms of music-making. These forms of expression express themselves among other things in the different cultural dynamics that influence both socio - economic and geopolitical life. Ethnicity and tribalism linked to the phenomenon of chieftaincy are important factors in the promotion, preservation and maintenance of local cultural traditions by the local chiefs. Music-making in the traditional idioms are mainly promoted and sponsored by regional and local chiefs. In addition, the spread of Islam linked to trade and commerce has been important factors in the spread of traditional music and musical instruments in the Guinea Sudan Savannah. The point that we like to tackle in this paper is the disconnection of the factor ethnicity from the contemporary idioms of music making in the Sudanic Savannah Belt in Northern Ghana. Meaning the disconnection of the contemporary idioms of music making in Northern Ghana and Dagbon with tribalism and ethnicity, the existing ethno-linguistic classification models of languages and cultures in this part of Africa”. We have made an attempt to towards a non-ethnic distribution and classification model for music-making in this area. We approach music-making not only from its semantic connotation (singing, the meaning of the song texts, the lyrical use of proverbs in the song text,) but music as organized sound. That is the main reason why we refer to music-making in Dagbon and not to the Dagomba music. Dagbon is a well-complex traditional state in Northern Ghana in a mode of transition toward globalization, inhabited by different ethnicities that are part of the socio -cultural and economic richness and diversity of this area in Africa. This paper is a tentative attempt to disconnect the phenomenon of music-making from the phenomenon of ethnicity and tribalism in this part of Africa. We collected c.a. 2800 music-dance audio-visual field recordings from Northern Ghana to back up our research hypotheses. This audio-visual collection forms the backbone – the data and meta data-, to support the working research hypotheses. A very good example of the non–ethnical distribution of music and dance is the bamaaya dance , a ritual dance and the takai dance, a court dance, manly danced by the male Dagbon aristocracy, and the youth dance simpa in the Northern Region of Ghana and the distribution of the tindana ritual music and dance which are scattered and spread throughout the Northern Region of Ghana. The theoretical concept of the Sahelian factor in the music of Northern Ghana assumes that musical cultures and music traditions in the Sudanic Savannah Belt are mobile and les stationary than in the forest and the Guinea Coast Region. The and more mobile and connected (entangled) with each other thought different factors. Among these factors are Islamisation. Unlike the people of the forest or along the Guinea Coast who tend to be stationary the Sudanese are mobile, interaction not only with northerners and southerners but also with each other. Tus constant movement may have led to the borrowing of the fiddle from one group and subsequent adopted by another. Our date shows that there are key factors in the distribution of music and dance in the Sudanic Savannah Belt in Northern Ghana who are not language related. Among these key components are musical styles and the distribution of musical instruments that connects and entangled these music and dance cultures. We will focus in this study on the “The Sahelian Factor” and the “Sudanic Savannah Factor” in the contemporary idioms of music - making in Dagbon. Therefore we propose a “a non- ethno-linguistics” research paradigm that looks at the division of music and dance in this region from a different angle. We approach music-making from the angle of embodied music interaction research paradigm in which music and the interaction of man to music is disconnected with the factor ethnicity and tribalism but focus on expressive timing and the interaction of bodily movements with music. Therefore, concerning the contemporary idioms of music making in Dagbon we are in favor of the detaching and the disconnection music-making with the existing ethnolinguistic classification models of languages and cultures in this part of Africa. Copying and implementing the ethnolinguistic classification models of languages and cultures e.g. Africa Ethnicity Murdock 1959 the Tervuren Model for classifying Bantu languages, Marc Felix 2001, “The Peoples Atlas of Africa”, to the contemporary music and dance idioms and the vibrating music and entertainment industries of Northern Ghana seems to our results not matching. Our results shows that the different musical cultures in the moist Sudan Savannah Belt in Northern Ghana have more similarities which each other than differences. Therefore we chose to work in an non-ethnical linguistic research paradigm. Especially when it comes to the distribution of contemporary musical idioms in the Sudan Savannah Belt and Dagbon in general it seems that the ethno-linguistic model of classifying music cultures and music-making according to ethnicities and languages - which is today still the standard in Universities and Institutes of learning in Africa-, is outmoded, meaning that such a classification model works as a mental colonial force on the talented artists working in the music and entertainment industries.
The music-dance culture of Dagbon, in Northern Ghana, functions in symbiosis with social, religious and traditional political structures of each Dagomba community, and is linked to the extended family clans. In this part of Africa, music, dance, sound, movement, and sentiment are strongly connected to each other, often through rituals and annual festivals. The dynamics of music making in Northern Ghana is currently characterized by a transformation- and hybridization process between traditional and popular urban music making. This leads to new intercultural dynamics and cultural identities between Hiplife, contemporary Highlife, a reggae revival, Bollywoodish and Nollywood’s influences and in particular “The Sahelian Factor“ in music making.
and Dimbu. Ziem is the ritual dance of the Tindana, and is associated with the fetish priest. It was during transcriptions of Tindana drum patterns that we came across this rhythmical phenomenon in the audio signal. The rhythmic phenomenon indicates a shift of one duplet in the elementary pulsation in time and dimension by the superposition of a rhythmic layer of 100ms shifted in time in front of beat. In the case of the Tindana waa of Tolon, the ritual dance performance called Tolon Jaagbo, the shifted pulse-line is only played by a single lunsi drummer beating a closed double skinned hourglass-shaped pressure drum and is adapted by the audience during handclapping. It forms a double secondary pulse-line on top of the elementary pulse-line. It is a rhythmical shift of one duplet in the grid, we called it "a grid unit" in time which remains constant throughout the entire ritual music-dance performance. We named this shifted second elementary pulse-line in combination with the rhythmic shift of one duplet unit in the grid in front of the primary elementary pulse-line “The Intensity Factor” because it contains a lot of kinetic energy that come out of the tension between the primary elementary pulse-line and the secondary elementary pulse-line and drives the entire ritual dance performance The rhythmical shift of 100ms on top of beat is clearly visible in the audio signal and forms the core of this paper. It is a rhythmical structure that forms a second elementary pulse-line with its own grid shifted with one duplet in front of the primary grid that interlocks with the grid of the primary elementary pulse-line. This rhythmical structure of simultaneously two shifted elementary pulse-lines units in the grid, that occurs as first strike ahead of a strong accent or beat. Its function as an agogic kinetic energy in the sense that it drives the motor system to respond and ad energy to the drive of the music-dance performance. After naming this kinetic and rhythmical phenomenon, we started looking for relevant literature. It is only afterwards that we realized that the famous African scholar Kwabena Nketia had published an article on "the intensity factor" in the late 80's. In the analysis and transcriptions of the ritual music-dance Ziem for the local god Jaagbo of Tolon, we illustrate that both “ternaryduple” and “binary - triple” meters are simultaneous present and shifted in time, creating homeostasis states and transitional states. A phenomenon of the "movable one" was detected in the drum accompaniment that creates liminal transitional states and contributes the intensity and drive of the ritual performance. This intensity, which is in our case a kinetic energy in the music sets performs and audience to move and interact on the produced dance beat, and is a specific dynamical structural component of the ritual music-dance found Tindana in Dagbon. It is a rhythmical shift of one duplet grid unit in time which remains constant throughout the entire ritual music- dance performance.
This report is the author's second Master's thesis in ethnic arts. It provides a descriptive account of field missions conducted in Dagbon between 1999 and 2002. The research involved recording approximately 130 hours of music and dance in traditional idioms of music-making in Dagbon.
These recordings are a valuable section of the audio collection in the Ethnomusicology Department of the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren. They fall under the "Traditional music and dance in Ghana." A compilation of 4 CDs and a video montage was created from these recordings, each emphasising different viewpoints. Additionally, a PowerPoint presentation with a cultural-anthropological approach is included in this report, featuring photos that showcase the wide variety of musical instruments from Dagbon, a traditional state in modern-day Ghana.
The aim was to record on-site audiovisual field recordings of traditional music and dances and organise and catalogue these field recordings at the audiovisual archive of the RMCA for further research. We have gathered valuable data by recording, transcribing, and translating oral chronicles on the oral music histories of Dagbon. Our study also briefly overviews the social and cultural organisation and the cultural life within local communities in Dagbon.
The musical culture in Dagbon is largely associated with rituals, which has made it difficult to document and record authentic ritual dances within certain music and dance cults like Dimbu, Jin'warpaga, Tindana waa, etc. However, with the help and support of Yaa Naa Yakubu Andani II, the King of Dagbon from 1974 to 2002, as well as the local chiefs, individual musicians and dancers, and the approval of the local Tindanas, the earth priests, a significant portion of this rich intangible music tradition has been recorded on tape and archived at the RMCA Tervuren and ICAMD, University of Ghana Legon.
Identifying, sorting out, and understanding the traditional dances of Dagbon that were recorded on tape proved challenging for me as a starting fieldworker and ethnomusicologist. To find the correct symbolical meanings and names of the dances, I sought the performers' assistance. They were able to help me identify and explain the various dances clearly and accurately so I could catalogue them in the audiovisual archives.
While transcribing and translating the sung lyrics and in numerous interviews about the oral tradition, it became evident that there is no standardised notation for Dagbani, the language spoken by the Dagomba people. In fact, two dialects are spoken in the region - West Dagbani and East Dagbani - each with unique pronunciation and spelling. The songs are typically sung in a combination of Dagbani, Hausa, and Gurma.
Our research focused on studying the music and dance culture of the Dagbon region, which is home to two clans - Andani Yili and Abudu Yili. These two clans have been feuding for years over the legitimacy of the throne, which made it difficult to interview the right people about specific topics such as ancestor cult, animism, cult, and trance dances. As I acted and conducted the audiovisual fieldwork in the name of the Yaa Naa, who belonged to the Andani clan, it was challenging to stay neutral as a passant and to gather correct information from informants from the other family clan. However, we made music recordings with both family clans, providing us with a comprehensive understanding of the unique and complex musical culture of the Dagbon, despite the ongoing intercultural clan dispute at the time of the audiovisual field recordings.
I am grateful to the Ethnomusicology Department of the RMCA for their support during my two-year research project. Without them, this study would not have been possible. The organisation and infrastructure of the service were excellent, and the working environment was stimulating. I had the opportunity to engage with various musical cultures from Sub-Saharan Africa, which was enriching. I extend special thanks to Dr J. GANSEMANS, the Head of the Service, whose reputation as an outstanding scientist in ethnomusicology was invaluable to my research.
I wish to thank Prof. Dr M. LEMAN (UGent) for his valuable support and guidance as a promoter. His innovative ideas in systematic musicology have provided us with a new perspective highly relevant to our field recordings' spectral analysis. I would also like to acknowledge the assistance of Prof. Dr E. BRUYNINX in conducting this study.
I would like to extend my appreciation and gratitude to a number of individuals and organizations who rendered invaluable support during my fieldwork in Ghana. I would like to express my gratitude to Prof. Dr Kwabena Nketia, a distinguished African scholar, composer, and ethnomusicologist from the University of Ghana, Legon.
Dr J. GAZARI from the Ghana Museum in Accra, the Ministry of Culture of Ghana, and Mr Ambassador and Consul Mr I.ABASS from the Embassy of Ghana in Brussels.
Their support was spontaneous and greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Dominik Phyfferoen
These recordings are a valuable section of the audio collection in the Ethnomusicology Department of the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren. They fall under the "Traditional music and dance in Ghana." A compilation of 4 CDs and a video montage was created from these recordings, each emphasising different viewpoints. Additionally, a PowerPoint presentation with a cultural-anthropological approach is included in this report, featuring photos that showcase the wide variety of musical instruments from Dagbon, a traditional state in modern-day Ghana.
The aim was to record on-site audiovisual field recordings of traditional music and dances and organise and catalogue these field recordings at the audiovisual archive of the RMCA for further research. We have gathered valuable data by recording, transcribing, and translating oral chronicles on the oral music histories of Dagbon. Our study also briefly overviews the social and cultural organisation and the cultural life within local communities in Dagbon.
The musical culture in Dagbon is largely associated with rituals, which has made it difficult to document and record authentic ritual dances within certain music and dance cults like Dimbu, Jin'warpaga, Tindana waa, etc. However, with the help and support of Yaa Naa Yakubu Andani II, the King of Dagbon from 1974 to 2002, as well as the local chiefs, individual musicians and dancers, and the approval of the local Tindanas, the earth priests, a significant portion of this rich intangible music tradition has been recorded on tape and archived at the RMCA Tervuren and ICAMD, University of Ghana Legon.
Identifying, sorting out, and understanding the traditional dances of Dagbon that were recorded on tape proved challenging for me as a starting fieldworker and ethnomusicologist. To find the correct symbolical meanings and names of the dances, I sought the performers' assistance. They were able to help me identify and explain the various dances clearly and accurately so I could catalogue them in the audiovisual archives.
While transcribing and translating the sung lyrics and in numerous interviews about the oral tradition, it became evident that there is no standardised notation for Dagbani, the language spoken by the Dagomba people. In fact, two dialects are spoken in the region - West Dagbani and East Dagbani - each with unique pronunciation and spelling. The songs are typically sung in a combination of Dagbani, Hausa, and Gurma.
Our research focused on studying the music and dance culture of the Dagbon region, which is home to two clans - Andani Yili and Abudu Yili. These two clans have been feuding for years over the legitimacy of the throne, which made it difficult to interview the right people about specific topics such as ancestor cult, animism, cult, and trance dances. As I acted and conducted the audiovisual fieldwork in the name of the Yaa Naa, who belonged to the Andani clan, it was challenging to stay neutral as a passant and to gather correct information from informants from the other family clan. However, we made music recordings with both family clans, providing us with a comprehensive understanding of the unique and complex musical culture of the Dagbon, despite the ongoing intercultural clan dispute at the time of the audiovisual field recordings.
I am grateful to the Ethnomusicology Department of the RMCA for their support during my two-year research project. Without them, this study would not have been possible. The organisation and infrastructure of the service were excellent, and the working environment was stimulating. I had the opportunity to engage with various musical cultures from Sub-Saharan Africa, which was enriching. I extend special thanks to Dr J. GANSEMANS, the Head of the Service, whose reputation as an outstanding scientist in ethnomusicology was invaluable to my research.
I wish to thank Prof. Dr M. LEMAN (UGent) for his valuable support and guidance as a promoter. His innovative ideas in systematic musicology have provided us with a new perspective highly relevant to our field recordings' spectral analysis. I would also like to acknowledge the assistance of Prof. Dr E. BRUYNINX in conducting this study.
I would like to extend my appreciation and gratitude to a number of individuals and organizations who rendered invaluable support during my fieldwork in Ghana. I would like to express my gratitude to Prof. Dr Kwabena Nketia, a distinguished African scholar, composer, and ethnomusicologist from the University of Ghana, Legon.
Dr J. GAZARI from the Ghana Museum in Accra, the Ministry of Culture of Ghana, and Mr Ambassador and Consul Mr I.ABASS from the Embassy of Ghana in Brussels.
Their support was spontaneous and greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Dominik Phyfferoen
The thesis includes a preliminary study on transformational processes between traditional music and dance and Early Jazz. It highlights a trans-Atlantic black diasporic feedback in music and the transformational processes in early jazz music. It demonstrates a clear return back to the contemporary idioms of music-making in West Africa.
The birth of Early Jazz was a product of blending various musical traditions. It was a result of the interaction between Africans and Europeans, mainly English and French, together with influences from Caribbean-Spanish Tintel, Jewish Klezmer music, and the indigenous music cultures of the American continent, which gave rise to this music genre. During the beginning of the 20th century, a noticeable shift occurred in how musical idioms were transformed in Early Jazz music-making. Early Jazz stood out from ragtime, blues, and other contemporary music styles due to the improvisational nature of most performances. This improvisation was not limited to just the exposition with variations of the main theme and central melody but extended to create a new rhythmic feel, which became looser and more relaxed, also known as the "Swing feel". As musicians started making more and more original compositions, collective improvisation became even more complex than the initial ragtime, blues, and marching band music.
The research data was collected between June and August of 2008 and 2010 in collaboration with the University of Ghana Legon and the International Centre for African Music and Dance at the Institute of African Studies. Emeritus Professor Kwabena Nketia supervised the project from the University of Ghana Legon and Professor Wim Van der Meer from the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. This research focused on the contemporary music and dance cultures of Tamale, an African multicultural-cosmopolitan city and the administrative Centre of the Northern Region of Ghana. We investigated the organisation and the different social - and economic structures of the local urban popular music cultures. Special attention was given to the informal music industry, the airplay of the radio stations, the subaltern position of some musicians, the organisation of music education in the area, the music sales of the vendors and distributors, the public domain versus copyright law and piracy, the opening of numerous music NGO’s, and the flood of music recording studios in and around Tamale.
The theoretical discourse of the thesis is on postcolonial identities, musical identities and identities in music, the different forms of temporality and cultural hybridity, liminal space, and the redefining of the “African Idiom” in Hiplife. Hybridisation processes can be found in the continuity and change between elements inspired and borrowed from the traditional African Idiom and mixed with elements inspired by the Afro-American and Western urban pop idiom. It is just this cultural mix, the different forms of transformation processes, coming from the African traditional idiom into the urban popular idiom that this thesis is focusing on. The hybridisation processes of traditional and popular urban music cultures and the intercultural dynamics and cultural identities between Hiplife, the reggae revival, Bollywood influences and, in particular: the “Sahelian Factor in Northern Ghana” in the Tamale popular music industry were investigated and critically analysed. Survey research on “Music Identities and Identities in Music” was conducted among the people of Tamale.
A second survey research on “Correlation of Gestural Musical Audio and Perceived Expressive Qualities” was done in several Senior Secondary Schools in and around Tamale. This research aims to understand better the organisation, richness, and diversity of the urban popular music industry in Tamale, an African city in the Northern Region of Ghana, which is growing, changing, and expanding very fast. We were highly impressed by the presence of the various musical talents in the area, the inventive minds of the local male and female artists and the use of advanced computer software and applied multimedia in their music compositions. The popular music industry in Tamale is relatively young (with the introduction of electricity in the region roughly 25 years old). Due to this urbanisation and globalisation processes, the local popular music industry has established a new urban music style in the area called “Hiplife”. This rich mix of the Northern and Southern, internal and external, old and new, secular and sacred, male and female will all contribute to the future development of Tamale’s popular urban music culture.
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