What Instruments Are Found In Ewe Agbekor Music?

Atsiagbekɔ: Background and Instruments

• gankogui (pronounced gahn-KOHG-way): two-tone iron bell.
• axatse (pronounced ah-HAHT-say): African gourd rattle.
• kagan drum (pronounced kah-GAHN): high-pitched accompaniment drum.
• kidi drum (pronounced kee-DEE): medium-pitched accompaniment drum.

How many percussion instruments are in Agbekor?

The traditional Agbekor percussion ensemble consists of a bell, a gourd rattle, and four drums. Each part played by the ensemble in itself is not too difficult. The challenge is to hear them within a polyphonic texture that seems to change depending on one’s point of musical reference.

Which instrument plays the timeline in Agbekor?

I focus on the piano, a two-note chord playing the bell timeline pattern from the Ewe dance drumming piece, ‘Agbekor’.

What is typical of Ewe music?

Ewe music is the music of the Ewe people of Togo, Ghana, and Benin, West Africa. Instrumentation is primarily percussive and rhythmically the music features great metrical complexity.

What genre is Agbekor?

Agbekor is one of the popular Warrior Dance forms that is originated with the Ewa and Foh people who live on the Atlantic coast of Western Africa. Once known as “Atamga”, it is an ancient and traditional dance form often performed in many functions, and also in funerals.

How is Agbekor used today?

Today one can hear Agbekor at major life events within a community, such as weddings and funerals, and also in informal concert settings. Agbekor typically features a percussion ensemble and a chorus of singers, and nearly always traditional dances and dress.

How are music and dance learned in the Ewe culture?

-In Ewe music-culture, most music and dance is learned through enculturation. Even Ewe speakers cannot understand drum language just by hearing the music—they must be told.”

What is the lead instrument in the Ewe percussion ensemble which is also the freest and most able to improvise?

In Ewe drumming, the master drummer does drum dialogue with the kidi. It enriches the kidi phrase by filling in the empty spaces on the kidi’s part. The master drum can also improvise.

What are two uses for the talking drums of the Ewe of Ghana?

The two drums, played for dance, communication and language, have different pitches and tones. Infante-Amate said they are played with sticks and are considered talking drums because they can imitate sounds of some African languages, like the Ewe language.

What drums are used in Ghana?

Kpanlogo (pronounced “PAHN-loh-goh”), traditionally named Tswreshi or Treshi is a type of barrel drum that is associated with Kpanlogo music, and is usually played with two hands. The drum originates from the Ga people of the Greater Accra Region in Ghana, West Africa.

What is a kidi instrument?

Kidi. The kidi is a mid-sized drum played with two wooden sticks. Like other Ewe drums, the drumhead is made of the skin of a deer or antelope. Its body is made out of wood and is sometimes decorated by elaborate carvings.

What does Agahu mean?

Agahu: a circle dance created prior to World War II by Egun speakers in Benin speaking people of Ketonu, possibly as a modification of a dance style called “gome”.

What does the word Agbekor mean?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. agbekɔ is a style of dance by the West African peoples of Ewe and Fon. It is an ancient dance once known as Atamga, Ga meaning ‘great’, Atam meaning ‘oath’.

Where do present day Mande live?

The Mande-speaking peoples living in present-day Mali (Bamana, Senufo and Dogon peoples) have inhabited this area since the days of the Mali Empire. Today, Mande-speaking peoples live in almost all parts of West Africa, having migrated in search of trade or having been displaced by war or climatic conditions.

What are the four elements of a music culture?

In this there are four sub-components which are: dance, ritual, movement, and etiquette. Basically, in this one it is asking whether or not something is happening during the music, and if so what.