"African music is only made up of contrasting rhythms"
When people are asked to describe African music, most will answer that it is "all drumming" Those who are a bit more musical, like our friend with the quote above will say that African music is a bunch of weird rhythms bunched together." And if you ask a music teacher, they may say that African music is about "polyrhythms and polymeters"
Well, when you ask for my opinion, I think that most people are missing the point. African music has one main element; FREEDOM. These people did not get "commissioned" to play music, nor did they get money or fame from it. The basic truth is that these people played music for themselves. They didn't need to play to anyone's expectations because they were their own audience. The whole tribe joined in the music making, by dancing, singing or playing. Music was used to express feelings, like hope, freedom and happiness. They never studied their music, and they never thought about it as polyrhythms or pentatonic (which are words we use). Their simple policy for music making was that if it sounded good, play it. What I'm trying to say is that people who try to analyse the music too closely will be missing the point, the cheer raw beauty of it. But since we feel we must, here it goes...
First of all, what is African music? African music is hard to define since "Africa" is a big generalisation. In this paper I will only concentrate on the Central and Western regions of Africa, basically because this is what most people are referring to when they say "African music" . To answer my question, African music can be described as all other types of music, as it has got melody, rythym, performing media, tone color texture, etc... But what is it that makes it "African"?
The Harvard Brief dictionary of music describes African music as "fanatical drumming". A.M Jones, an ethnomusicologist, once described it as "The principle of African music is the clash and conflict of rhythms" . But he expands on it later in his essay by saying, "Rythym is to Africans what Harmony is to Europeans, and it is in this complex interweaving of contrasting rhythmic patterns that he finds his greatest aesthetic satisfaction." Probably the best summary on African music would have to be one by John Miller Chrenoff, which states "African melodies are clear enough, even if African tonal relationships are strange to us, but the more important fact is that there is always at least to rhythms going on"
Rhythm
I would have to say that the most important feature of African music is the use of poly rhythms. that is to say many different rhythms used at the same time. And with very few exceptions, J.M Chernoff is right in saying that there is always at least two different rhythms going on.
Polyrythyms
Polyrhythms are so crucial to African music because one rythym defines another. If there was only one rhythm, the piece would become boring and repetative. The thing we must understand is that African music is not as complex as most people think. Westerners find the rhythm confusing, because they don't exactly know what the rhythm is. They hear many rhythms going on, and they can't follow them. To fully appreciate African music, you have to be able to hear at least two rhythms at the same time. It is only when you can listen and understand two separate rhythms going on at the same time can you understand the concept that one rhythm makes another more complete. The rhythms played on their own sound awkward. They sound as if they are senselessly accented. But when you introduce another rhythm both separate rhythms together make sense. If you take even one rhythm out of an African piece, it looses its structure.
One thing that we must also realise is that the rhythms aren't so complex as they appear. Apart from the lead drums, the supporting drums have "simple" rhythms which they repeat over and over. Offcourse, they also improvise a fill here and there, but mostly they keep to their pattern. Played apart they sound simple, but once in place with the other ones they sound good. The example below shows you this.
Polymeters
Another thing that we find hard to follow is the use of polymeters. This is to say, having different time signatures playing at the same time. But to understand the use of polymeters, you must first try and see how Africans feel the beat or pulse of a piece. If you ask Westerners to tap their foot to a piece of music, they will try to tap to the first beat of the bar, finding it the most important. Africans, on the other hand would tap on the other beats. For example in a four-four time signature they would tap on the second and fourth beats, contrary to the first and second. In three-four they would tap the second and third beats, contrary to taping on the first.
Again, when polymeters occur in African music, it so complex. People think that Africans play in weird signatures like 11-four. But isn't most African music accompanied by dancing? In fact, dancing to Africans it is not separate to the music, but an essential part of it. These suggest that most African rhythms are actually played in duple or triple time signatures. After all, it's very hard to dance to a 7-4 or 5-4 time signature.
To keep in time, the players and dancers count in either twos or threes. the marvellous thing is that they can still hear and appreciate every other rhythm going on while sticking strictly to their own time signature.
Melody
Melody occurs in African music, but is nowhere near as important as rhythm. In African music, melody takes on a secondary nature, and it is more like the accompaniment that supports the rhythm. This does not mean, in the least that African music has no melodic qualities, far from it. Contrary to what people think, African have many melodic instruments, those which include flutes, thumb piano, melodic bows and xylophones. But the most important instrument is their voice.
African melody is pentatonic, and this is about as far as you can classify it. There are some many diverse ways in which they use melody that there is no way you can generalise it. They may move in steps, or in leaps. They have low sound, high sounds, or both at the same time. The only way you can bring them together is the fact that African melodies never really dominate the rhythm. If played by it self, the melodies would not make any sense.
I have included one of the only examples of scored pieces which I found that had melody.
As you can see, the melody of this comes out fairly strong, yet it is the rhythm which is still the main feature.
The exception to this rule is the vocal harmonising, which the one aspect that westerners like most of all in African music, because it is the one aspect which we can relate better with. While African concentrate mainly with rhythm, they also have a surprisingly easy ability to harmonise voice parts in their singing. But even while these A Capella songs are being heard, one can still hear an underlying rhythm which gives the piece its character.
As you can see, African music is strange and complex to us. And if you look at it in a cut and dry way, yes, African music is basically just about a bunch of rhythms put together. But if you listen with an open mind, you find that it's more than a group of people trying to show off how good they are, how complex their rhythms can get. It is more than that, it is their feelings and emanations expressed in music. Basically, if you like it, listen to it. if you don't like it, don't listen to it. But don't analyse it, because they didn't.
African Polyphony and Polyrythyms Simha Arom Translated by Martin Thom and Barbara Tuckett Cainbridge University Press
South African Music Encyclopaedia Dr Jacques Mala Oxford University Press
Ostafrika Gerhar Kubik
African Rythym and African Sensibility Jhon Miller Chernoff The University of Chicago Press