Ewe music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Characteristics#

Jones describes two “rules” (p. 24 and p. 17, capitalization his): # The Unit of Time Rule or the Rule of Twos and Threes: “African Ewe phrases are built up of the numbers 2 or 3, or their multiples: or of a combination of 2 and 3 or of the multiples of this combination. Thus a phrase of 10 will be (2 + 3) + (2 + 3) or (2 + 2 + 2) + 4. # The Rule of Repeats: “The repeats within an African Ewe song are an integral part of it.” If a song is formally “A + A + B + B + B” one cannot leave out, say, one of the B sections. He also lists the following “Features of African Ewe Music” (p. 49): # “Songs appear to be in free rhythm but most of them have a fixed time-background. # The rule of 2 and 3 in the metrical build of songs. # Nearly all rhythms which are used in combination are made from simple aggregates of a basic time-unit. A quaver is always a quaver. # The claps or other time-background impart no accent what-ever to the song. # African Ewe melodies are additive: their time-background is divisive. # The principle of cross-rhythms. # The rests within and at the end of a song before repeats are an integral part of it. # Repeats are an integral part of the song: they result in many variations of the call and response form (see summary). # The call and response type of song is usual in Africa sic . # African Ewe melodies are diatonic: the major exception being the sequence dominant-sharpened subdominant-dominant. # Short triplets are occasionally used. # The teleological trend: many African Ewe songs lean towards the ends of the lines: it is at the ends where they are likely to coincide with their time-background. # Absence of the fermata.”

EW on Music Theory Print

Ewe music

Characteristics#