Five West African Rhythms
for Akin Euba
I met Akin Euba when I was a graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh. He was vibrant and energetic teaching his seminars on African music, and I think his positive, playful energy was what first encouraged me to take every course he taught. He epitomized much of what I hoped to be after graduate school: an ethnomusicologist who uses his knowledge of music to inform his compositions and how he performs his own music. In my final year of classes at Pitt I would notice that Euba would start to doze off while students were reporting on readings or giving presentations. It wasn’t much just a quick head nod here and there or his eyes would start to droop. I didn’t think much of it at the time, he must have been close to 70 and I figured he was staying up late composing music. A few weeks later Euba suffered his first stroke and had to stop teaching classes. I was heartbroken, I composed movement III “For Euba” shortly after his stroke and used Yoruba praise drummer in the piece to play homage to the influence he had on my development as a composer. This five-movement suite is dedicated to him because without his encouragement and example I would not be the musician I am today.
Movement I Adowa: Horizons
There are two West African musical sources that I draw as influences for the first movement, Horizon. The primary source is the underlying rhythm of the song, Adowa. Adowa is a funeral dance music of the Ashanti people of Ghana. The second source is a children’s hut song from the Baka people of Cameroon. This recreational song is sung in the forest villages and the children use the echoes of the forest to enhance the song. The primary melody is a reinterpretation of the hut song melody.
Movement II Sikyi: New Dawn
Inspiration for the second melody in the saxophone part on movement II is drawn from Lalle, a children’s song of the Fulani people of Northern Benin. This song is usually performed in call and response, I use the theme of the first call as my primary theme for the second melody. Sikyi, the underlying rhythmic pattern used throughout this song is a recreational dance movement of the Ashanti people of Ghana. This rhythm features three strong off-beat rhythmic hits throughout the song. You might notice that the song shifts to a 7/4 meter in the last section of the piece. This gave me an opportunity to explore modulating this common rhythmic figure to a less common rhythmic time feel.
Movement III Dundun: For Euba
This movement features elements of African Pianism a term coined by Akin Euba to describe his own composition methods. The underlying rhythmic pattern is from the Dundun ensembles of Yoruba people of Nigeria. The movement begins with the dance rhythm played in the piano but quickly digresses into a rubato section featuring Yoruba talking drum, praise text performed by the drum set. You will hear traditional Yoruba praise text performed by the drum set beginning after the introduction.
Movement IV Hatstiatsia: A Ghanaian Waltz
This movement plays with the perception of a West African 3/4 meter. Although a three-beat pulse is not commonly found in the traditional music of West Africa, it can be drawn out of the six-against-four cross-rhythm found in many West African dance rhythms. Ghanaian Waltz is written as a six-beat pulse and emphasizes the six side of the six-four cross-rhythm in a 12/8 meter. I use the Hatstiatsia rhythm from the Ewe of southeastern Ghana as the underlying pattern and draw most of my rhythms from the multiple bell patterns of this drum ensemble. The ensemble alternates the traditional Ewe rhythmic feel with a common jazz waltz rhythm throughout the song.
Movement V Akom: Hope Springs Eternal
The final movement of the suite features the Akom rhythm, a religious dance music of the Ashanti people of Ghana. The melody you hear in the saxophone was intended to imitate common melodies of the kora a large stringed instrument found throughout West Africa but especially in Mali. To me kora melodies are often hypnotic with repetition but always with subtle changes that keep the melody alive and exciting. I’ve tried to capture that here with the first primary theme of the movement.