{{Short description|Periodicity in music developed by sub-Saharan African peoples}} {{Redirect|African rhythm|the song by Exuma|Exuma II}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}} [[File:African drum.jpg|thumb|African drum made by Gerald Achee]] thumb|260px|Drummers in Accra, Ghana

'''Sub-Saharan African music''' is characterised by a "strong rhythmic interest"<ref>Stapleton C. and May C., ''African All-Stars'', Paladin 1989, page 6</ref> that exhibits common characteristics in all regions of this vast territory, so that Arthur Morris Jones (1889–1980) has described the many local approaches as constituting ''one main system''.<ref>Jones, A. M. (1959), ''Studies in African Music'', London: Oxford University Press. 1978 edition: {{ISBN|0-19-713512-9}}.</ref> C. K. Ladzekpo also affirms the ''profound homogeneity'' of approach.<ref>Ladzekpo, C.K. (1996), ''Cultural Understanding of Polyrhythm'' http://home.comcast.net/~dzinyaladzekpo/PrinciplesFr.html.</ref> West African rhythmic techniques carried over the Atlantic were fundamental ingredients in various musical styles of the Americas: samba, forró, maracatu and coco in Brazil, Afro-Cuban music and Afro-American musical genres such as blues, jazz, rhythm & blues, funk, soul, reggae, hip hop, and rock and roll were thereby of immense importance in 20th century popular music.{{citation needed|date=January 2020}} The drum is renowned throughout Africa.

== Rhythm in Sub-Saharan African culture == left|thumb|Map of African Linguistic Groups [[File:Sangoma Dancing in Celebration of his Ancestors.jpg|thumb|Traditional healer (sangoma) of South Africa dancing to the rhythm of the drum in celebration of his ancestors]] [[File:South African kids from Alex playing drums.jpg|thumb|Kids in Alexandra township, South Africa, playing around on their father's drums]]

Many Sub-Saharan languages do not have a word for ''rhythm'', or even ''music''.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}} Rhythms represent the very fabric of life and embody the people's interdependence in human relationships.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}} Cross-beats can symbolize challenging moments or emotional stress: playing them while fully grounded in the main beats prepares one for maintaining life-purpose while dealing with life's challenges.{{sfn|Peñalosa|2009|page=21}} The sounding of three beats against two is experienced in everyday life and helps develop "a two-dimensional attitude to rhythm". Throughout Western and Central Africa child's play includes games that develop a feeling for multiple rhythms.<ref>''Steppin' on the Blues'' by Jacqui Malone. University of Illinois Press. 1996. page 21. {{ISBN|0-252-02211-4}}</ref>

Among the characteristics of the Sub-Saharan African approach to rhythm are syncopation and ''cross-beats'' which may be understood as sustained and systematic polyrhythms, an ostinato of two or more distinct rhythmic figures, patterns or phrases at once. The simultaneous use of contrasting rhythmic patterns within the same scheme of accents or meter lies at the core of African rhythmic tradition. All such "asymmetrical" patterns are historically and geographically interrelated.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kubik|first=Gerhard|title=Africa and the blues|url=https://archive.org/details/africablues00kubik|date=1999|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|location=Jackson|isbn=1-57806-145-8|page=54|edition=[Nachdr]}}</ref>

As a result of the migrations of Niger-Congo peoples (e.g., Bantu expansion), polyrhythmic culture (e.g., dance, music), which is generally associated with being a common trait among modern cultures of Africa, spread throughout Africa.<ref name="Kubik">{{cite book |last1=Kubik |first1=Gerhard |title=Theory of African Music: I. Xylophone playing in southern Uganda |date=1994 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |page=9 |isbn=9780226456911 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jqYpBkpvqsEC&q=%22Niger-Congo%22+%22Bantu%22+polyrhythmic+Africa+music&pg=PA9}}</ref> Due to the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, music of the African diaspora, many of whom descend from Niger-Congo peoples, has had considerable influence upon modern Western forms of popular culture (e.g., dance, music).<ref name="Kubik" />

== Instruments == [[File:Lenke_djembe_from_Mali.jpeg|thumb|140px|A djembe drum]] African music relies heavily on fast-paced, upbeat rhythmic drum playing found all over the continent, though some styles, such as the Township music of South Africa do not make much use of the drum and nomadic groups such as the Maasai do not traditionally use drums. Elsewhere the drum is the sign of life: its beat is the heartbeat of the community.<ref name="Sebastian Bakare 1997">{{cite book|last=Bakare|first=Sebastian|title=The Drumbeat of Life|url=https://archive.org/details/drumbeatoflifeju00baka|url-access=registration|date=1997|isbn=9782825412299}}</ref>

Drums are classed as membranophones and consist of a skin or "drumhead" stretched over the open end of a frame or "shell". Well known African drums include the djembe<ref name=Brit>{{Cite web|url=http://search.eb.com/eb/article-57072|title = Britannica Academic}}</ref> and the talking drum.<ref name=Brit />

Many aspects of African drumming, most notably time-keeping, stem from instruments such as shakers made of woven baskets or gourds or the double bell, made of iron and creating two different tones.<ref>{{cite book | last = Uribe | first = Ed | title = The Essence of Afro-Cuban Percussion & Drum Set | publisher = Alfred }}</ref> Each region of Africa has developed a different style of double bell but the basic technology of bell-making is the same all over the continent, as is often the bell's role as time keeper. The South American agogo is probably a descendant from these African bells. Other idiophones include the Udu and the slit drum or log drum.

Tuned instruments such as the mbira and the marimba often have a short attack and decay that facilitates their rhythmic role.

== Cross-rhythm == African rhythmic structure is entirely divisive in nature<ref>Novotney, Eugene D. (1998), ''The Three Against Two Relationship as the Foundation of Timelines in West African Musics'', Urbana, IL: University of Illinois, page 147</ref> but may divide time into different fractions at the same time, typically by the use of hemiola or ''three-over-two'' (3:2), which Novotney has called the foundation of all West African polyrhythmic textures.<ref>Novotney, Eugene D. ''The Three Against Two Relationship as the Foundation of Timelines in West African Musics'' Urbana, IL: University of Illinois (1998), page 201. UnlockingClave.com.</ref> It is the interplay of several elements, inseparable and equally essential, that produces the "varying rhythmic densities or motions" of cross-rhythmic texture.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://home.comcast.net/~dzinyaladzekpo/Myth.html |title=The Myth of Cross-Rhythm |publisher=Home.comcast.net |access-date=2014-01-30}}</ref> 3 and 2 belong to a single Gestalt.<ref>{{cite book|last=Agawu|first=Kofi|title=Representing African music : postcolonial notes, queries, positions|date=2003|publisher=Routledge|location=New York, N.Y.; London|isbn=0-415-94390-6}}</ref>

Cross-rhythm is the basis for much of the music of the Niger–Congo peoples, speakers of the largest language family in Africa. For example, it "pervades southern Ewe music".<ref>Locke, David (1982). "Principles of Off-Beat Timing and Cross-Rhythm in Southern Ewe Dance Drumming" ''Society for Ethnomusicology Journal'' 11 Nov.. (1982), p.&nbsp;231</ref> Cross-beat or Cross-rhythm is also a feature in traditional Sudanese music featuring complex, layered, and interlocking patterns often based on a 3:2 ratio like the Tumtum (or tum tum) rhythm common in the North and West of the country.<ref>https://www.sudanforall.org/sections/mousiqa_dance/pages/mousiqa_dirasat_abusabib01.html</ref><ref>https://english.theafricanists.info/arts/sudan-must-dance-to-camel-rhythm</ref>

== Key patterns == thumb|left|The standard bell pattern in simple and compound time. {{audio|Standard pattern duple.mid|Play duple}}, {{audio|Standard pattern triple.mid|Play triple}}, and {{audio|Standard pattern duple and triple.mid|Play both}} for comparison. {{Main|Bell pattern}} Key patterns, also known as ''bell patterns, timeline patterns, guide patterns'' and ''phrasing referents'' express a rhythm's organizing principle, defining rhythmic structure and epitomizing the complete rhythmic matrix. They represent a condensed expression of all the movements open to musicians and dancers.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Agawu |first1=Kofi |title=Structural analysis or cultural analysis? Competing perspectives on the &quot;standard pattern&quot; of West African rhythm |journal=Journal of the American Musicological Society |date=22 March 2006 |volume=59 |issue=1 |pages=1–47 |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA146258931&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=00030139&p=AONE&sw=w&userGroupName=anon%7E6e35593a&aty=open-web-entry |id={{Gale|A146258931}}}}</ref> Key patterns are typically clapped or played on idiophones such as bells, or else on a high-pitched drumhead.{{sfn|Peñalosa|2009|page=51}} Musics organized around key patterns convey a two-celled (binary) structure, a complex level of African cross-rhythm.{{sfn|Peñalosa|2009|page=53}}

=== The standard pattern === [[File:Standard pattern, six beats.png|thumb|right|3.2 construction of standard compound-meter bell-pattern. The four notes at the bottom are the primary beats. The upper parts show; a) two cells of 3:2, beginning on beats 1 and 3 ({{audio|Standard pattern, six beats 1.mid|Play}}); b) the same, beginning on beats 2 and 4 ({{audio|Standard pattern, six beats 2.mid|Play}}); c) one cell of a) and one of b) giving d) the standard bell pattern notation ({{audio|Standard pattern, six beats 3 and 4.mid|Play}})]]

The most commonly used key pattern in sub-Saharan Africa is the seven-stroke figure known in ethnomusicology as the ''standard pattern''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Jones|first=A.M.|title=Studies in African music|date=1971|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=London|isbn=0-19-713512-9|edition=1st; reprint}}</ref><ref>King, Anthony (1960). "The Employment of the Standard Pattern in Yoruba Music" ''American Music Society Journal''.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unlockingclave.com/3-2-thesis-abstract.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101011230119/http://www.unlockingclave.com/3-2-thesis-abstract.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=11 October 2010 |title=3-2 THESIS ABSTRACT |publisher=Unlocking Clave |access-date=2014-01-30}}</ref> The standard pattern, composed of two cross-rhythmic fragments, is found both in simple ({{music|time|4|4}} or {{music|time|2|2}}) and compound ({{music|time|12|8}} or {{music|time|6|8}}) metrical structures.{{sfn|Peñalosa|2009|page=s58; 63–64}}

Until the 1980s, this key pattern, common in Yoruba music, Ewe music and many other musics, was widely interpreted as composed of additive groupings. However the standard pattern represents not a series of durational values, but a series of attack points that divide the fundamental beat with a cross-rhythmnic structure.<ref>Novotney, Eugene D. ''The Three Against Two Relationship as the Foundation of Timelines in West African Musics'', Urbana, IL: University of Illinois (1998) page 158</ref>

=== Tresillo === {{Main|Tresillo (rhythm)}} [[File:Tresillo divisive.png|thumb|right|Tresillo.<ref>Garrett, Charles Hiroshi (2008). [https://books.google.com/books?id=2Tfafap2nsoC ''Struggling to Define a Nation: American Music and the Twentieth Century''], p.&nbsp;54. {{ISBN|978-0-520-25486-2}}. Shown in common time and then in cut time with tied sixteenth & eighth note rather than rest.</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Sublette|first=Ned|title=Cuba and its music : FROM THE FIRST DRUMS TO THE MAMBO.|date=2007|publisher=Non-Approval Trade|location=Chicago|isbn=978-1-55652-632-9|edition=1.}}</ref> {{audio|Tresillo divisive.mid|Play}}]] The most basic duple-pulse figure found in Sub-Saharan African music is a figure the Cubans call ''tresillo'', a Spanish word meaning 'triplet'. The basic figure is also found within a wide geographic belt stretching from Morocco in North Africa to Indonesia in South Asia. This pattern may have migrated east from North Africa to Asia with the spread of Islam: use of the pattern in Moroccan music can be traced back to Trans-Saharan exchanges during the Green Sahara.This influence increased due to slaves brought north across the Sahara Desert from present-day Mali.{{sfn|Peñalosa|2009|page=236}} In African music, this is a cross-rhythmic fragment generated through cross-rhythm: 8 pulses ÷ 3 = 2 cross-beats (consisting of three pulses each) with a remainder of a partial cross-beat (spanning two pulses). In divisive form, the strokes of tresillo contradict the beats while in additive form, the strokes of tresillo ''are'' the beats. From a metrical perspective, the two ways of perceiving tresillo constitute two different rhythms. On the other hand, from the perspective of the pattern of attack-points, tresillo is a shared element of traditional folk music from the northwest tip of Africa to southeast tip of Asia. {{clear}}

== References == {{reflist}}

== Sources == *{{cite book|last=Agawu|first=Kofi|title=Representing African music : postcolonial notes, queries, positions|date=2003|publisher=Routledge|location=New York, N.Y.; London|isbn=0-415-94390-6}} *Novotney, Eugene D. (1998). ''The Three Against Two Relationship as the Foundation of Timelines in West African Musics''. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois. *{{cite book |last1=Peñalosa |first1=David |editor1-last=Greenwood |editor1-first=Peter |title=The Clave Matrix: Afro-Cuban Rhythm : Its Principles and African Origins |date=2009 |publisher=Bembe Books |isbn=978-1-886502-80-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0BmUQwAACAAJ}} *Ladzekpo, C. K. (1995). [https://home.comcast.net/~dzinyaladzekpo/Myth.html "The Myth of Cross-Rhythm"], ''Foundation Course in African Dance-Drumming'' (webpage, accessed 24 April 2010).

== Further reading == *Godfried T. Toussaint, "On the question of meter in African rhythm: A quantitative mathematical assessment", In ''Proceedings of Bridges: Mathematics, Music, Art, Architecture, and Culture'', G. Hart and R. Sarhangi, (Eds.), Enschende, The Netherlands, 27–31 July 2013, pp.&nbsp;559–562, Phoenix: Tessellations Publishing.

{{DEFAULTSORT:African Drumming}} Category:African drums Category:Music of Africa Category:African rhythm Category:Sub-Saharan Africa