31/07/2014
Ethnic Ewe people from Ghana dancing their traditional Agbaza dance at the "Festivals Des Divinites Noires" (Festival of Black Divinities) at Aneho, Togo in West Africa.In its songs and drum language Agbadza talks about war, struggle, survival, leadership, bravery, patriotism, triumph, and death. These heavy, profound themes make Agbadza suitable for occasions in Ewe society such as funerals, memorial services, and rituals of chieftaincy. In contemporary multi-ethnic settings in West Africa, Agbadza is performed on any occasion calling for an emblem of Ewe identity since it is widely regarded by members of other ethnic groups as the main type of music and dance of the Ewe people.
Agbadza provides an excellent path into the heart of West African musical style.
The music of Agbadza bears the imprint of the 2+2+1+2+2+2+1 bell pattern, a time line phrase that is widespread in West Africa and famously well known among international aficionados of African music.
The music of Agbadza consists of singing and drumming. Energized by the ensemble's exciting music, the message of the drumming fuses with images in the song text, seizing the listener with the passionate spirit of Agbadza. In the vocal music, poems are set to tunes that have a variety of call-and-response arrangements between song leaders and a larger choral group. Song lyrics express themes of life and death, heroism and cowardice, and a warrior ethos for both males and females. In Agbadza, Ewe poets sang of battle during a tumultuous era (1600-1900) of migration, conquest, and imperialism, including the trans-Atlantic African slave trade (see Agbodeka, Fage). Songsmiths designed beautiful pentatonic melodies that add greatly to the overall rhythmic power of the drumming. Agbadza's instrumental music for drum ensemble features drum language compositions for the low-pitched lead sogo drum and medium pitched response kidi drum that are set within a texture sounded by gaŋkogui bell, axats—rattle, high-pitched kagaŋ support drum, and handclap (asikpekpe). In Ewe communities, Agbadza can be heard at wake-keepings and memorial services. Wake-keeping ceremonies last from about 10 PM to sunrise; memorial services typically run for several hours in the late afternoon. Agbadza is usually performed outdoors in a circular area defined by chairs and benches around its perimeter.
Drummers sit on benches--sogo between kidi and kagaŋ, rattles spreading out on both sides, bell standing behind. Standing near the drummers a core group of singers faces the song leaders who move about within the central area to inspire and interact with the singers. Other people at the performance actively participate by singing, clapping hands and/or dancing. Lovers of traditional music, the "audience" so to speak, may quietly participate through contemplation and critical observation.
The dance of Agbadza, which features contraction-expansion of the torso and bird-like arm motion, is the "Ewe national dance." Its form is quite simple. People rise to dance as the mood strikes them, usually in a small group of two to four people. At first they dance in place at the perimeter of the performance area, marking time until the sogo plays a rolling passage that signals them to get ready. When the sogo raises up the drum language the dancers move forward with small footsteps while vigorously working their arms and torso. At the far side of the performance area the dancers execute a cadence, turn around, and repeat the same sequence back to where they started. At any given moment many independent groups fill the dance zone, giving the performance a decentralized appearance.
An ensemble of drummers plays the instrumental music of Agbadza. The recurring phrase played on the bell provides a reference that enables everyone to play in correct poly-rhythmic alignment. The bell phrase also links players to an implicit matrix of beats and pulses that helps organize the musical surface of Agbadza. Musical phrases sounded by the ensemble's "rhythm section" of handclaps, rattles, and the kagaŋ drum create a dense musical texture of high energy. Sogo and kidi drums give voice to Agbadza's drum language in distinctive phrases whose musical design is a central feature of the drumming composition. Sogo is the soloist and ensemble leader.
Human interaction explicitly structures the singing. The basic idea is interchange between the song leader part (hen„), which is sung by only a few voices, and the group part (haxelawo), which has the thicker louder sound of many voices. Each Agbadza song deploys leader and group in its own way; among the aesthetic pleasures of the singing is the variety of given-and-take in this call-and-response style. At the beginning of each drum-song, the song leader freely lines out the tune and text. After this brief introduction, the instrumental ensemble's "time parts," or rhythm section, start the phrases that they continue without variation for the duration of the item. The melo-rhythmic energy generated by this multi-part texture powers the singing and drumming. Guided by the bell phrase, the song leader raises the song in tempo, offering it to the group of singers who reply with gusto. In the recorded performance each poem is sung several times with subtle musical variation in tune, rhythm and harmony. When the song and the time parts are going nicely the lead drummer plays the drum language phrases on the sogo using his two bare hands. The kidi response drummer answers the leader's call, using two wooden sticks to fashion the medium-pitched drum's recurring phrase. The lead drummer's solo line complements the singers' tune and weaves around the response drum's phrase.
