Concert Report 2 - African Drumming and Dancing

On October 21, 2014 at 8:15 pm, I attended an African Drumming and Dancing concert with my RA and some other friends. During the concert there were two groups of students who performed during the two hour concert. One class was the African Drumming and Dancing seminar consisting of about 20 freshman students. The other class that went up on stage and performed was an elective class I believe, consisting of about 40 students. Each group would perform one song and then switch with the other class who would then go up on stage and perform. Overall, each group performed about 5 songs, but the total time the concert went on was about 2 hours. As one can probably tell from the title, the music that each group was performing was African music. In fact, all of the music that I heard was made up on stage from either the students with drums or from those who were making sounds with their voices. In addition to the singing and dancing, all of the students were wearing African costumes which consisted of "dresses" with cool, intricate patterns (see picture above).

Since we have not learned too much about African style music, it was challenging to try to find music that we have studied to compare it to. It was challenging because there was usually only one melody that was sung. In the songs that we listen to in class, there is always several melodies that we follow and analyze the cadences and the phrase structures of. In the songs that were performed at the concert, the melody was repeated over and over again, mimicking a chant. The reason that the concert was so entertaining was because the students had different dances to go along with the melody. If the concert had only been the students repeating the melody over and over again with the drums in the background, it would have been very boring.

I was personally very impressed with the seminar class. At first, it seemed like they were very nervous and doubtful up on stage together, but once they started, they took off. I remember in the first song that the seminar class sung, all of the boys lined up at the back of the stage and played a basic drum beat. All of the girls in the class sat in a semi circle with what seemed like big bowls in front of them. One by one, they would beat on the bowls a specific rhythm. Once all of the percussion was set, the girls started to sing a specific African melody. Then, several girls had solos and sang their own parts. Once they were done, everyone would join back into the “chorus”. Although the beat was repetitive, the song was still very interesting because of the differing dynamics including the different solo verses.

Though this type of music is very different from what we have been studying in class, especially the classical music from the Romantic era, there are still some similarities between this music and the music we have studied since the first day of class. In the classical music that we have been studying recently, I notice that the lower part of the piano’s role is to provide a sort of “beat”. Although this “beat” is extremely different from the actual beats played in this concert, it is still used as a background and something that the melody is built off of. The “beat” in the classical music is normally a specific melodious phrase, it is often repeated throughout the song, just like the beat in the concert did.

Overall, I loved the concert. At first, I was doubtful and thought that the concert was going to be very amateur, but I was pleasantly surprised. The seminar class impressed me the most and it was so enjoyable not only because of the catchy beats but also because of how much fun each student seemed to be having. This made a world of a difference and made me want to get up on stage to join them!