Audience members sat in silence as a rhythm started from the balafon, an instrument similar to a xylophone. From the initial simple beat, one drum joined in, and then another, until finally it was a group of more than 10 students playing one cohesive song despite the diversity of the performers and their instruments.
The African Drum Ensemble, made up of about 15 students, came together yesterday night to drum as “oral historians” for a packed choral room in the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. The event, which described the history of Africa through music, attracted about 40 professors, students and community members.
“It’s really important that you understand that those instruments and rhythms are part of a culture,” said professor and performer Amadou Kouyate.
As an ensemble class, both beginners and experts were required to collaborate in one performance.
“Presenting to the community is just as much a part of the learning as [rehearsal],” Kouyate said.
Students agreed that the recital was an essential aspect of the class, but for different reasons.
“You’re working for something,” said senior linguistics major Brian Robinson. “It gives meaning to each rehearsal.”
The students in the performance, which took place as a part of MUSC129D: African Drumming and MUSC129E: Advanced African Drumming, used instruments from drums, including a dununba, sangban, djembe and kenkeni, to a balafon to their own voices to pass on African history, said professor and performer Mahiri Keita.
Each student transformed the drum from a simplistic instrument to a complex tool during the group performance, making many different sounds by using the positioning of the drum and their hands. All the while, they listened and changed their actions to work with the group’s sound.
As Keita whistled and yelled to signal a transition into a new section of the song, performers laughed and interacted with him and each other, switching rhythms quickly and cleanly.
Learning to play together and communicate as a group is often the hardest part of the class, Kouyate said.
Audience members said they enjoyed the ensemble’s performance.
Senior anthropology major Christian Baer, who had seen Kouyate twice before, said it was “cool” to see him perform in a group, rather than a solo, setting.
Even though much of the audience was made up of students who were fulfilling a requirement for music classes, according to Baer, performers kept spectators on their toes by constantly switching the rhythm.
Each rhythm represented a different ritual, Keita said.
“There is a reason why we do things,” he said. “The day a situation stops, the rhythm dies with it.”
newsdesk.dbk@gmail.com