Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Author(s): A. M. Jones
Source: Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Jan., 1954), pp.
26-47
Published by: Edinburgh University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1156732
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[ 26]
AFRICAN RHYTHM
A. M. JONES
I. SIMPLEHAND-CLAPPING
/M OST people are vaguely awarethat the characteristicfeatureof Africanmusic
is its rhythms. Some would say with the late Professor Hornbostel of Berlin
that 'it is syncopatedpast comprehension'; others would claim that any competent
Westernmusiciancould reproduceAfricanrhythms.Does the truthlie with either of
these views or does it lie somewherebetween them? It is time we knew what Africans
reallydo: and it is the purposeof this paperto give some accountof the bases of their
musicalpractice.
The writer makes two bold but sober claims: first, that the musical examplesare
valid for the points they illustrate;they are by no means a setting down of what he
thoughtthe Africanswere doing; they have been tested by every objectivemeansthat
he could devise. The more elaborateones are transcribedfrom the markingsmadeby
an electric machineon a strip of paper. Such a machineis essentialfor complicated
examples,for though the separaterhythmsplayedby each performermay be simple,
the method of their combinationresultsin a sound so bafflingas to be quite unanalys-
able without mechanicalaid. The second claim is that the description of African
techniqueis not an hypothesis; what is here set down is what the African actually
does. Any personwho puts the matterto the test with a partyof CentralAfricanswill
find this to be so.
Although the writer'sexperiencehas lain principallyin NorthernRhodesiathereis
not a little evidence to show that the principlesenunciatedare true for places as far
apartas the Gold Coastin the West, PembaIslandin the East, and Kingwilliamstown
in the South-that is, they are generallyvalid for Bantu Africa, though they were
actuallydeducedfromthe musicalpracticeof NorthernRhodesia.They hold good also
for the Ewe people in the Gold Coastwho aregenerallyheld to be a non-Bantupeople.
One caveatmust be entered in respect of the transcriptionof the melodies. No
attempthas been madeto indicatethe exactpitch of the notes sung. This is becausein
the bush therewas no possibleway of finding out. Customwith regardto intonation
variesfrom tribe to tribe,but no Africancan sing you his scaleas he is not awarethat
he has one. It is not possible, for variousreasons,to deducehis scalefrom his musical
instruments:and no one can investigate the matterwithout elaborateelectricalap-
paratusbuilt for the purpose.On the whole, a Europeanlistenerfeels that the African
sings a neutralnote on the 4th and 7th degrees of our diatonic major scale: and as
this paperis concernedprimarilywith rhythmwe must leave it at that.
Rhythm is to the Africanwhat harmonyis to Europeansand it is in the complex
interweaving of contrasting rhythmic patterns that he finds his greatest aesthetic
satisfaction.To accomplishthis he has built up a rhythmicprinciplewhich is quite
differentfrom that of Western music and yet is present in his simplest songs. His
rhythmsmaybe producedby the song itself, or by hand-clapping,or by stick-beating,
beating of axe-blades,shakingof rattlesor of maize seeds on a plate, or pounding of
pestles in a mortar.The highest expressionis in the drums.
AFRICAN RHYTHM 27
Whatever be the devices used to produce them, in African music there is practically
always a clash of rhythms:this is a cardinal principle. Even a song which appears to be
mono-rhythmic will on investigation turn out to be constructed of two independent
but strictly related rhythmic patterns, one inherent in the melody and one belonging
to the accompaniment. The usual and simplest accompaniment to a song is hand-
clapping: so a study of hand-clapping is our best entry into African rhythmic tech-
nique. We take first Single Clapping.
SINGLEHAND-CLAPPING
The simplest rhythmic background to a song is a steady succession of regular claps;
this may take three forms: slow, about 60 to a minute, medium, about 84, or quick,
about z20 to I40 to the minute. Hand-claps are always absolutely and inexorably
accurate in their time: they never give way even by a hair's breadth to the exigencies
of either melody or words. Indeed, as we shall see when we consider drumming, they
must be metronomic in their accuracy.
A party of people starts clapping and then someone starts the song and all join in
singing: the clapping continues right through the song. With a regular clap, the
fundamental African principle is that there shall be either 2 pulses to a clap or 3 pulses.
The whole song must be either a 2-pulse song (duple) or a 3-pulse one (triple): it
cannot have a mixture of the two, except as an occasional interpolation of z against 3
to accommodate the words.
Ec lp = ,J
Each cclap
~~ Nsenga Children'sSong-Masowela
= 4o.4 J1, 40.
Claps 6 8
PI i II ti I 1 1 I I I i
Chum-bwacha mwa - na
FIG. I
C = Cantor;Ch. = Chorus
I t' |t I - J - - - -
C. Si-mo- ni, Si - mo-ni, mwva-na wa -ngu. Ch. Wa-fwa y - a - ni a -fwivaku ma - u- mba - e.
FIG. 2
The first half of Fig. 2 has been barred in 3/8 time for ease in reading but the time-
signature is purposely omitted. The whole song has a regular 3 quavers to a clap and
therefore is essentially triple, but while the first half is triple in the European sense,
with the claps falling on accented melody notes, the second half, while triple in the
African sense, is not so to the European. The melody sounds to a casual observer to
be in 3/4 time at this point, thus:
giSo'i r-l==,F, j i
Wa-fwa ku ma - u - mba - ee
but this is not accurate and is a misleading way of thinking about it. The example used
in Fig. 2 exhibits fundamental African practice which is this-that an African song
which has a clap is constructed so that either 2 pulses or 3 pulses go to one clap right
through the song, irrespective of word division, word accent, or melodic accent. The
claps do not indicate any sort of stress: their function is to act as an inexorable and
mathematical background to the song. The song itself is usually in free rhythm,
judged as a melody, and no one not acquainted with clap technique would realize that
it is completely in a strait-jacket and that its time-values are mathematically controlled
by the claps. But that is the case and it is part of the genius of African music that it
succeeds in giving an astonishing freedom of melodic rhythm within the strict limits
of the claps which do not usually betray their fundamental duple or triple nature.
The observer hears a free-rhythm melody punctuated by claps which apparently fall
AFRICAN RHYTHM 29
in the most impossible places. But once the principle is grasped, the claps are seen
to be the real backbone of the song and to fall always in the musically correct place.
All African songs with simple regular claps are of this type. It is often very difficult
for the European transcriber to observe exactly where the claps fall, but it is per-
fectly simple to the African, though he cannot explain it to the transcriber.
We are now ready to look at the scores of this type of song, where the background
is a regular z-pulse or 3-pulse clap, serving a very free melody.
Claps 4 8
8 8
I I i l I i I I i I I I
Ch. Tu- ka-la-u-le tu -po - se pe - so- nde pa ci-mu-ndu, ci - mu - ndu i-ci - bu-ndu e' ngo-mbe,
6
. . .
I
.
t I I
, _ _ _,
Af
-o A
Zql.~.4l 4.- 1 . , 4
0 X-Jlz ] . J - Itd _ -J-1-J-^- jI J.J__. -J ?C
ta - bu - nga-ca, . . Na le - lo mu-lo-ku- la - la pe - so - nde.
FIG. 3 (a)
i I I I I I
9 lI l l l- l l
Let us take the 3-pulse clap first (Figs. 3a and 3b). We have attempted, in all these
examples, to convey the rhythm of the melody itself by grouping the quavers, by
using ties, accent marks, and phrasing, and by the use of bars, not in order to divide
the piece into metrical sections but purely from the practical point of view of helping
30 AFRICAN RHYTHM
the reader to get the lilt of the song as it is sung by the Africans. The songs are always
sung very legatoand fairly fast: they just swing along in a very smooth and apparently
free rhythm: but the melodic rhythm is strongly present and exists in its own right
quite apart from the claps. This is no case of shapeless tunes: if the songs are sung
by an African without their claps they appear to be delightful free-rhythm pieces
often with a good deal of imitation in the melody line.
I I I i
/h^ I-5
;-t-M IJ
-L~--.
I
Ch. wa - ci - pa -ya sya - ni we mu - ko-mbo-lal
FIG. 4
J,___ o o_J
Jo .J JJo
g i i
r___ b- .^-i-J +-> rr-Ii--
C. Ku - ta - li mpa ku Sto-pi Ch. Ya - ya, kwe ci - to - la nte - nda li - ze ya ci-ko- lo- la,
To sum up: we have considered so far only the simplest form of African rhythmic
technique, namely the single hand-clap, and we have found four patterns of clapping:
I. Two-pulse; 2. Three-pulse; 3. Triple (a); 4. Triple (b).
We have seen that this clapping is not beating time in the European sense, but is an
undercurrent providing the free rhythms of the song with a metrical basis. No African
could be satisfied with such simple claps for very long: he wants something more
interesting. The next step in complexity will be considered in the next section where
we shall deal with clapping patterns.
C. Mu- sha - ba- ngi - lo ba - sa, mu - sha - ba - ngi - lo, . . Ch. Kwee - nda mu- sha- ba - ngi - lo,
A rA
#!J:1
J2~ J.~ JJ.
~+ J Q J4 J J
C. Mu-sha-ba-ngi-lo ba- sa, mu-sha- ba- ngi- lo, . . Ch.Kwee- ndamu- sha-ba- ngi - lo,
- J J J~ J, ? ~J J.
i J
Kwee - nda mu - sha - ba- ngi - lo mbu-sha- ka - wi - la ka -lu- wa, ngo-mbe na- mu -ya - nzya
~
_; J. J . .J
!~ J J. J J ! . . J? !1
_ - 1r1 _
FIG. 7
AFRICAN RHYTHM 35
not only said they knew this clap-patternwell, but demonstratedit: yet it was tran-
scribedin CentralAfrica.
There are more of these clap-patterns:but having examinedone in isolation, we
shall study others in a setting in which they so often occur, that is, in combination.
B. CombinedClappingPatterns
For these, the assembledcompanywithout any organizingnaturallydivides itself
into parties-as many as the differentclap-patternsto be combined. In our first
example,Fig. 8, therearetwo claprhythms:it is a simpleexampleas it is only a slight
modificationof clapping4 against3. When Africansdo combinedclappingwhat they
areaimingat is the patternwhich emergesfrom the combination.Even if the clapping
is a little ragged at the start, in a few seconds they pull it together and a clear and
accurateresultantpatternis heard.
Combined
Clap-Pattern LALATRIBE Icitelele, Style I. Play song for girls
J.= io6.
Clap I
I.2 . . -X. !. .
-- -
Clap 2
Resultant
3 1 J IJ JJ. INJ I J IJ. J_. I
A-3 A w L :?
J *
? A |'
D.C. al Segno
J. J J. r |. I
, r C- r r r- J3r
oJj IJ 'lJ. IJ 1.I J Il I,J aIl. 11
A -A
A`^- f^__ A^` :
Resultant3 J. I I J | I.
The 4-clap is predominant: the resultant is triple.
36 AFRICANRHYTHM
(b) ist clap J d
2nd clap J . !. !.
Resultant4 J. J1 J Ij
The 3-clapis predominant:the resultantis duple.
These two patterns,the one tripleand the other duple, emergefrom the same con-
stituents simply becauseone of the contributingpatternsis clappedlouder than the
other. They would be counted as two entirelydifferentclap-patternsby Africans: I
doubt if any African,unless he had had trainingin Europeanmusic at college level,
would be able to recognizethat these two resultantsarecompoundedof two identical
clap-patterns.
Looking againat Fig. 8 we see thatthis song stressesthe 4-claprhythmand,as there
are z quaversto the complete phrase,the resultantis in triple time. It is clear that
the point of entryof the chorusis the importantplacewherethe clap-phrasesand song
start off together. The remarkablefeatureis the way in which the chorusphraseends
not on the last clap of a clap-phrasebut on the first, and the cantor'swords are used
to completethe clap-phrasebeforethe entryof the chorusagain.The song is repeated
ad libitumas it is the accompanimentof a girls' play-dance.Fig. 8 is a simpleexample
of combined clapping.
Another simple form of the Citeleleclap is this:
1. = I40.
ist clap J. J. J. J.
2nd clap J J J .1 fJ
Resultant8 JI \I ! I J. I.
FIG.9
Rhythm.Axe-Blades
Combined BEMBATRIBE
J.== I3.
Ist Aixe
8
- 8J J. IJ. .. IJ. J. I J. J. I
2nd Axe
3 .j IJ J J IJ J J IJ J I
4 J j.
3rd Axe
A A A A A A Aj A A A
12 a J J J OJ IJX J J J 2 J
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ j
Resultant
6 0 Or^N i1IJ Jj IJ lr
Song = f Axes
I '
J
e
--
of Song =
r-" of Axes
. jJ g;j - > I n ].1
I ;2
21a---="PJ.-t j LJ-
ist Axe I I
C. Ba - na ba - ka - ntwa ma -- ee -- la
la nkala
nha - la -- la-pi
la-pi Ch. M-mi-la
Ch. Mlu-mi-la mbo,
J. J. IJ. J. IJ. !. IJ
J. II
iJ
j J* J IJ 0 Ja I1
Ie J J IJ J J II
-
.3 * .3
*d * J
IJI
,J J J; J
J.
11
J ^* or"7 I jwrM; ,r j 1,j P -rr; I "17 J J, II
-- -
p-0 i-t i I :
a .u
I I I 'i
mu-mi-la - mbo, ba - na ba - ha - nwa ma-e - la.
FIG. I0
We did this because our African players did. But they can equallywell treat it as a
differentpatternby reversingit and putting the shortermotif in front in this way:
Ist clap J . J. J. J.
2nd clap : J J J
A A
3rdclap 3 : IJ d I J1 .d I 1 J
Resultant :3 J I . J I J
FIG. II
Drum 2 J .i J .
Here the mainbeat of the bar of the second drumfalls on the secondbeat of the bar of
the first: hence the main beats can never coincide.
(b) Drumi 3 ,I J 21 21IJ SI J 2I J
Drum2 .3JJ J J
Here the mainbeat of the bar of the second drumcoincideswith the thirdbeat of the
bar of the first: the main beats again can never coincide.
We call this process ' crossing the beats ': it is absolutelyfundamentalto African
drummingtechnique.This crossingof the beat mustbe established;afterthat is done,
additionaldrums may be added with main beats of the bar coinciding with one or
other of those alreadybeating, but with a differentrhythm-pattern;or, in the case
of the masterdrum,once the firsttwo drumshave establisheda cross-rhythm,he may
just do what he likes: he usuallycreatesa seriesof rhythm-patternswhose main beat
crosses at least one of the other drums. Yet it is rathermisleading to speak of the
main beat of the master drum,because,though at times he uses short motifs which
could be barredin the Europeanway and given a time-signature,yet he is mostly
using longer and irregularrhythm-patternswhich have unequallyspaced points of
emphasis.When he uses such patterns,his stressedbeats are quite unrelatedto the
main beats of the bar of the other drums: they may coincide or they may not-it all
depends on the pattern he is using; and clearlyif the pattern is irregularsome of
his stressedbeats may happen to fall on stressedbeats of another drum, in which
case others will not.
Let us take an example with an extremelysimple pattern played on the master
drum. It is a Bemba dance called ' Ibeni '.
Drum I plays 2> ie &c
4eI J* oN . Ie. &c.
Drum 2's patternis interesting;it is a mixtureof duple and triple and one wonders
at the ingenuity of the Africanin using triple time to cover a rhythmicphraseof 6
quavers,which is the overall patternof the phrasingof the dance.
Drum 32 *trJ
1~ ,, 1~J m J I[
e[i82J
AFRICAN RHYTHM 4I
Referringto the full score below, we see the ingenious way in which drums i and 2
are combined.
The simplestform of the masterdrummer'spatternsis this:
A A
2 "
N JI ~ 41 lip I f;T J JI-
I J _
J"~J&c. 1
but the remarkablefact is that instead of starting his pattern approximatelyat the
same point as drum 2, he actuallystartsit neartheendof that drum'spattern.So here
we see another fundamentalfeature of African drumming, and African music in
general, namely, the staggeringof the points of entryof combined rhythm patterns.
Arrangingthe score as the Africanactuallyplays it, and noting the resultantrhythm,
which is the predominantsound heard by anyone standingnear the dance, and the
rhythmwhich the three drummersare intending to produce, we get:
d= 96.
Drum 2 DJ. r SJ . :
DrumzzJ : SI JJ i J . 1 J !J
If the readerthinks the resultanta mere dull repetitionof the masterdrumlet him
reflecton the phrasing: the beginning of the masterdrum'spatternbecomes the effec-
tive andheavy-soundingendof the resultant.He mayalso note thatthe two unaccented
introductorybeatsof the resultantarecompoundedof the firsttwo beatsof the second
drum'striplepattern,togetherwith the firstbeat only of the firstdrum,superimposed
and staggered.We have, then, a triple rhythmcross-beatingwith a duple rhythm,to
which the masterdrum adds a duple rhythmwhose phrasestartsnear the end of the
second's phrase,all producing a resultantwhose phrase (in duple time) startsat the
beginning of the second drum'striple phrase.
In order to isolate the principlesof drummingwe have so far omitted the hand-
clapping and also the song from the score. In actualpracticethe dance Ngwayihas
four drums, all with differentrhythm-patterns,a hand-clap, and a song. Having
establishedthe essence of drummingtechniquewe are now ready to consider how
clapping and singing are integratedwith it. We shall again take a simple example;
it is only fair to the African playersto draw attention to this point because the ex-
ampleswe are using are so short and so rudimentarythat they do scant justiceto the
rhythmicpowers of an Africanmusician.As we went to the Bemba tribefor the last
examples,let us now go to the Nsenga who live some 500 miles to the south-east
of them.
Fig. 13 is a Beer Dance in which there are two drums,one hand-clapping,and a
song. Most African drumminggoes as a rule at about 7 beats per second, that is at
42 AFRICAN RHYTHM
about the speed of an old English Sword Dance tune. But Nsenga drumming is
always quicker: it sounds so rapid that one wonders how the drummers can keep it
up. It goes at 480 unit beats per minute.
,J n-
{-^=LTr-n-= -T-
-4 1-,~-- -
2nd Drum
-A...^ A -X
Claps 6
A A A'" -'A
C. Ni ne - ka ne- o Ch. Ni na wa - i,
--3 - l
g.=:JH~z
,A d b An
1- J 3. a
C" i~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~01
-irC
~ ~ ~ :7
C. Ni ne - ka ne - o Ch. Ni na wa - ni,
* '
- - I T -
I I iI I
I II t_ ...... - --g
3
A a. A ' a A
Ps . . i
.
_r1' _ d-_ _
w
Looking at the score in Fig. I 3 we see that the first drum presents no difficulties:
it is a steady triple time throughout. The second drum sets up a cross-beat by beating
AFRICAN RHYTHM 43
in duple time. It has a phraseof 12 quavers,the last but one being stronglyaccented;
the last quaveris very quiet and unaccentedand is a sort of reboundfrom the strong
accent precedingit: we have indicatedthis by inverting the quaver.Now it is very
necessary to remarkthat in drumming, normally, there is never any beating of 2
against 3 or 3 against 4 in the European sense. Many people, having heard of the
intricaciesof Africandrumrhythms,think of it in terms of this sort of complication.
One may concedethat the masterdrummerdoes on occasionfor just a few successive
beatsplay, say, z against3, but this is by way of embellishment.Thefundamentalcross-
beating of the drumsis not producedby these means. Thus one can neverget a com-
bination like this:
Drum i 8 2 r
3 . *
Drum 2 8 . . r. *.
: [J J J J J J J J J J d1o
Resultant
o, V r I
I g ! O=
A
O M I
^A A
0
Master drum
-
3. N fs j- 5|' |l J *N j 2 1 > A
A ^ A
S A A A
C. Tu-bi- -r l--t C o I
C. Tu-bi-la tu-nwe Ch. Mu- li 'i-ko - i - sa mu mpa - nga.
FIG. 14
AFRICAN RHYTHM 45
The first drum is the underlying current of the piece and beats in 3/4 time. He has
two rather strongly accented beats: all the others are weak, and especially the last
quaver of his phrase which we have inverted to show that it is merely a sort of rebound
from the strong beat preceding it. His essential pattern without the filling-in beats is:
A A A
4 J3 IJ J_ IJ &c.
When the first drum has got going, the master drum enters. His time is 3/8 and so
we have a 3/8 time set against a 3/4 time. But there is more to it: omitting his weak
filling-in beats, the master drum's essential pattern is:
31 J. IJ IaJ 2l. II
An attempt has been made on the score to indicate this by inverting all the filling-in
quavers. All the beats in the essential pattern are strongly accented in practice. Now
the master drummer must set up a cross-beat, and he does this by entering with his
first beat, which is a strong one, on the second beat of the bar of drum i. The essential
crossing is therefore this:
Drumi I|J r r I r I r r
Masterdrum 8I r r r r \ r r
That is to say, after each two master-drum bars, the sequence of crossed main beats
repeats itself. Now no amount of juggling with the score can alter this prime and
fundamental fact. That is what the African is trying to do. Were one to bar the score
with lines running right through from top to bottom, as if each performer had the
same main beat in the bar, it would not represent what the African is doing or how
he is thinking. He deliberately sets out to cross the main beats in the manner described
and the score must show what the performer has to do.
We see, then, that the two drum rhythms and their bars are well and truly crossed.
When this is going smoothly, the first clap is introduced. It is a slow regular clap.
We have phrased it in sets of three, but the African is not aware of this grouping:
we do it to show the relation between the first clap and the second and third claps.
This first clap, considered in relation to the drums, is seen to be essentially duple,
there being four quavers to each clap. Therefore in the nature of the case it is crossed
with the main beats of the drums which are triple. This may be regarded as clapping
in 3/2 time, i.e. at half the speed of drum I, with its main beat of the bar falling on the
third beat of the first drum's bar, but in practice the clap-pattern has no accented claps
and therefore the way we have scored it is more accurate.
The third clap now joins in. This charming pattern is, like the second one, widely
distributed in Africa, occurring at least in the Gold Coast, in Central Africa, and in
Tanganyika. Both the second and the third clap-patterns consist of a phrase of i z
quavers, but it must be evident that they cannot be forced into a European time-
framework and called 12/8, for that would suggest that the patterns are deliberately
revolting against a steady
12 1 J'
8 *o *.
. * I
46 AFRICAN RHYTHM
which is not the case. They exist as a rhythm-pattern entirely in their own right: we
think it best to show their stressed claps and to phrase them but to leave them unbarred.
Clap 3 like 2 has its first main beat on the third beat of the bar of drum i and a
scrutiny of the score will show that every one of its stressed beats is crossed with the
first drum's accented beats.
We note that, in accordance with African technique, all three claps have the same
beat for their starting-point, whereas the drums do not. The whole phrasing of the
claps is staggered with the phrasing of the first drum and lies right athwart the
phrasing of the master drum, in spite of the fact that both phrases are of i z-quaver
length. The sceptic might accuse us of having mistaken the phrasing of the master
drum. 'Be reasonable,' we hear him saying, 'and make it agree with the clap
'
phrases: there is no need to be so complicated.' The answer would have to be: Go
and listen, and question the African.'
In dealing with the claps we omitted to point out the resultant rhythm which is a
very jolly one; but it is convenient to mention it here as we now refer to the song, and
the song takes its time from the resultant of the three clap-patterns. Now the resul-
tant, compounded as it is of a regular clap plus two irregular patterns, emerges as a
duple one and the song is duple too. In this it is seemingly un-African because it
sounds so European in its four-squareness: most African songs set to drums are
much freer in their rhythm, but it just happens that in this case the typical African
cross-beatings yield a four-square tune.
There is no point in being complicated where simplicity will serve. We have tried
to analyse this dance in the simplest possible way. The individual rhythms used are
seen to be fairly simple. When we review the piece as a whole, however, we must
admit that it is a little complex, for it is seen to be constructed essentially of 2/4 time
which is staggered against 3/4 time which itself is staggered against 3/8 time.
One minor point should be made about the scoring of the songs. In all the examples,
unless specifically stated to be for women's voices, the songs are for both men and
women and are sung in unison: where harmony occurs it is doubled in both parts.
The treble clef has been used by itself for simplicity.
We have carried our investigation far enough for the present purpose. Much more
remains which could be said. The performance of the master drum is a study in itself.
We have given in each case one only of the many variations which the master drum-
mer uses in actual practice: when these drummings were transcribed, in the case of
the earlier ones the writer did not know the extent of the master drummer's technique
nor had he devised means to investigate the matter; in the other cases he lacked
opportunity to do more than record one variation. What the master drummers really
do at any ordinary village dance is a veritable tour deforce; those who wish to pursue
this matter will find it treated in detail in The Icila Dance by the present writer.'
There are other matters which have not been noticed. We have said nothing of the
use of Nonsense Syllables in delineating drum rhythms; we have ignored in our scores
the fact that the drums are not merely beating time, for each note has to be beaten
on its own correct pitch, each drum being capable of producing notes of different
pitch and timbre. But it is hoped that this limited survey of African rhythms may have
I TheIcilaDance,oldstyle: A study in African music A. M. Jones and L. Kombe, London, 1952. Obtain-
and dance of the Lala tribe of Northern Rhodesia, by able from the African Music Society, Johannesburg.
AFRICAN RHYTHM 47
served to indicate the essential principles on which they are made and combined and
that it will help towards a juster appreciation of African musicianship. Their rhythmic
technique is in several respects much more highly developed than is ours.
Resume
LE RYTHME DE LA MUSIQUE AFRICAINE
LE rythme est reconnuetre le trait caractdristiquede la musique africaine.Dans cet article,
l'auteur se base sur plusieurs enregistrementsde l'execution de la musique africainepour
effectuerl'analysedes cadences produites en claquantles mains, en frappantensemble des
fers de haches, et en battant des tambours.II demontre comment, par la combinaison d'un
certain nombre de simples rythmes, il est possible de produire un ensemble de cadences
extremementcomplique. Les battementsdes tambours, ou les claquementsdes mains, sont
employes comme accompagnementsde chansonset de danses,mais ne serventpas seulement
pour battre la mesure. L'ensemble rythmique ainsi obtenu possede un charme recherche
qui lui est propre, en dehors de la melodie des voix, et tandis que les battements des tam-
bours, ou les claquements des mains, n'ont aucun rapport avec l'accentuationprovenant
des paroles ou de la melodie, ils contribuent a definir un cadre mdtriquepour la cadence
libre de la chanson. L'auteur affirmeque la realisationde cet assemblage rythmiqueest le
but primordialdes musiciens africains.