AOS 4: Koko

1
AOS 4 Koko Yiri

• Sub-Saharan African music
• From Burkina Faso (Western African musical
  traditions)

2
Instrumental music
Is it different to Western music?
What is its importance?
Instruments
What is Sub-Saharan African music like?
Choral
Drumming
What occasions is it used for?
Who participates?
What is it combined with?
3
Communication
Social gatherings
What is its importance?
Feelings
Emotions
4
Who participates?
Everybody
Unites people
Part of everyday life
Regardless of ability
5
Costumes
Movement
Body painting
Masks
What is it combined with?
Mime
Stories
Speech
6
Weddings
Harvest
What occasions is it used for?
Birthdays
Funerals
7
Do you think music has the same role and
importance throughout the world? Do you think it
is appreciated in the same way?
8
Drumming

• Certain rhythms mean certain things
• Communication
• Oral tradition no traditional notation
• Varies from region to region
• Will increase in tension
• Signal
• Solo
• Improvisation
• Master drummer

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Choral

• Music link to spirit world
• Call and response
• Short, simple melodies
• Improvisation
• Harmony varies from region to region
• Overlapping textures
• Tone languages Pitch determines the meaning of
  words

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Instrumental

• Membranophones
• Idiophones
• Aerophones
• Chordophones
• Body percussion
• Vocables
• Interlocks and overlaps

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Common features of Sub-Saharan African music

• Repetition/Cyclic patterns
• Improvisation
• Polyrhythm
• Call Response
• Cyclic structure
• Intertwining melodies
• Polyphonic texture
• Singing in harmony
• Cross rhythms

12
Instruments
Talking drum/Donno
Djembe
Dundun
Shaker/beaded shekere/cabasa
Ocarina
Kora
Balaphone
13
Instruments in Yiri

• Vocals
• Djembe
• Donno
• Dundun
• Maracas/shakers
• Balaphone
• Flute
• Kora
• Tam-tam (gong)

14
Questions

1. Which instruments are used in Yiri?
2. What are the 3 main strands in the piece?
3. How does the piece start?
4. Identify a place where heterophonic texture is
   used. What is this?
5. What persists throughout the whole piece?
6. Describe the dynamics.
7. Where are triplets used?
8. How would you describe the texture when all the
   parts are playing/singing?
9. How is variety achieved in this piece?
10. How does the piece end?