Ghanaian iron gankoqui bells.
A bell pattern is a rhythmic pattern, often a key pattern (also known as guide-pattern, timeline pattern or phrasing referent), struck on an Idiophone, in most cases, a metal bell, such as an agogô, gankoqui, or cowbell, or a hollowed piece of wood, or wooden claves. In contemporary music, bell patterns are also played on the metal shell of the timbales, and drum kit cymbals.
Bantu migrations: 1 = 2000–1500 BC origin; 2 = ca.1500 BC first migrations; 2.a = Eastern Bantu; 2.b = Western Bantu; 3 = 1000–500 BC Urewe nucleus of Eastern Bantu; 4–7 = southward advance; 9 = 500 BC–0 Congo nucleus; 10 = 0–1000 AD last phase
Use of African bell patterns is found primarily within the Niger–Congo language family (yellow and yellow-green).
Gerhard Kubik notes that key patterns originated within "those parts of Africa where Kwa languages and the 'westerm stream' of the Benue-Congo, or 'Bantu' languages are spoken" [within the larger Niger–Congo-B group].[1] Use of the patterns has since spread throughout the greater Niger–Congo language family. The use of iron bells (gongs) in sub-Saharan African music is linked to the early iron-making technology spread by the great Bantu migrations. The spread of the African bell patterns is probably similarly linked.
Throughout Africa, wherever these gongs have occurred they have been manufactured by the same process of welding the two halves together along a wide flange. This indicates a common origin.
—James Walton,
(1955: 22) [2]
Kubik observes that "at the broadest level," the various key patterns "are all interrelated."[3] Key patterns exist in their own right,[4] as well as in relation to the three inner reference levels of elementary pulsation, main reference beat, and primary cycle.[5] Kubik further states that key patterns represent the structural core of a musical piece, something like a condensed and extremely concentrated expression of the motional possibilities open to the participants (musicians and dancers).[6]
[Key patterns] express the rhythm’s organizing principle, defining rhythmic structure, as scales or tonal modes define
harmonic structure . . . Put simply, key patterns epitomize the complete rhythmic matrix.
—David Peñalosa,
(2009: 51)[7]
Key patterns are generated through cross-rhythm.[8] They typically consist of 12 or 16 pulses, and have a bipartite structure, which evenly divides the pattern into two rhythmically opposed cells of 6 or 8 pulses each.[9] The key pattern defines the musical period; the first cell is antecedent, and the second is consequent. The asymmetrical array of attack-points contradicts the metrical symmetry of the two cells.[10]
Standard pattern in duple-pulse (4/4) and triple-pulse (12/8) form.
The most commonly used key pattern in sub-Saharan Africa is the seven-stroke figure known in ethnomusicology as the standard pattern.[11][12][13] The standard pattern is expressed in both a triple-pulse (12/8 or 6/8) and a duple-pulse (4/4 or 2/2) structure.[14] Many North American percussionists refer to the triple-pulse form as the 6/8 bell.[15] The standard pattern has strokes on: 1, 1a, 2& 2a, 3&, 4, 4a.
12/8:
1 & a 2 & a 3 & a 4 & a ||
X . X . X X . X . X . X ||
4/4:
1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a ||
X . . X . . X X . . X . X . . X ||
Standard bell pattern (top) with accompanying axatse part (bottom). The axatse begins on the second stroke (in parenthesis)
The axatse (Ghanaian beaded gourd instrument) part which typically accompanies the 12-pulse standard pattern in Ewe music is verbalized as: "pa ti pa pa ti pa ti pa ti pa pa." The "pa's" sound the standard pattern by striking the gourd against the knee. The "ti's" sound pulses in between the bell strokes, by raising the gourd in an upward motion and striking it with the free hand. As is common with many African rhythms, the axatse part begins (first "pa") on the second stroke of the bell (1a), and the last "pa" coincides with 1. By ending at the beginning of the cycle, the axatse part contributes to the cyclic nature of the overall rhythm. See: standard bell with accompanying axatse part. Atsiagbekor.
There are many different triple-pulse bell patterns found in sub-Saharan Africa. These are but a small sample. Bell patterns 1 and 2 are considered by A. M. Jones to be the two simplified forms of the standard pattern.[16] Pattern 2 was the first African bell pattern to be transcribed.[17] Pattern 2 contains exactly the same pattern of attack-points as Pattern 1, but begins on a different stroke, has a different relationship to the main beats, and therefore, is a related, but different key pattern.[18] Pattern 3 is another variant of the standard pattern, one which contains exactly the same pattern of attack-points as the standard pattern, but in a different relationship to the main beats. The geographical border of Pattern 3 seems to be the Niger River. Kubik states that east of the Niger, Pattern 3 is used "among the Ibo, and the large group of Benue-Congo speakers from eastern Nigeria through western Cameroon, down to southern Democratic Republic of the Congo, eastern Angola and northern Zambia."[19] The pattern is also used in Cuba and Haiti. Pattern 4 is a bell pattern used by the Hausa people of Nigeria.[20] It is also used in the Cuban-Congolese rhythm palo. The figure is sometimes referred to as a horizontal hemiola.[21]
Three-beat cycle bell patterns
There is a category of 12/8 bell patterns based on "slow" cycles of three cross-beats across four or eight main beats. Three-over-eight (3:8) is one of the most metrically contradictive, and extraordinarily dynamic cross-rhythms found in African music. Within the context of a single four-beat cycle (single measure or musical period), the cross-rhythmic ratio is 1.5:4. The three cross-beats, spanning 24 pulses, are represented as whole-notes below for visual emphasis.
Three cross-beats across two main beat cycles (two measures). This is the cross-rhythmic ratio of 3:8, or within the context of a single measure, 1.5:4.
The following 24-pulse bell pattern is used in the Ewe rhythm kadodo.[22] The three single strokes are muted. The kadodo bell pattern is an embellishment of three "slow" cross-beats spanning two measures, or three-over-eight (3:8).
kadodo bell pattern built upon the 3:8 or 1.5:4 cross-rhythm.
Pattern 1 (4/4 standard pattern) is played on the head of a small Yoruba bata drum in Benin.[23] Pattern 2 is used by the Yourba and Ibo people of Nigeria.[24] Pattern 3 is the bell part in fufume (Ghana).[25] Pattern 4 is used by the Ga people (Ghana) for the rhythm gahu.[26] Patterns 3 and 5 are used in the Ghanaian rhythm kpanlogo.[27] Patterns 2 and 3 are known in Cuba as rumba clave and son clave respectively.
Some bell patterns are single-celled and therefore, not key patterns.[28] A single-celled pattern cycles over two main beats, while a two-celled key pattern cycles over four main beats. The most basic single-celled pattern in duple-pulse structure consists of three strokes, known in Cuban music as tresillo.
The "tresillo" (Cuban term) is the most basic single-celled figure in duple-pulse structure.
Play (help·info)
Sub-Saharan African rhythm is divisive rhythm. However, perhaps because of their seemingly asymmetric structure, bell patterns are sometimes represented in an additive rhythm form. For example, the five-stroke form of the standard pattern is sometimes represented as: 2+2+3+2+3 (see below).[18]
The bell pattern, and every aspect of the over all rhythm, is considered divisive within both cultural understanding, and contemporary music theory. Novotney states: "The African rhythmic structure which generates the standard pattern is a divisive structure and not an additive one . . . the standard pattern represents a series of attack points, . . . not a series of durational values."[29] Kubik concurs: "Although on the level of structural analysis it cannot be denied that different 'distances' of strokes, combining two or three elementary pulses, are 'added up' within the cycle, performers do not think of time-lline patterns as 'additive rhythms,' . . . 'Additive rhythms' are the analytic construction of the musicologist."[30] Agawu states: "Additive rhythm . . . is a highly problematic concept for African music . . . it is not in sync with indigenous conceptions of musical structure. It arises as a kind of default grouping mechanism for those transcribers who either disregard the choreography or fail to accord it foundational status."[31]
A.M. Jones correctly identified the importance of this key pattern, but he mistook its accents as indicators of meter rather than the counter-metric (cross-rhythmic) phenomena they actually are. Similarly, while Anthony King identified this five-stroke figure as the ‘standard pattern’ in its simplest and most basic form, he did not correctly identify its metric structure. King represented the pattern in a polymetric 7/8 + 5/8 time signature.[32]
Anthony King's polymetric representation.
Because this triple-pulse pattern is generated from cross-rhythm, it is possible to count or feel it in several different ways, and divide by several different beat schemes. In the diagram below the five-stroke bell pattern is shown on top and a beat cycle is shown below it. Any or all of these structures may be the emphasis at a given point in a piece of music using the bell pattern.
Different ways to count the five-stroke bell pattern, the first of which is correct
Play (help·info).
The example on the left (6/8) represents the correct count and ground of the bell pattern.[13] The four dotted quarter-notes across the two bottom measures are the main beats. All key patterns are built upon four main beats.[33][34][35] The bottom measures on the other two examples (3/2 and 6/4) show cross-beats. Observing the dancer’s steps almost always reveals the main beats of the music. Because the main beats are usually emphasized in the steps and not the music, it is often difficult for an "outsider" to feel the proper metric structure without seeing the dance component. Kubik states: "In order to understand the motional structure of any music in Africa, one has to look at the dancers as well and see how they relate to the instrumental background" (2010: 78).[36]
For cultural insiders, identifying the . . . ‘dance feet’ occurs instinctively and spontaneously. Those not familiar with the choreographic supplement, however, sometimes have trouble locating the main beats and expressing them in movement. Hearing African music on recordings alone without prior grounding in its dance-based rhythms may not convey the choreographic supplement. Not surprisingly, many misinterpretations of African rhythm and meter stem from a failure to observe the dance—Agawu (2003).
[37]
Cuban-style mountable cowbells.
The method of constructing iron bells in Cuba is identical to how it is done in Africa.[38] Not surprising, many African bell patterns are played in Cuba as well. The standard pattern is the most widely used bell pattern in Cuba. Some of the Afro-Cuban rhythms that use the standard pattern are: Congolese (Bantu): palo, triallo; Lucumí (Yoruba): iyesá (12/8 form), bembé, agbe; Arará (Fon): sabalú, egbado; "Haitiano" (Fon, Yoruba): vodú-radá, yanvalú, nagó; the rumba form columbia.[39]
File:6-8 clave in 4-4.png
Triple-pulse rumba clave written as triplets in 4/4
Play (help·info). Note that the standard bell pattern is the clave but with and pickups before the first and third notes, and the hi-hat marks the main beats (quarter-notes).
[40]
In the Yoruba-based, Afro-Cuban rhythms agbe (toque güiro) and bembé, standard pattern variations are used spontaneously.[41]
Standard bell pattern variations
The following 24-pulse bell pattern is used in the arará rhythm afrekete. The first measure simply sounds the four main beats. Notice that the first five strokes of the second measure are identical to the first five strokes of the standard pattern.
There are several 12/8 bell patterns based on "slow" cycles of three beats across four or eight main beats. The three-beat cycle is represented as half-notes in the following example for visual emphasis.
three-against-four cross-rhythm
This bell pattern, an embellishment of the three-beat cycle, is used in the Afro-Cuban rhythm abakuá. It consists of three sets of three strokes each.
Abakuá bell pattern, an embellishment of 3:4 cross-rhythm.
The bell pattern is also played in a displaced position, beginning on 4a, the pulse immediately preceding beat 1.
Abakuá bell pattern variant.
The following 24-pulse bell pattern is used in the arará rhythm afrekete. The Arará are Cuban descendants of the Fon/Ewe ethnic group, so it's perhaps not surprising that it is the same pattern as the bell part used in the Ewe rhythm kadodo, shown earlier in this article. However, as used in afrekete, the part begins in the second measure of 12/8. Notice that the first five strokes are identical to the first five strokes of the standard pattern. Like the kadodo bell, this pattern is an embellishment of the 3:8, or 1.5:4 cross-rhythm.
A variety of Cuban 4/4 bell patterns have spread worldwide due to the global success of Cuban-based popular music.
Pattern 1 is son clave, usually played on wooden claves. Pattern 2 is the baqueteo, the key pattern used in danzón and the first expression of clave in written music. The baqueteo consists of the son clave strokes, plus four additional strokes. Not technically a bell pattern, the baqueteo is played on the güiro and on the heads of the timbales. The slashed noteheads are muted tones and the regular noteheads are open tones.
In the 1940s the cowbell was added to the timbales in the first danzón-mambos of the charanga orchestras. Arcaño y sus Maravillas introduced this development. Later, multiple cowbells, a cymbal and sometimes a woodblock was added to the timbales setup. Patterns 3 and 4 are guaguancó cáscara patterns adopted as mambo bell parts. During the mambo era of the 1940s, bongo players began regularly using a large hand-held cowbell during the montuno section in son groups. This bongo bell role was introduced in the son conjunto of Arsenio Rodríguez. Pattern 5 is the basic bongo bell pattern.
The rhythmic basis for one of the most enduring Latin jazz tunes comes from a cáscara variant adopted as a mambo bell pattern. "Manteca," co-written by Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo in 1947, is the first jazz standards to be rhythmically based on clave.[43] The rhythm of the melody in the A section is identical to a common mambo bell pattern.
Top: opening measures of "
Manteca" melody. Bottom: common
mambo bell pattern (2-3
clave).
Patterns 3 and 4 are timbale bell parts that were introduced in mambo big bands. During the early 1940s Machito and his Afro-Cubans was the first band to employ the triumvirate of congas, bongos and timbales, the standard battery of percussion used in contemporary salsa. In the montuno section the bongo bell and the timbale bell parts are sounded simultaneously in a contrapuntal interplay.
In the 1970s José Luis Quintana "Changuito" developed the technique of simultaneously playing timbale and bongo bell parts when he held the timbales chair in the songo band Los Van Van. The example below shows the combined bell patterns (written in a 2-3 clave sequence).
Afro-Brazilian music uses a variety of bell patterns, many of which are different than the patterns used in Cuba.
Bell pattern 1 is used in maculelê and some Candomblé and Macumba rhythms. Pattern 1 is known in Cuba as son clave. Bell 2 is used in afoxê and can be thought of as pattern 1 embellished with four additional strokes. Bell 3 is used in batucada. Pattern 4 is the maracatu bell and can be thought of as pattern 1 embellished with four additional strokes.
- ^ Kubik, Gerhard (2010: 57). Theory of African Music v. 2. Chicago Press.
- ^ Walton, James (1955: 22) 1955 “Iron Gongs from the Congo and Southern Rhodesia” Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, v. 55, pp. 20-23 Feb. For more on early iron-working and the Bantu migrations see: Newman, James, L. (1995: 107-109, 140-149.) The Peopling of Africa, A Geographic Interpretation. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-07280-5.
- ^ Kubik, Gerhard (1999: 54) Africa and the Blues. Jackson, MI: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 1-57806-145-8.
- ^ A.M. Jones (1959: v. 1: 211). Cited by Kubik, Gerhard (2010: 60). Theory of African Music v. 2. Chicago Press.
- ^ Kubik, Gerhard (2010: 60).
- ^ Gerhard Kubik cited by Agawu, Kofi (2006: 1-46). “Structural Analysis or Cultural Analysis? Comparing Perspectives on the ‘Standard Pattern’ of West African Rhythm” Journal of the American Musicological Society v. 59, n. 1.
- ^ Peñalosa, David (2009: 51). The Clave Matrix; Afro-Cuban Rhythm: Its Principles and African Origins. Redway, CA: Bembe Inc. ISBN 1-886502-80-3.
- ^ Novotney, Eugene D. (1998). Thesis: The 3:2 Relationship as the Foundation of Timelines in West African Musics, Web. UnlockingClave.com. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois.
- ^ Kubik, Gerhard (2010: 62-63). Theory of African Music v. 2. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- ^ Peñalosa (2009: 65-67).
- ^ Jones, A.M. (1959: 210-213) Studies in African Music. 1978 edition: ISBN 0-19-713512-9.
- ^ King, Anthony (1960). “The Employment of the Standard Pattern in Yoruba Music” American Music Society Journal.
- ^ a b Novotney, Eugene D. (1998: 155). Thesis: The 3:2 Relationship as the Foundation of Timelines in West African Musics, UnlockingClave.com. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois.
- ^ Peñalosa (2009: 55)
- ^ Alan Dworsky and Betsy Sansby (2001). Hip Grooves for Hand Drums, p.77. ISBN 0-9638801-5-2.
- ^ Jones, A.M. (1959: 212) Studies in African Music. 1978 edition: ISBN 0-19-713512-9.
- ^ Curtis, Natalie (1920: 98). Songs and Tales from the Dark Continent. New York: Dover Press.
- ^ a b Montfort, Matthew (1987). Ancient Traditions Future Possibilities: Rhythmic Training Through the Traditions of Africa, Bali and India, p.16-17. ISBN 0-937879-00-2.
- ^ Kubik, Gerhard (2010: 82). Theory of African Music v. 2. Chicago Press.
- ^ Stone, Ruth M. (2005: 82). Music in West Africa; Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture. New York: Oxford University Press.
- ^ Tenzer, Michael ed. (2006). Analytical Studies in World Music p. 102. Oxford University Press.
- ^ "Kadodo," Ritual Music of the Yeve, (Ladzekpo brothers). Makossa phonorecord 86011 (1982).
- ^ "Ogogo" Yoruba Drums from Benin, West Africa. Smithsonain CD 04294 (1980).
- ^ Hartigan, Royal (1995: 63). West African Rhythms for Drumset. Van Nuys, CA: Alfred Publishing.
- ^ Kofi, Francis (1997: 42). Traditional Dance Rhythms of Ghana v. 1. Everett, PA: Honey Rock.
- ^ Locke, David (1998) Drum Gahu: An Introduction to African Rhythm Tempa, Arizona: Whitecliff Media Co.
- ^ Hartigan (1995: 29).
- ^ Peñalosa (2009: 55).
- ^ Novotney (1998: 158).
- ^ Kubik, Gerhard (2010: 58). Theory of African Music v. 2. Chicago Press.
- ^ Agawu (2003: 94).
- ^ King, Anthony (1961:14). Yoruba Sacred Music from Ekiti. Ibadan University Press.
- ^ Novotney (1998: 250).
- ^ Mauleón (1993: 47). Salsa Guidebook for Piano and Ensemble. Petaluma, California: Sher Music. ISBN 0-9614701-9-4.
- ^ Peñalosa (2009: 1-3).
- ^ Kubik, Gerhard (2010: 78). Theory of African Music v. 2. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- ^ Agawu, Kofi (2003: 73). Representing African Music: Postcolonial Notes, Queries, Positions New York: Routledge.
- ^ Walton (1955: 60)
- ^ Coburg, Adrian (2004) Percussion Afro-Cubana v. I, Percisión Folklorico Percusión mayor y menor Bern, Switzerland.
- ^ Thress, Dan (1994). Afro-Cuban Rhythms for Drumset, p.9. ISBN 0-89724-574-1.
- ^ "Toque de güiros," Anthogoía de la música afro-cubana. Egrem CD boxed set 0011.
- ^ Waxer, Lise (2002). The city of musical memory, p.239. ISBN 0-8195-6442-7.
- ^ "Manteca" Manteca (Dizzy Gillespie). Phantom Sound & Vision CD (c. 1948).
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