1. Yiri part 2
AIMS:
To learn more about African musical traditions and to begin to understand the set work YIRI

2. AFRICAN SONGS
There is a belief that music serves as a link to the spirit world.
Singing unites whole tribal communities
It is a means of communication
African languages are TONE LANGUAGES ie, the Pitch level determines actual meaning. This is useful as melodies can be made to fit to match meanings and speech rhythms of song lyrics.

3. Common Features of African Music
One person sings a line and the group responds with a vocal reply
Usually short and simple, repeated over and over
Can therefore end in a theme and variations format
Leads to polyphonic textures
Basic form is call and response
Melodies usually use a scale of only 4,5,6 or7 different notes
Melodies can be changed at will by other singers
Singers often improvise new melodies over existing ones

4. More features
Music can be sung in rounds, often creating a very complex texture
Harmony will vary from tribe to tribe
Some communities sing in octaves or unison with a 4th or 5th added rarely
Some tribes sing in 3rds and sixths, freely harmonising.
Learnt by oral tradition

5. AFRICAN INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
IDIOPHONES
AEROPHONES
CHORDOPHONES
Rattles
Bells
Mbira ( thumb piano)
Xylophones/ Balaphones
Clap sticks
Slit gongs
Stamping tubes
Flutes
Ocarinas
Panpipes
Horns ( animal tusks)
Trumpets
Pipes
Whistle
Zithers
Lutes (kora)
Lyres
Musical bows

6. Extras Also common is the use of body percussion Hand clapping
Foot stamping
Vocables
Vocal effects

7. Instrumental music of Africa

8. Instrumental music Common features of instrumental music Repetition
Improvisation
Cyclic structures
Polyphonic textures
Intertwining melodies

9. Vocab test Improvisation Djembe Repetition Dundun Polyphonic Donno
Vocables
Balaphones
Call and response
Tone language
Aerophone
Djembe
Dundun
Donno
Yiri
Cross rhythms
Heterophonic
Monophonic
Membraphone

10. YIRI PLAYED BY GROUP NAMED KOKO Comes from Burkino Faso, West Africa
Themes in music from here conjure up man kinds life battles, fight for survival and environmental issues
Music focuses on creation, community celebrations and friendships

11. Yiri Three main strands
Balafon ostinato, combined to make complex polyphonic texture
Drum ostinato – relentless one bar pattern
Vocal line, mainly call and response.

12. Other features in Yiri Tempo is unvaried Beat is regular and unvarying
Improvisation
Repetition
Tempo is unvaried
Beat is regular and unvarying
Drum ostinato persists throughout with only small exceptions
Pattern of voices followed by instrumental breaks
Dynamics largely unvaried
Cross Rhythms