Description
Abstract:
Analysis is a structural explanation of a piece of music in terms of its tonality, metric divisions, form, texture, rhythmic importance, melodic significance and harmonic processes among others. The techniques adopted in the piece are also very important. The study focuses on the rhythmic techniques adopted in dùndún drumming performance in Yoruba land. These techniques are basically syncopation, hemiola and hocket. Authors of different ages and time have written comprehensively on the dùndún ensemble but the structural analysis in terms of its rhythmic dichotomy, showing specifically the variation process in the usage of the techniques. The method of data collection is ethnographic in nature using interview and non participatory observation as tools. The objective of the study is to reveal the extent of the presence of these three rhythmic techniques in dùndún performance and the variation of their usages in the contemporary dùndún performance in Yoruba society, South West, Nigeria. The study concludes that syncopation, hemiola and hocket are fundamental in the construction of drum rhythmic patterns and are basically. the essential movement in relation to the identified techniques of the layers of the transcribed music and the constituent element of the rhythm. Attempt is made to give a vivid description of the rhythmic organisation of the transcribed music by revealing the different elements of the notation and the demonstrable skills of the drummers in the variation of the dùndún rhythmic patterns at performance.
Key words: syncopation, hemiola, hocket, dùndún, techniques, rhythmic- structure
