Musical Links Investigation between Vocal music from Africa and the Solomon Islands

A discovery has been made linking two different traditional songs – one by a Rope female chorus originating in Solomon Islands; and the other by a group of pygmy tribe members originating in Cameroon. Through this investigation we will analyze the works of Ratsi Rope, by a female chorus in track 17 from the first disc of “World Sound Matters”; and Hut Song, by the tribe members in the second track of the album entitled “Cameroon: Baka Pygmy Music”. We hope to find elements linking the two a cappella songs from two different continents, connecting them within their musical contexts. We begin by first analyzing the historical context of the general musical features of the two songs. We then will discuss the links found through the investigation and how they help convey the messages the respective artists wish to depict.

African Musical Features: Rhythm and percussive sounds are vigorously emphasized in

African music, which reflects the relationship between music and dance in African culture.

African music tends to have complex polyrhythms. Usually different rhythmic patterns are played simultaneously and repeated over and over.

African singers use a wide variety of vocal sounds. Singers sometimes whisper, hum, grunt, shout, and imitate animal noises.

African music is characterized by a performance style call and response – the phrases by a soloist are repeatedly answered by those of a chorus.

African music is often homophonic or polyphonic in texture. Several parts may sing the same melody at different pitch levels, occasionally producing a series of parallel chords.

Solomon Islands Vocal Musical Features: In many cultures, instruments are used primary to accompany the voice, or yearn to imitate the

voice, but in Solomon Islands, sometimes voices are used to imitate the effects played from instrumental ensembles.

Vocal music often imitates sound and textures from instrumental pieces. There usually are no songs texts, therefore the listeners

concentrate on the sound of the voices consisting their pitch, articulation, tone colour, texture, etc., not the meaning of the words.

Singers remain facially submissive, and there is little use of vibrato or dynamic contrast.

Vocal music from the Solomon Islands has the usual

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instrumental texture of drone and two melodic parts.

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Ratsi Rope1

The Rope Female Chorus singing Ratsi Rope consists of two respective female soloists singing their parts simultaneously, and the rest of the females act as the chorus. The tempo in Ratsi Rope is approximately 38 crotchets per bar, and the notes used are of a hexatonic scale approximately equivalent to G, A, B, C, E, and F#. It begins with the voice in anacrusis, and the second soloists following two beats later. The two soloists, despite being independent in the aspects of rhythm and melodic character, consist at the fundamental

level of a single, four-beat pattern which is repeated over and over in varied form throughout the song. The first soloist revolves around the pitch E, while the second soloist centers on G. The chorus then gradually joins in producing a low-pitched drone in the key of G, staggering their breathing to produce a continuous sound. It is debatable that the loud performance without vibrato of such note-clusters set up a ‘buzz’ or tension in the air. After repeating the phrases 4 times, the song is concluded at the end of the

1 Retrieved from World Music Matters (Teachers Edition)

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fifth time, with all voices holding the drone note for four beats, and sliding downwards in pitch.

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Hut Song

The Tribe Members singing the Hut Song consists of several women (singing the main melody) and children (singing as the chorus). The speed of the Hut Song is approximately 135 quarter notes per minute, and the whole thing uses the notes of a Db minor scale. At 0:00, one female singer sings the following phrase that becomes ostinato in the women’s role:

Later onwards, more women are being added in to sing the main melody at the same volume. From the fourth phrase onwards, the children sing their accompaniment role phrase, and become aligned with the women’s singing phrase:

At 0:38, both the roles of the women and the children gradually raise their voice to a crescendo, thus proportionately making the atmosphere heavier and dense. Throughout the piece, because there is seemingly more number of children than the number of women, the accompaniment would be a bit more dominant and heavier than the women in terms of their respective singing roles. From 1:40 to 1:57, one of the female singers in the group imitates the women’s role by applying the phrase techniques from the accompaniment in it:

From 2:28 onwards, that particular female singer sings louder than the other women, making the particular woman’s voice more noticeable. From 2:45 to 3:01, the female singer imitates again, as mentioned previously, and from 3:01 onwards, the female singer began improvising with the use of replicating both roles’ singing phrases, while occasionally sing along with the other children, thus separating her from other roles and become a voice role itself. At 4:38, the female singer stopped her role, and resumed following along the women’s role, but remained in the soft volume instead of staying louder than the other women. . From 4:47 onwards, the atmosphere begins to become lighter, while diminuendo takes place, and concluded at 4:51.

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So what are the links?

A CAPELLAThese ensembles from both different cultures use the A Capella music genre. The A Capella style could be the only option for the ensembles due to their financial and/or economical struggles and difficulties; they could have limited to no resources to produce and manufacture musical instruments to act as musical accompaniment to their cultural songs.

SINGING ROLEThe singers from the two songs have very specific, detailed independent role, differing to general Western music, where the choir (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass) are more organized melodically. Moreover, they harmonically use the intervals of 3rd, 4th and 5th.

STRUCTUREBased on the structure, both songs contain the repetition on the melody and the musical idea. It is extremely problematic to tell on the Ratsi Rope without looking at the score, due to the singers singing in one continuous motion, whereas the Hut Song is sung with a repeated melodic idea, with rests in between them.

INTERVALThe interval range from these two songs is relatively short. As seen from the respective scores above, the interval in Hut Song is a range of 5th, while in Rope Chorus, it is a range of 10th, despite having a wider range than the African song.

TEXTUREBy looking at the texture, both songs are polyphonic through counterpoint, as evidenced from the two main singers in Rope Chorus throughout, and Hut Song’s women and children. However in Hut Song, at 3:11, one of the women sang the melody with different variations, such as minor thirds on the tonic at every end of the theme, thus showing heterophony. Moreover, with the two voices in Ratsi Rope, and the women and children in Hut Song singing respectively in, to an extent, very independent roles, thus creating counterpoint.

TEMPOThe tempo on both of these songs is continuously stable. While the tempo on Ratsi Rope is at 38 beats per minute, the tempo on Hut Song is at 130 beats per minute. Despite the differences on the speed, there are no sudden changes or speed, nor are there signs of accelerando or rallentando.

ORNAMENTATIONBoth songs have signs of ornamentation. Looking at Ratsi Rope, the second voice on the second beat in the first bar after anacrusis sang in ascension of pitch bending, similar to ascending glissando. In Hut Song, the children that accompany

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the women, while musically distance themselves to become independent, sang in lower mordent every first bar of the repeated melodic theme:

SCALELooking at the melodic keys from both songs, on Ratsi Rope, despite the transcription being the key of G major/E minor, there is a seemingly clash between the notes C and G, with C being emphasized more. Thus it creates a Lydian scale throughout the piece. Hut Song on the other hand, has singers, particularly the women, singing in Db Mixolydian scale, meaning it contains a flat 7th in a major scale, which as we are aware of, is the main component in Twelve Bar Blues in Jazz that was rooted from the African Diaspora.

RHYTHMHut Song is being sung in 4 beats per bar, and has a stronger emphasis on the pace, particular on the first and third beats; while in Ratsi Rope, although the transcript is said in 4 beats per bar, the strong counterpoint between the 2 voices, and the drone accompaniment, easily make the listener lose track on its rhythmic pace.

CONCLUSIONAfter detailed analysis between these two songs from two different cultures, it can be seen that they both have stable rhythms with different densities; there are use of unique melodic modal scales; there is a balance between the voices in both respective songs, to which makes their melodic roles independent. Overall the structures of the songs are vital alongside the singers’ roles, the rhythm, counterpoint, and texture.

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BibliographyKamien, Roger (2011). Music: An Appreciation. McGraw-Hill Companies, New York, USA

Stock, Jonathan (2004). World Music Matters. Schott Musik Intl Mainz. Teachers Edition

Stock, jonathan (2004). World Music Matters. Schott Music Intl Mainz. Transcriptions

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Solomon_Islands_on_the_globe_%28Oceania_centered%29.svg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Location_Cameroon_AU_Africa.svg

DiscographyBaka Pygmies (1977). Cameroon: Baka Pygmy Music. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

Jonathan Stock (2004). World Music Matters (Disc 1)

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