1. Starter Activity Listen to the track ‘Yiri’ by Koko:
Where do you think the music comes from and why?
What instrumentation is used in the piece?
What do these keywords mean?
IMPROVISATION CALL & RESPONSE CROSS-RHYTHMS
POLYPHONIC OSTINATO ORAL TRADITION :

2. Sub-Saharan African Music
‘Yiri’ by Koko
Sub-Saharan African Music
Edexcel Music GCSE
Area of Study 4

3. Koko: ‘Yiri’ In the study of this set work you will learn about:
The rich and diverse cultures of sub-Saharan Africa
The social importance of African music
How music is learnt and passed on through the oral tradition
The key common techniques used in African music
Rhythmic and melodic patterns and procedures in African drumming, balaphone music and choral singing
How the set work ‘Yiri’ is constructed

4. African Music in Society
Sub-Saharan African music = rich, diverse and colourful
Covers a range of 50 different nations
Each nation has its own musical traditions and languages
Music plays an important role in African society
Music used to communicate different feelings and emotions
Music important in social gatherings: weddings, harvest, birthday, funeral.

5. African Music in Society
Music combined with speech, dance and vibrant costumes = exciting and dramatic performances
‘Yiri’ = strong emphasis on dance
Dancers = vivid costumes, body painting and elaborate masks
Stories told through body actions and mime

6. Burkino faso: masks & dance

7. Video
Burkina faso dancers

8. Choral Song (tribal music) Instrumental music
African music
3 main areas:
Drumming
Choral Song (tribal music)
Instrumental music

9. African music: Common features
Repetition:
Repeating a section of music. Just a few notes or a whole section.
Improvisation:
Music is made up spontaneously (on-the-spot) without written notation.
Polyphony:
2 or more independent parts playing different things at the same time. Multi-layered texture
Call and Response:
Solo (call) followed by a group answering (response) a phrase.

10. AFRICAN DRUMMING
Drum considered to be most important of all instruments
Drum = form of communication
Different rhythms mean different things
Hundreds of drums, different in every region

11. AFRICAN DRUMMING: DJEMBE
DJEMBE is the most common African drum (single-headed)
Goblet shaped
West Africa

12. AFRICAN DRUMMING: dundun
Double Headed Drum
Played using sticks

13. AFRICAN DRUMMING: DONNO
Known as the Talking Drum
Held under the arm
Played with the hand

14. AFRICAN DRUMMING: DIFFERENT SOUNDS
Playing hands on skin of drum – different sounds when fingers open/closed
Playing hands on wooden edge of drum
Using sticks = sharp, staccato sound
Stretching drum membrane to produce different pitches (mainly donno)

15. African music: performance
Oral tradition: no musical notation.
Master drummer directs whole performance (signals to start often with a vocal cry)
Performs a rhythmic solo to set mood and tempo – called a cue.
Cueing happens throughout the performance – creates structure and contrasting sections

16. African music: performance
Players then come in together and play a response
Response could be the same or different to the Master Drummer’s rhythm.
Call and response = main feature of tribal music
Other players perform solos when Master Drummer signals to them
Solos = variations/development of original rhythmic pattern

17. African music: performance
Steady continuous beat performed by Master Drummer = ‘timeline’
Performance can also include percussion rattle or bells – most common are agogo bells.

18. African music: performance
Music increases in tension as the piece progresses
Tempo and dynamics vary from section to section
Master drummer controls change - music must not become monotonous
Performances can take up to 5 hours

19. African music: performance texture
Complex rhythms played by drummers create polyrhtyhms
Stresses conflict with each other and the ‘timeline’ creating cross-rhythms
Polyrhthmic texture

20. African drumming & performance: keywords
IMPROVISATION CALL & RESPONSE CROSS-RHYTHMS
POLYPHONIC OSTINATO ORAL TRADITION

21. PLENARY: KEYWORDS RECAP
What is the master drummer responsible for in an African drumming performance?
What is the most common African drum called?
What is another name for the donno drum?
What are the three main strands of African music?
From which African nation does ‘Yiri’ originate from?
What texture is associated with African drumming?
When stresses conflict with each other and the steady constant beat, what type of rhythms are created?
What 2 main elements vary from section to section in African drumming music?

22. Sub-Saharan African Music
‘Yiri’ by Koko
Sub-Saharan African Music
LESSON 2
Edexcel Music GCSE
Area of Study 4

23. SPEED DATING! Write down 3 keywords/facts you can remember about Yiri
Pair up with someone else and think of as many more keywords/facts that you can remember
When I say ‘change’ move onto someone else and think of some more.

24. African MUSIC: CHORAL SINGING
Sub-Saharan Africa = centred around singing
Music serves as a link to the spirit world
African languages = tone languages
Tone languages = pitch level (high or low) determines meaning of words
Pitches of melodies and rhythms can match meanings and speech rhythms of words

25. African SONGS: COMMON FEATURES
Basic form = call and response
Short simple, repeated melodies
Melodies = scale of only 4, 5, 6 or 7 tones
Melodies changed and developed during a piece = theme and variations
Singers improvise new melodies over the original melody = polyphonic

26. African SONGS: COMMON FEATURES
Music can often be sung in rounds
Musical texture is always changing
Harmony varies from tribe to tribe =
Unison
Parallel octaves, with odd fourths or fifths.
Thirds or fourths in 2 or 3 different parts.

27. COMPOSITION TASK Compose a short repeated melody using only 4-5 notes
Perform the melody with your group as a round.
EXTENSION:
Add harmonies to your melody (4ths or 5ths)
Create a vocal performance of your piece

28. HOMEWORK Revise what we have learnt so far for a test next lesson.
11th March

29. ACTIVITY: What have you learnt so far?
Pass the parcel!
BLUE QUESTIONS: EASY (ONE WORD ANSWERS)
GREEN QUESTIONS: SLIGHTY MORE DIFFICULT
RED QUESTIONS: CHALLENGING (DEFINITIONS AND HIGHER ORDER ANSWERS)

30. Sub-Saharan African Music
‘Yiri’ by Koko
Sub-Saharan African Music
LESSON 3
Edexcel Music GCSE
Area of Study 4

31. Starter activity What are the 3 main areas of African music? (3)
Where in Africa does ‘Yiri’ originate from? (1)
What is the name of the main African Drum? (1)
What is the Donno also known as? (1)
Who directs the whole performance in African Drumming? (1)
What does the director of the performance do to start different sections (what is the keyword for this)? (1)
What 2 main instruments (other than drums) are used in Yiri? (2)
When stresses conflict with each other and the steady constant beat, what is created? (1)
What is the musical device where the same melody is developed throughout a piece known as? (1)
How are African vocal pieces structured/performed? (1)
Name 3 different ways in which harmony can applied to African vocal performances. (3)
Write a definition of the following words (4):
Ostinato Oral Tradition Unison Polyphonic

32. African INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
IN PAIRS, List the instruments in their correct instrumental families:
TRUMPETS (WOOD/METAL)
RATTLES
LYRES
FLUTE
PIPES
OCARINAS
BELLS
PAN PIPES
ZITHERS
MUSICAL BOWS
MBRIA (THUMB PIANO)
HORNS
CLAP STICKS
SLIT GONGS
STAMPING TUBES
WHISTLE
LUTES
IDIOPHONES (resonant/solid)
AEROPHONES (wind)
CHORDOPHONES (strings)
African INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

33. African instrumental music
IDIOPHONES (resonant/solid)
AEROPHONES (wind)
CHORDOPHONES (strings)
Rattles (shakers)
Flutes (bamboo, horn)
Zithers
Bells
Ocarinas
Lutes (kora)
Mbria (thumb piano)
Horns (animal tusks)
Lyres
Xylophones (balaphones)
Trumpets (wood, metal)
Musical bows
Clap sticks
Pipes (single and double reeds)
Slit gongs
Panpipes
Stamping tubes
Whistle

34. African INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
Balaphones – xylophones
Wide range of pitches
Smaller xylophones = higher pitches
Membrane in between bars made of natural materials such as orange peel

35. AFRICAN INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC: COMMON FEATURES
REPETITION
IMPROVISATION
CYCLIC STRUCTURES
POLYOPHONIC TEXTURES
INTERTWINING MELODIES

36. BACKGROUND TO ‘YIRI’ Musicians in Koko are:
Madou Kone: vocals, balaphone, flute
Sydou Traore: vocals, balaphone
Jacouba Kone: djembe
Francois Naba: vocals, tam-tam, dundun, maracas
Keresse Sanou: talking drum
Tidiane Hema: vocals, maracas

37. Background to ‘yiri’ From Burkino Faso: West Africa
Burkino means ‘men of integrity’
Faso means ‘father’s house’
People from Burkino Faso are called Burkinabe
Themes in music include battle, fight for surival and the environment; creation, community celebrations and friendship.

38. Musical strands in ‘Yiri’
There are 3 clear musical strands (ideas that run the whole way through the piece/shape the piece) in Yiri. What do you think they are?
Balaphone ostinati – complex polyphonic texture
Drum ostinato – based on a one-bar pattern (little variation)
Vocal line – pentatonic, call and response

39. Constant features in ‘Yiri’
Unvaried tempo
Regular and unvaried beat
Drum ostinato
Pattern of voices and instrumental breaks
Largely unvaried dynamics

40. Listen to the introduction of ‘Yiri’
Listen to the introduction of ‘Yiri’. What do you hear with regards to the following:
Instrumentation
Texture
Patterns in the music
1. What happens after the introduction (after bar 9)?
2. Describe the tempo of the piece. Is the piece in a major or minor key?
3. Are the drums all playing at the same pitch?
4. How does the size of drum determine the pitches that are heard?
5. How would you describe the rhythms of the instrumental melody?
6. Are the different balophones playing the same thing?
7. What and how are the drums playing when they enter?
8. What are the different textures heard in the first part of the piece? Justify your answers.

41. ‘Yiri’
: Intro
Free tempo, high balaphone improvised solo played at a soft dynamic.
Monophonic texture.
Solo balaphone in G flat major, fast high and low rolls on every note.
Simple and repetitive.

42. ‘Yiri’ 0.18-0.34 Moderato tempo established by first balaphone.
Second lower-pitched balaphone joins in after bar 9 – mainly playing octaves
Both balaphones play for whole piece – polyrhythms and independent of each other
Strong sense of major tonality as opening two notes of melody are dominant (D flat) and tonic (G flat).
Melody built on 2 bar phrases with a strong rhythmic basis.
Second balaphone plays the same melody but with different pitches.
Heterephonic texture – contours of melody roughly the same.
Rhythms – mainly quavers and semiquavers with some tied notes.

43. ‘Yiri’
Large donno, small donno and djembe enter with a half bar ostinato:
When the drums come in they all play the same rhythm
The drums are at different pitches (smaller = higher, larger = lower)
Drums can get different sounds depending on how they’re played
Balaphone plays variation of original melody
Lower balaphone plays an ostinato in bars 17-20
Occasional djembe fills
Melody includes syncopated rhythms and octave repetitions on tonic (G flat) and dominant (D flat)

44. ‘Yiri’ 1.09-1.25 Chorus A1 Voices in unison
Melody = short, simple, repetitive
No harmony
Semi-quaver, quaver, semi-quaver rhythm
Short balaphone instrumental
Drums ostinati
Chorus A2
Voices again – music same as before
Voices out
Solo instrumental on lower balaphone
Variation in balaphone melody

45. ‘Yiri’ 2.10-2.45 Solo with choral responses (call and response)
New melody with long held notes and short notes on ‘Yiri’
Vocal melody with triplet figures – variation on original melody
Lower pitched balaphone plays same ostinato heard in bars 17-20
Voices (choral response) in unison at bar 63
New melodic riffs in balaphone based on original melody

46. ‘Yiri’ 2.45-3.14 Solo voice (call) with long held notes
Drums same as before
Balaphones play rhythmic 3-note semiquaver melodic figure – cross-rhythms created
Bar 71 = solo voice singing variation of original melody
Triplets, syncopated rhythms and semi-quaver/quaver rhythms (heard before)
Vocal response from choir in unison
Solo voice (call) with balaphone rhythms in solo break

47. ‘YIRI’ 3.28-3.59 Instrumental solos continue
New melodies on balaphones
Short rest (one bar/3 beat) rest before next chorus
Chorus B1
Full choir in unison singing ‘Yiri’
Short instrumental interjections to break up vocal lines
Dialogue between voices and instruments

48. ‘YIRI’ 4.45-5.20 Balaphone break instrumental Riffs with variations
Extended section but based on original melody with variations
Rapid figures
Octave leaps
Semi-quaver and demi-semi-quaver patterns
Chorus A3
Full choir in unison
Instrumental interjections

49. ‘YIRI’ 5.36-6.24 Instrumental ending – balaphone break Syncopated
Drums re-enter at bar 153 (one bar before coda)
6.24-end
Coda
5 two-bar phrases – in octaves and dramatic rests
Sense of a strong riff
Heterophonic texture
Drums play familiar ostinato from bar 153
Piece concludes with a single strike on a bell