I remember vividly visiting ibadan i enjoyed there music, a friend invited me for carnival he said Mr jonacmpoe do you enjoy our music and drums i replied yes ofcourse.
The music of the Yoruba people of Nigeria, Togo, and Benin are perhaps best known for an extremely advanced drumming tradition, especially using the dundun[1] hourglass tension drums. Yoruba folk music became perhaps the most prominent kind of West African music in Afro-Latin and Caribbean musical styles. Yorùbá music left an especially important influence on the music used in Lukumi[2] practice and the music of Cuba.[3] For a comprehensive discussion of Yoruba music, see Bode Omojola's book, Yoruba Music in the Twentieth Century (University of Rochester Press, 2012).
Folk music
Ensembles using the dundun play a type of music that is also called dundun.[4] These ensembles consist of various sizes of tension drums along with special band drums (ogido). The gangan[5] is another such. The leader of a dundun ensemble is the oniyalu who uses the drum to "talk" by imitating the tonality of Yoruba. Much of Yoruba music is spiritual in nature, and this form is often devoted to Orisas.
Rhythmic structure
The most commonly used key pattern, or guide pattern in traditional Yoruba drumming is the seven-stroke figure known in ethnomusicology as the standard pattern.[6][7][8] 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.[9][10] The standard pattern is often sounded on an iron bell.
Standard pattern in duple-pulse (4/4) and triple-pulse (12/8) form.
The strokes of the standard pattern coincide with: 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 ||
A great deal of Yoruba drum music is based in
cross rhythm. The following example shows the five-stroke form of the standard pattern (known as
clave
in Afro-Latin music) on the kagano dundun drum (top line). The dunduns
on the second and third lines sound an embellishment of the
three-over-four (3:4) cross-rhythm—expressed as three pairs of strokes
against four pairs of strokes.
[11][12]
Popular music
Yorùbá
music is regarded as one of the more important components of the modern
Nigerian popular music scene. Although traditional Yoruba music was not
influenced by foreign music the same cannot be said of modern-day
Yoruba music which has evolved and adapted itself through contact with
foreign instruments, talents and creativity. Interpretation involves
rendering
African, here Yoruba, musical expression using a mixture of instruments from different horizons.
Yoruba music traditionally centred on folklore and spiritual/deity
worship, utilising basic and natural instruments such as clapping of the
hands. Playing music for a living was not something the Yorubas did and
singers were referred to in a derogatory term of
Alagbe,
it is this derogation of musicians that made it not appeal to modern
Yoruba at the time. Although, it is true that music genres like the
highlife played by musicians like
Rex Lawson,
Ebenezer Obey Segun Bucknor,
Bobby Benson, etc.,
Fela Kuti's
Afrobeat[13] and
King Sunny Adé's
jùjú[14] are all Yoruba adaptations of foreign music. These musical genres have their roots in large metropolitan cities like
Lagos,
Ibadan, and
Port Harcourt where people and culture mix influenced by their rich culture.
Some pioneering
Jùjú musicians include
Tunde King,
Tunde Nightingale, Why Worry in Ondo and
Ayinde Bakare,Dr. Orlando Owoh,
Dele Ojo, Ik Dairo
Moses Olaiya (Baba Sala).
sakara played by the pioneers such as
Ojo Olawale in
Ibadan,
Abibu Oluwa,
Yusuf Olatunji,
Sanusi Aka,
Saka Layigbade.
Apala, is another genre of Yoruba modern music which was played by spirited pacesetters such as
Haruna Ishola,
Sefiu Ayan,
Ligali Mukaiba,
Kasumu Adio, Yekini (Y.K.) Ajadi, etc.
Fuji, which emerged in the late 60s/early 70s, as an offshoot of
were/
ajisari music genres, which were made popular by certain
Ibadan singers/musicians such as the late Sikiru Ayinde Barister,
Alhaji Dauda Epo-Akara and Ganiyu Kuti or "Gani Irefin.
Another popular genre is
waka music played and popularized by
Alhaja Batuli Alake and, more recently,
Salawa Abeni,
Kuburat Alaragbo, Asanat Omo-Aje, Mujidat Ogunfalu, Misitura Akawe, Fatimo
Akingbade, Karimot Aduke, and Risikat Abeawo. In both
Ibadan (Nigeria's largest city), and
Lagos
(Nigeria's most populous city), these multicultural traditions were
brought together and became the root of Nigerian popular music.
Musical instruments
Agbe: a shaker
Ashiko: a cone-shaped drum
Batá drum:[15] a well decorated traditional drum of many tones, with strong links to the deity Shango, it produces sharp high tone sounds.
Goje: sort of violin like the sahelian kora
Sekere:[16]
a melodic shaker; beads or cowrie shells beautifully wound around a
gourd, shaken, beaten by fists occasionally and thrown in the air to
create a festive mood.
gudugudu:[17] a smaller, melodic bata
Sakara drum: goatskin istretched over clay ring
Agogô: a high-pitched tone instrument like a "covered" 3-dimensional "tuning fork"
Saworo: like agogo, but its tone is low-pitched[18]
aro: much like a saworo, low-pitched
Seli: a combination of aro, saworo and hand-clapping
Agidigbo, a thumb piano instrument wound round the neck and stabilized by the player's chest.
Dundun, consisting of iya ilu or gbedu, main or "mother" drum and omele, smaller drums, played as an accompaniment to bata drums to create a base for their sharp beats.
Bembé, bass drum, kettle drum.
