This book introduces the musical traditions of West Africa and discusses the diversity, motifs, and structure of West African music within the larger patterns of the region's culture. Drawing upon the author's extensive fieldwork, it explores how the music's complex rhythmic combinations in fast-paced patterns and quick, tightly orchestrated movements influence how West Africans understand themselves and their culture.

Table of Contents

1. TRAVELING TO WEST AFRICA ; Journeys ; Tools ; West Africa in Perspective ; Music in the Arts and Life ; Style Areas ; Ideas about Performance ; Musical Instruments ; Resources ; 2. PERFORMANCE FACETS ; Vocal Facets in Epic Performance ; Instrumental Facets in Horn Ensemble Performance ; Continity in Performance: Woni Ensemble ; Vocal and Instrumental Facets in Bush Clearing Songs ; Parallels in the Arts ; Faceting: Cutting off the Edge ; Cloth Pattern ; Masks and Carved Figures ; Greeting Sequences ; Obscuring Facets ; 3. VOICES: LAYERED TONE COLORS ; Timbre in African Music ; Instruments: The Sounds of a Triangular Frame-Zither ; The Centrality of the Voice ; Instruments: Musical Bow ; Sound Texture in Epic ; Social Resonance ; Instruments: Inanga and the Whispered Song ; Other Timbral Dimensions of Sound ; Symbolic Associations of Tone Color ; Cloth Color ; 4. PART-COUNTERPART: CALL AND RESPONSE ; Call and Response Variations ; Non-Overlapping Call and Reponse ; Overlapping Call and Response ; Dialogic Relationships ; Relation to Resonance ; Gifts that Keep the Performance Going ; Chief-Counterpoint ; Poro-Sande ; 5. TIME AND POLYRHYTHM ; A Master Drummer's Life History ; Fitting the Pieces Together ; Rhythmic Patterns in the Epic ; Inner Time ; The Larger Process ; Life History ; Time in Local Life ; Balancing the Quantitative and Qualitative ; 6. SURVEYING THE TRIP: CUTTING THE EDGE ; Central Themes