Locke

AAWM JOURNAL VOL. 3 NO. 1 (2013)

Call and Response in Ewe Agbadza Songs: One Element in a Network of Musical Factors

David Locke

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Abstract:

Call-and-response has iconic status as a sign of African musical style. The approach to musical form is widespread geographically, frequently used, found in many genres, and employed on most instruments. The form enables collective participation in music-making, which is another oft-noted characteristic of African music. The form’s emblematic status in musical discourse entails a risk of under-estimating its sophistication. Countering the notion that call-and-response is limited to a simple, back-and-forth, AB alternation this paper argues that the concept of musical exchange between complementary melodic-rhythmic units is capable of providing structure to a great variety of musical forms. Focusing on a corpus of twenty-five songs from the Ewe dance-drumming music called Agbadza, the paper will demonstrate how composers combine factors of melody, rhythm, tonality, sonority, and lyrics to yield subtle yet significant formal variety to the their works of vocal music.

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Contributor Information:

David Locke is Professor of Music at Tufts University.

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