Kongo Zabana

African Drum Music - Adowa

Kongo Zabana

In African drum ensembles, a musician establishes a time line which establishes the points of entry for the different instruments. So the player must know the role of the particular instrument in the totality, and also the rhythm or rhythms assigned to it and precisely where they fit into the music. Opportunities to learn and appreciate drumming is limited in contemporary contexts, and it is against this background that the International Centre for African Music and Dance at the University of Ghana has embarked on this project aimed at making African drum music accessible to a wider public in the form of musical scores, audio and video recordings. Although essentially cultivated and practiced by oral tradition, the value of transcriptions is not disputed by African musicians. The three titles in the series cover different types of drum; and each gives information on performance practice and instruments, the full score of the work, vertical alignment and bibliography.