rythm in negro music

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"Hot" Rhythm in Negro MusicAuthor(s): Richard A. WatermanReviewed work(s):Source: Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Spring, 1948), pp. 24-37Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the American Musicological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/829662 .

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"Hot" Rhythm in Negro Music'

BY RICHARD A. WATERMAN

I

THOSEwho havehadopportunityto listen to Negro music in Africa

or the New World have been al-most unanimous in agreeing that itsmost striking aspect is its rhythm.This paper represents an attempt to

characterize this rhythmic style in

objective

terms

by isolating

its

majorcomponents, to summarize the his-

tory of its spread from Africa into

various portions of the Americas

from the standpoint of the dynamicsof musical diffusion, and to indicate

by means of a brief analysis of mu-

sical rhythms of a West Indian is-

land the essential homogeneity of

the style.2

The name for the rhythmic styleherein discussed we take from a

linguistic concept of West Africantribesmen. A compelling rhythm istermed " hot "; the more exciting the

rhythms, the "hotter " the music.3Since this word, with the same mean-

ing as applied to music, has comeinto our own slang, the label is both

apt and convenient, for the essentialcriteria of Negro musical rhythmmay all be understood as overt mani-festations of the concept "hot."

Everywhere, Negro music differsfrom the music of impinging non-

Negro groups in being"hotter."

The concept of " hot" is one of

those subliminal constellations of

feelings, values, attitudes, and motor-

behavior patterns which, ordinarily,are most difficult to analyze objec-

tively. In this case, however, the

dynamic graphs which we know as

written music provide us with a

tool for the study of the overt cor-

relates of these subconscious factors.

The tradition of "hot" music, it

should be indicated, is not raciallyinherited; it is a culture-pattern car-

ried below the level of consciousness,often unrecognized by those who

adhere to it.Since " hot," as applied to musical

rhythms, is an African concept, the

music of Africa must give us the

materials for a description of the

"hot " rhythmic style. As a begin-

ning, we may quote Ward, who

writes:

1This paper was read in New York City onDecember 28, 1943, at the ninth annual

meeting of the Society.

'Materials drawn on for the study whichled to the concepts developed in this paperinclude Negro music recorded in the course

of anthropological research by Professor and

Mrs. Melville J. Herskovits in Dutch Guiana,Haiti, Trinidad, and Brazil in the New

World; and in Dahomey, the Gold Coast, and

Nigeria in West Africa. Also utilized were

unpublished transcriptions and analyses of

the music of West Africa and Haiti by Dr.

M. Kolinski (Die Musik Westafrikas, 115

pp., on file in the Laboratory of Compara-

tive Musicology, Department of Anthropology,Northwestern University) ; as well as his pub-lished study of the music of the Bush and

coastal Negroes of Suriname, which appearson pp. 478-740 of M. J. and F. S. Hersko-

vits' Surina me Folklore (New York: Colum-bia University Press, 1936). The analysis ofTrinidad Negro rhythms has been drawnfrom the writer's more comprehensive studyof African patterns in Trinidad Negro mu-

sic; while some of the ideas expressed herein

concerning North American Negro musical

rhythms were developed as a result of thewriter's interest in jazz. Work with two

West African informants, Mr. Julius C. E.

Okala and Mr. Abdul Disu, was invaluable in

suggesting new insights. The publishedmaterials of many musicologists and collec-

tors, notably Herzog, Roberts, von Horn-

bostel, Krehbiel, Jackson, Lomax, Jones, and

Ward, have contributed ideas, techniques,and attitudes.

*The word"

rhythm" is used throughoutthis paper in the colloquial sense of " recur-

ring patterns of metric accents." In the pres-ent context this has more meaning than the

more technical usage which would limit the

sense of the term to "patterns of phrases."

24



"HOT RHYTHM IN NEGRO MUSIC 25

Broadly speaking, the difference betweenAfrican and European rhythms is thatwhereas any piece of European music hasat any one moment one rhythm in com-mand, a piece of African music has alwaystwo or three, sometimes as many as four.'

The drum rhythms of African

"hot " music are steady and reliable,

although each drum or group ofsimilar drums has, so to speak, itsown time-signature. This use ofwhat may be called "mixed metres "is the outstanding trait of African

percussion rhythm. The transcribertrained in the rules of

Europeanmu-

sic, and forced by the conventionsof written music to choose some

single time-signature for his tran-

scription, often finds the problem aconsiderable one; this may explainwhy, in many transcriptions of Af-rican music, the time-signature is

changed every few bars. As the in-itial major component of "hot"

rhythm,then, we have

percussionpolyrhythms.

Although most African percus-sion instruments are "melodic" tothe extent that account is taken oftheir pitch, it has seemed advisablefor purposes of discussion to divideAfrican musical rhythms into thetwo categories of percussion and

melody. The reason for this lies inthe peculiar relationship that exists

between the steady and dependable,although complex, beat-patterns ofthose instruments which figure inthe polyrhythmic foundation of the

music, and the rhythms of the melo-dies, whether vocal or instrumental.Whereas the accents of Europeanmelodies tend to fall either on thethesis or the arsis of the rhythmicfoot, the main accents of African

melodies - especially those of "hot "music - fall between the down- andthe up-beats. The effect thus pro-

duced is that of a temporal displace-ment of the melodic phrase, in its

relationship to the percussion phrase,to the extent of half a beat. The dis-

placement is usually ahead, so thatthe melodic beat anticipates the per-cussion stroke, although on occasionthe percussion accent is allowed to

anticipate the melodic beat. Theentire rhythmic configuration is al-

ways held together, and the displace-ment given meaning, by strategicallyplaced melodic accents which coin-cide with the percussion accents. A

second, easily identified trait of Af-rican musical rhythm, then, is the

"off-beat phrasing " of melodies.A third characteristic of African

music which, while not a trait of the

rhythm, nevertheless helps to de-scribe it, concerns the importanceaccorded to rhythm-making instru-ments. Almost all African musical

instruments are rhythm instruments.

The many kinds of drums that pro-vide a focus of musical interest forAfricans are supplemented by rat-tles, iron gongs, calabashes, and

sticks, all of which contribute to the

complexity of African polyrhythms.Trumpets, flutes, and other melodic

instruments, on the other hand, are

comparatively few. The marimba,the musical bow, and the sansa,

which combine rhythmic and me-lodic functions, give more supportto the rhythms of songs with which

they are associated than they do tothe melodies. Particularly in the"hot " African music - the musicwhich calls the gods and inspirespossession - percussion instrumentsand their rhythms are heavily em-

phasized.In

accountingfor the African

ap-preciation of complex and subtle

rhythms, the tremendous importanceof rhythm in many aspects of nativelife must be considered. In economic

and religious contexts, no less than'W. E. Ward, "Music in the Gold Coast,"Gold Coast Review, III (1927), 2I4.



26 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

in musical ones, these figure prom-inently. No communal farm-culti-

vating party, no group of oarsmenin a river-boat is complete without

its percussion instruments to set thepace and co-ordinate the movementsof the work. In religion, the aspectof West African culture that con-

stitutes the dominant focus of life,

drumming has an indispensable func-tion. Each god has a particularrhythmic figure, or " name,"regardedas his own, by means of which he

is called to possess the bodies of

devotees. The African drummer - avirtuoso who has devoted his life to

the study of the drums - is accorded

high prestige.No less important than the drums

in inculcating the African feelingfor "hot" rhythms is the dance.

Every West African youth wishes

to excel in dancing, and the dance

style of the area may be described

most succinctly as a carefully poisedresponse to the rhythms of the

drums. The dance of the West Af-

rican is an essay on the appreciationof musical rhythms. For the per-formance of a good dancer the drums

furnish the inspiration, in responseto which the thread of each rhyth-mic element contributing to the

thunderous whole of the percussion

gestalt is followed in movementwithout separation from its poly-

rhythmic context.

II

Before proceeding to the examina-

tion of Negro rhythms in the New

World, it is necessary to review

briefly the historical setting for the

diffusion of this musical style. Afri-

cans carried to the New HWorld n-countered a variety of types of

European music. The degree of

musical syncretization which re-

sulted, and the ascribing of particu-

lar importance to certain of the Af-rican traits in this syncretic process,depended to a large extent on thenature of the European musical stylewith which the African was to blend."In general, New World Negroesaccepted and adopted those musicaltraits which they found easiest tounderstand - those which were most

similar, either essentially or super-ficially, to patterns in the music withwhich they were familiar.

The degree of syncretization ofAfrican and European styles was

also influenced greatly by the socialsituation of the slaves. This includesa variety of factors, among which

may be listed their numerical im-

portance in the population of thenew country, the degree to which

they were permitted to live togetherin groups, opportunities to become

acquainted with their masters, andthe incidence and success of attempts

by the whites to stamp out Africanmusical patterns. For lack of his-torical materials, the weight of manyof these factors cannot now be eval-

uated, yet a few general statements

may be made. Where Negroes were

constantly in contact with whites

who indoctrinated them with the

feeling of the worthlessness of thingsAfrican, and who resented African

music, most of the more obviousAfrican musical elements have dis-

appeared, and Negro music is more

European than African. Where Af-

rican culture-traits were given a

measure of respect, and the slaves

were in fairly close contact with

Europeans, African and Europeanmusical styles have blended, both sides

5In tracing the progress of the African con-

cept of "hot" music in the New World, Ihave not considered it necessary to take intoaccount the possible influence of AmericanIndian musical styles on the rhythms ofNew World Negro music. That influencecannot have been strong in most areas, ascompared to the parts played by Europeanand African musics.



" HOT1

RHYTHM IN NEGRO MUSIC 27

contributing generously to the re-

sulting style. Where, as in Dutch

Guiana, Negroes were able to re-create

essentially

African cultures, the

music is almost entirely African.In the southern half of the New

World, three factors - one religious,one musicological, and one socio-

logical - have contributed to the

formation of the rhythmic style of

present-day Negro music. In theseRoman Catholic countries and in the

Caribbean, the Negroes, by identi-

fying their gods with the saints of

the Church, were able to retainmuch of the structure of the African

hierarchy of supernatural beings.With their gods they retained, of

course, much of the technique andthe paraphernalia associated withAfrican religious worship. Promi-nent in this connection were drumsand rhythms."

The music of Spain and Portugal,

the European powers dominant inLatin America during the slavingperiod, was somewhat similar to

African music. To what extent this

may be the result of the Moorish

invasions can only be conjectured.At any rate, it is apparent thatIberian music, and particularly the

popular music associated with folk

dancing, is built upon a more com-

plex and more nearly "hot" rhyth-mic foundation than the music ofNorthern Europe.

The third factor of importancein determining the character of

rhythm in Latin American Negromusic concerns the attitudes of thewhite population toward the Negroesand toward African culture. Inmost parts of the slave areas of South

America, there has been a relativelyconsiderable amount of intermarriagebetween Europeans and Africans.

Although South American Negroesare mainly in the lower economic

brackets, there is no general feelingthat they belong to a race

predes-tined to inferiority.These, and other items that could

be mentioned, highlight a situationwherein Negroes have been able toretain a certain measure of respectfor themselves, and for their tradi-

tions, including the musical one thattheir ancestors brought from Africa.In those South American countrieswhere the concentration of Negro

population is heavy, the strength ofinfluence of Africanisms on the pre-vailing styles of popular music isundoubted. That the music of Bra-

zil, for example, owes much toAfrica is attested by Valle, whowrites: "Of the three principal lines

forming the Brazilian race, the Afri-can branch is incontestibly the onewhich has exercised most influence

in our music."' African percussioninstruments, played in the African

manner, are responsible for the dis-tinctive flavor of Brazilian dance

rhythms. Brazilian popular musicutilizes to a great extent the multiplemetres of African polyrhythm, andto an even greater extent the Africancharacteristic of " off-beat phrasing"of melodic rhythms.

This African influence, noticeablein Brazilian music in general, is im-

measurably amplified in the religiousmusic of certain Brazilian Negrogroups. The music of the Africancults in Bahia, Brazil, is almost en-

tirely African in character, with

African percussion equipment and

gods' drum-names identical withthose of West Africa.8 The words

6Cf. M. J. Herskovits, "Drums and Drum-mers in Afro-Brazilian Cult Life," MusicalQuarterly, XXX (I944), 477-492.

'F. R. Valle, Elementos de folk-lore musical

brasileiro (Sio Paulo, 1936), p. 61.

BCf. M. J. Herskovits and R. A. Waterman," Afrobahian Cult Music," Boletin latino-americano de musica, VI. (In Spanish.)Scheduled for publication in 1948.



28 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL OCIETY

of many of these Bahian songs arein the YorubanNago, a West African

language, and a Yoruba informantwho had never been in Brazil had no

difficulty in translating them into

English. The following song to thetrickster god Eshu, also known bythe nameof Elegba,is typical:

Ketu: For Eshu

Leader and chorus; two drums and iron gong. Originalpitch one half-tone lower at start. Sung by Ketu group. (Brazil, No. 172, 3oA)

Percussion

L e a d e r 1 6 V

aiorus acel I- b-ra-b- o-o -ju- be - mode- ko

m Muchvariation in dn m

I -b-rs-bo- o-o mo- ju- be O-mo-de-ko E-shu I-ba-rn- mao- ju-

4. Fine

r

t-lr-baE-shu'ba-ra

-,,L

I-b-r-

I-bara-ho mo- u - O-mode- I-ba1- - ra - b

, -,ri

.B ,rT-

, ,

-+

,abm-ju - bh O-mo-de-ko-aau i-ba-ra-Io E-aLiE-le-baE-ihumo-ja1 i

In Cuba a similar situation exists,and the West African influence on

popular and cult music may be even

more marked there than in Brazil,

although the relative strengths of

influences of this kind are difficult

to assess when they are so nearly

equal. Afro-Cuban dance music

makes use of African rhythms and

percussion instruments, and utilizes

many words in Lucumi (Yoruba)and Arard (Dahomey), as well as a

few in the languages of other West

and Central African societies. The

music of the African religious cults

of Cuba is, as in Brazil, almost en-

tirely African, and the sacred songsare frequently sung in African

tongues.9 Indeed, this kind of musi-

cal syncretization may be observed

in greater or lesser degree on all

of the West Indian Islands.

African musical rhythms have also

permeated the songs of Latin Ameri-

9Cf. R. Lachatafiere, Manual de Santeria(Havana: Editorial Caribe, 1942); also anyof the voluminous works of Fernando Ortizon the subject, especially the recent articlesin Estudios afrocubanos, V (1945-1946).



" HOTY)


can countries where the Negro popu-lation is sparse. In Argentina, the

palapala, the chacarera, and the gatodance-forms all blend 6/8 and 3/4metres, as does the son of Mexico. InGuatemala the marimba and African-like drums have become "national"instruments. The presence of African

rhythmic influence is also indicated

by the prevalence of such instruments

as the scratched gourd (or giiiro),African types of rattles, the sticks

(or palillos), and the single-headedlong drums, although the percussion

instruments of the aborigines of theareawere in some cases so similar thatthe possibility of dual proveniencemust be entertained.

In North America the situation ofthe Negroes differed.

.Indeed,the

contrast - sociologically, musicologi-cally, and theologically - with LatinAmerica is startling, and the NorthAmerican Negroes found no such

favorable ground for the cultivationof African musical tradition as hadfallen to the lot of their fellows tothe south. In the first place, the at-titude of white society toward the

Negroes was quite different. Theslaves were regarded as humans ofinferior quality, and their cultural

background was ignored. The pro-cess of inducing the Negroes to adopt

behavior patterns befitting an inferiorcaste in white society was looked

upon as a humanizing process, andthe North American Negroes soonlearnedto be ashamed of their African

heritage.The types of European music sung

and played by slave owners in theUnited States did not admit of readysyncretization with the African musi-cal

style.In most folk music known

to the white population, rhythm wassubordinate to melody. There wasalmost no foothold for the African

stylistic traits of mixed metre and off-beat phrasing in a musical idiom

which knew only one time-signaturefor a given song and matched its

melodic with its rhythmic phrasesbeat for beat. The famous "Scotch

snap," actually somewhat rare evenin Scottish music, which has been

pointed to as the lineal ancestor of

the off-beat phrasingof the Spirituals,must have seemed infantile to the

Negro slaves if, indeed, they noticedits syncopated character at all.10

In contrast to the opportunities for

religious syncretization offered inRoman Catholic countries, the unas-

similable nature of the ideas presentedto the slaves by the Protestant creedsof the United States is striking. Mostof those who preached to the slaveswere either Methodists or Baptists,and their faiths offered few conceptswhich the Negroes, in the light oftheir training in African religions,could grasp. The hierarchical poly-theism of Africa had to be repudiated

almost entirely before any part ofthe new religious dogma could be

accepted. But accepted it was, andwith the loss of their gods the slaveshad no reason to retain the musicand the rhythms associated with them.

The situation of the African slavesin the United States, then, was obvi-

ously not one that afforded themmuch opportunity to retain their

African musical style. In the main,African percussion instruments dis-

appeared, and with them the multi-

ple-metred polyrhythms so charac-teristic of African music. The off-beat phrasing, which requires merelya dependable percussion beat as a

point of departure, became attachedto simple rhythmic patterns repre-sented by European time-signatures.

Nevertheless,certain factors

oper-ated to keep alive the concept of" hot." In the first place, since, as has

I?E. M. von Hornbostel, "American NegroSongs," Internatinal Review of Missions,XV (1926), 750.




been stated, this consists essentiallyof musical attitudes, values, and ap-preciations carried below the levelof consciousness - learned, without

having to be taught, by each genera-tion through imitation of its elders,and seldom verbalized or even sub-

jected to conscious scrutiny - it has

been relatively impervious to changeinduced from without, even by forces

strong enough to cause drastic alter-

ations in the contours of the more

overt and consciously maintained as-

pects of African culture.

As the nature of such a cultural in-tangible can be inferred only from its

overt manifestationsas patterns of be-

havior, it is not without interest to

indicate the nature of the evidence

which exists concerning the continu-

ity of certain symptoms of the con-

cept of "hot." Of importance in this

connection is the peculiar attitude

that has always existed, in the

United States, toward Negro dancing,which was early seized upon by the

whites as a source of amusement. The

ability to dance in a " hot " style was

a valuable attribute for a slave, who

often gained preferential treatment

and prestige in direct ratio to his vir-

tuosity and entertainment-value as a

dancer. Even today, "hot" dancing

by a Southern Negro boy constitutes

for him a direct route to applauseand

extra money from Southern whites.

The dance is one training-ground for

the concept of " hot " which has not

suffered from white disapproval.Certain musical channels likewise

remained open, to varying degrees.In some regions either the African

drums or substitutes for them in the

form of overturned baskets or pans

persistedall

through

the

period

of

slavery. The religious songs the Ne-

groes learned from the missionarieswere soon given the " hot " treatment.

Known today as "Spirituals," theyare found, in their folk setting - that

is, in "shouting

" churches - to em-

ploy hand-clapping and foot-stampingin lieu of drumming, and to make con-

sistent use of off-beat phrasing in a

manner directly in line with Africanmusical thought-patterns. The con-

cept of "hot" religious music had

been communicated to Southernwhites by the close of the revivalistic

period, during which heavily rhyth-mic hymns were useful in inducing

camp-meeting " possession."African rhythmic features have

perhaps persisted most in the secular

music of the Southern Negroes.Records from the Archives of Ameri-

can Folk Song contain many examplesof such traits as emphasized percus-sion, off-beat phrasing, and overlap-

ping call-and-response phrases. In

Album III, for example, we find a

ring-shout from Louisianawhich cor-

responds in gross rhythmic form with

a religious song of the Shango cult of

Trinidad, and even more closely witha dance song of the Bahutu tribe in

Belgian Congo."The way in which the African con-

cept of "hot " has infected the popu-lar dance music of the United States,

however, best illustrates how, in a

form that can be studied objectively,we can discern the persistence of a

submerged pattern, its reinterpreta-

tion in termsof the norms of another

tradition, and its eventual blendinginto, and acceptance by, another style.

Twenty years ago, there was little

"hot" dance music in the United

States; today, much of our dance

music is "hot." Although the changeis still going on evenly in all parts of

the country, it is no accident that it

"AAFS 12B, "Run, Old Jeremiah," Album

III, issued by Archives of American FolkSong, Music Division, Library of Congress;Trinidad 98B, "Adja-ja-e," in Library of

Congress Archives and Northwestern Uni-

versity Laboratory of Comparative Musi-

cology; General Records Album G-Io, side

No. io," Chant et Danses Bahutu," recorded

by Denis-Roosevelt expedition.




The standard arrangement for danceorchestras introduces a certain a-

mount of "jazz phrasing" into the

melody:

Melody of " It's Always You " (Dance-band version)

Arranged y JackMason.Lastchorus, irsttrumpetpart.

A bebd

it= I , ,

4>f- bend

Copyright 1941 by Famous Music Corporation.

Coyrgh4V bmusMsi-Crortin

Finally, a transcription of the same

melody as played by an accomplished

jazz musician illustrateshow the tune

actually sounds, and when comparedwith the sheet-music form throws

intosharp

relief the characteristicsof "jazz phrasing."13 It will be no-

ticed that of the purely rhythmic dis-

tortions ntroduced, he typicalone isthe displacementof the melodic ac-cent with respect to the basic beat,

usuallyone quaver n time-value,re-lieved by significantcoinciding ac-cents of bothmelodic and

percussionmetre:

Melody of " It's Always You " (Recorded version)

Clarinetsolo by Benny Goodman. Columbia Record 36680.

biIOI

4,4

3 --Co tb u c r

Tv.-1A

•CFyo rI-ACopyright 1 9 4 1 F a m o u s M u s i c C o r p o r a t i o n .

The essentialrhythmic component of"

jazz phrasing,"then, is the same off-beat phrasing of melodies which is

everywhere an essential aspect of" hot " music.

I"Clarinet solo played by Benny Goodman.

Columbia record 36680.



" HOT ) RHYTHM IN NEGRO MUSIC 33

III

In this discussion of the rhythmsof New World Negro music, it has

been made evident that, whether wespeak of the music of the Negroesthemselves, or of other music that has

been influenced by Negro rhythms,Latin American music may be saidto manifest, by and large, more Afri-can traits than North American mu-sic. In Latin America, African

rhythms were accepted as such, andwere allowed to continue in the origi-nal tradition; in North America, aswe have just seen, they were in effect

forced underground, where theylingered for generations to become

firmly establishedonly when, in some-what modified form, they became

accepted by the total population.In Trinidad, British West Indies,

where the original "Latin" slave-

owners were supplanted by immi-

grants from the British Isles, there

exists, in microcosm, the whole pat-tern of diffusion of the African " hot "

style.14 Here, in certain parts of the

island, African drums have com-

pletely disappeared. In the village of

Toco, a small Negro settlement atthe northeastern tip, most of the

Negroes are Protestant. Religiousservices of the group most importantfor our purposes, the "Shouters"

(Baptists), are conducted withoutbenefit of African music; their favo-

rite hymns are from the Sankey and

Moody hymnal. Their non-religiousfolk songs are, in the main, patternedafter the reels and quadrilles of Scot-

tish and English tradition. Yet in

Port-of-Spain, the principal city ofthe island, there exists a full-fledgedAfrican religious cult, dedicated to

the Yoruba god, Shango. Accountsby travellers who visited Trinidadalmost a century ago indicate that thiscult is not a recent importation fromsome other West Indian island but

that, on the contrary, such cults wereonce much more prominent in Trini-dad than they are today.

Because Trinidad shows both stylesof New World Negro rhythms, in

fairly close contact with each other,the island offers a sort of laboratoryfor the study of the differentiationof the two trends. It was, as a matterof fact, through the study of Trini-dad Negro music that many of theideas in the foregoing discussion firstbecame clear. The study was enor-

mously facilitated by the fact thatthe music was collected in the field

with the most modern type of elec-trical recording equipment and, inconnection with the music of the

Shango cult, that separate records

were made of the percussion rhythms,with just enough of the melodies to

permit easy orientation.In Toco, the percussion rhythms of

the secular music employ a few Afri-

can instruments, such as wooden

sticks and rattles, and even the hand-clapping often shows figures which

can be explained most economically

by the hypothesis that they are basedon tacet percussion polyrhythms.Most of the accents clapped in the

following example, a "Baptism"song, follow a 3/8 metre, while the

melody "fits " best in 4/4:

14For background material, see M. J. and F.S. Herskovits, Trinidad Village (N. Y.: Al-fred A. Knopf, 1947).




Trinidad "Baptism" Song, Toco

5b" J = 240 m'iging-twoLa~lfoeshigher

of o fIS.. . . . .

laki i

-4 1AI

i1 it 1

9

1i1 ii_

A A2

Eli-

Melodic rhythm in secular Toco

songs employs off-beat phrasing, trip-lets in duple time,and dotted crotchets

in 6/8 time. The following, a" Caryso " song, illustrates the firsttwo patterns mentioned:15

Trinidad "

Caryso

"

Song,

Toco

= 1 9 5 o r i g i r A b e y

AA m rrfcc~?--?A1011% r-rn & L1-%o IF aB cte

The religious music of the Toco

"shouters " - taken, it will be re-

membered, from the Sankey hymnal- utilizes the concept of " hot " in

the same connection with religious

worship as in Africa, although it is

not until a hymn gets well under waythat the "hot" treatment begins.Their rendition of "Jesus, Lover of

My Soul," for example, starts in aslugubrious and "Christian " a fashion

as could be imagined. Then, as

Herskovits, who recorded the song,has written:

After two verses, the singers, continuingthe melody, began to change their rhythm,

introducing hand-clapping as the tempobecame faster, until the hymn was trans-muted into a swing idiom which in the

proper setting would result in the spirit

possession that was simulated in the sounds

made by the singers on the record."

"1The "Caryso " song is the folk version of

the famous and thoroughly commercializedCalypso. The folk pronunciation here givenlends credence to the theory that the termis derived from the word carrousel.

"6Trinidad Village, p. 210. My transcriptionof this hymn, as sung for the record described,appears on pp. 211-212.



" HOT ) RHYTHM IN NEGRO MUSIC 35

The Shango cult music, on the

other hand, is like that of the Brazilianor Cuban Negro cult groups, andshows many resemblances to the Vo-

dun music of Haiti. The musicians usethree drums. The rhythm of the firstor medium-sized drum is a steady4/4, weaving in and out of the multi-

ple-metred percussion pattern. The

second, high-pitched drum playsquavers in 6/8 time, measure formeasure with the first metre. Thethird pattern is fundamentally a 3/4beat, measure for measure with the

other drums, but frequently accentedon alternate beats in such a mannerthat its metre could best be describedas 12/4, each measure correspondingto three measures of the other drums.This third percussion voice - that ofthe largest and deepest-pitched drum- is not constant, but, as in Africa,has special functions in heighteningthe tension of the music, in calling

the gods, and in inducing possession.The individual parts of the Shangocult drum-rhythm complex are con-

ceptually very simple, often involv-

ing merely the beating of time in the

particular metre associated with the

particular drum. However, the re-

sulting combination is of bafflingcomplexity, since the rhythmic focusshifts from one drum to another-

either because of an actual increase in

amplitude of the drum emphasized orbecause the melodic rhythms corre-late for a time with that particularpercussion beat - and since the drum-mers frequently depart from thestrict ostinato in favor of variationson their fundamental rhythms. Inthe following example the high-pitched drum is labelled i, the me-

dium-pitched drum, 2, and the largedrum, 3-. It will be noted that, whilethe leader's phrase follows, for themost part, the 6/8 key signature, thatof the chorus could more easily havebeen written in 4/4, the time of themedium-sized drum. This causes the

metre, for ears accustomed to Euro-

pean music, to appearin constant flux.The overlapping of the alternate call-

and-response phrases- an oftennoted characteristic of African music

and one which is intimately con-nected with the "hot " style -intro-

duces further complexity:

Trinidad Song: Cult of Shango

100b J..=100 origimal wo halftonesower B

Leader -( d r m s s t a t h e " )

C h o r u s

AL! YIVA




Percussion Rhythm-Patterns

Drum meC 1 1, k kjk mk

rr .effvct of I.and2.

Drum=. AftI

Imm 3

The rhythms of the iron gongsused in this music consist of WestAfrican patterns of eighth-notes and

eighth-rests in 6/4 or 4/4 time. Afavorite rhythmic pattern is the one

perhaps best known in the United

States asthe beat of the claves in Afro-

Cuban dance music. It also appearsas a gong rhythm in music recordedin Brazil, Dahomey, and Nigeria, and

may be written as follows:

Gong Rhythm-Pattern

ii "IIFIIw IV iF if? _

The melodic rhythms of Shangocult music

exhibit,to a

greaterextent

than do the songs of Toco, the Afri-can rhythmic traits of off-beat phras-ing, triplets in duple time, crotchetsin 6/8 time, dotted quavers in 6/4time, and overlapping solo-and-chorus figures. The melodies of the

Shango cult are, then, "hotter " thanthe Toco songs.

This brief description of rhythmin the music of the

Negroes

of Trini-

dad indicates that, in spite of differ-ences in instruments and instrumental

techniques, and in spite of the factthat first impressions would assignthe music of Toco to the category

of "mainly European," and that ofthe cult of

Shangoto "

mainlyAfri-

can," both styles manifest to varying

degrees what we have termed the con-

cept of "hot" rhythm. The chief

difference between them is that in the

music of Toco, which parallels in cer-tain respects the North American

Negro style, the factor of mixed

metres has all but disappeared,largelybecause of the failure of the African

drum choir to survive. Far more im-

portant is the demonstration that, de-

spite this, there is a homogeneity of

rhythmic style expressed in the strong

emphasis on percussion and on the

off-beat phrasingof melodic rhythms.



" HOT1


IV

In every part of the world whereWest Africans or their descendants

live in sizable groups, " hot " rhythmmakes the music of the Negroes dis-tinctive. In Africa, the conscious andunconscious aspects of the Negrorhythmic style are fully integrated.The feeling for rhythmic complexityis permitted fullest expression in Af-rican singing and dancing, and is ade-

quately implemented by African mu-sical instruments. In Latin America,for the most

part,the

Negroeshave

found ways to retain their instru-ments and their songs and dances, al-

though most popular music of thearea consists of European melodicand harmonic styles, reinterpreted interms of the concept of "hot." InNorth America the slaves were forcedto relinquish many of these consciousand materialaspects of their rhythmictradition. It

may

almost be said that

the concept alone remained, withoutmusical embodiment, in many areas- kept alive, it is true, by other rhyth-mic interests. The

concept

of "hot "

went underground, as far as most ofthe population of the United Stateswas concerned, until it reappeared in

jazz music. The demonstration thatthe tradition of " hot " rhythms, bornin Africa, has survived the tremen-dous social, economic, and religiouschanges that have fallen to the lot ofthe carriers of that tradition, is noless important in indicating the al-

most incredible toughness of basicmusical culture-patterns than it is in

attesting the genuine musical valueof the concept. For the "hot"

rhythm of Negro music, now so in-fluential in the music of the New

World, has proved its strength bythe sheer fact of its survival.

NorthwesternUniversity.

rythm in negro music

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