Ashanti Music, 1819
The wild music of these people is scarcely to be brought within the regular rules of harmony, yet their airs have a sweetness and animation beyond any barbarous compositions I…
Location: Ghana
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
Music
From Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee by Thomas Edward Bowdich, 1819.
The wild music of these people is scarcely to be brought within the regular rules of harmony, yet their airs have a sweetness and animation beyond any barbarous compositions I ever heard. Few of their instruments possess much power, but the combination of several frequently produces a surprising effect.
The flute is made of a long hollow reed, and has not more than three holes; the tone is low at all times, and when they play in concert they graduate them with such nicety as to produce the common chords. Several instances of thirds occur, especially in one of the annexed airs, played as a funeral dirge; nor is this extraordinary considering it is the most natural interval; the addition of fifths, at the same time, is rare. The natives declare they can converse by means of their flutes, and an old resident at Accra has assured me he has heard these dialogues, and that every sentence was explained to him.
On the Sanko (see Drawing No. 5, and Specimen in the Museum) they display the variety of their musical talents, and the Ashantees are allowed to surpass all others. It consists of a narrow box, the open top of which is covered with alligator, or antelope skin; a bridge is raised on this, over which eight strings are conducted to the end of a long stick, fastened to the fore part of the box, and thickly notched, and they raise or depress the strings into these notches as occasion requires.
The upper string assimilates with the tenor C of the piano, and the lower with the octave above: sometimes they are tuned in Diatonic succession, but too frequently the intermediate strings are drawn up at random, producing flats and sharps in every Chromatic variety, though they are not skilful enough to take advantage of it.
I frequently urged this by trying to convince them they were not playing the same tune I had heard the day before, but the answer was invariably, "I pull the same string, it must be the same tune." The strings are made from the runners of a tree called Enta, abounding in the forests.
All airs on this instrument are played very quick, and it is barely possible to make even an experienced player lessen the time, which quick as it is, is kept in a surprising manner, especially as every tune is loaded with ornament. They have a method of stopping the strings with the finger, so as to produce a very soft and pleasing effect, like the Meyer touch of the harp.
The horns form their loudest sounds, and are made of elephant's tusks, they are generally very large, and, being graduated like the flutes, their flourishes have a martial and grand effect. It has been mentioned in the Military Customs of the Ashantees, that peculiar sentences are immediately recognised by the soldiers, and people, in the distinct flourishes of the horns of the various chiefs: the words of some of these sentences are almost expressible by the notes of the horns; the following, uttered by the horns of a captain named Gettoa, occurs to me as an instance "O Sai tintintoo, ma yfiayui pa pa." O Sai great king! I laud thee every where, or exceedingly.
The Bentwa (see Drawing No. 6.) is a stick bent in the form of a bow, and across it, is fastened a very thin piece of split cane, which is held between the lips at one end, and struck with a small stick; whilst at the other it is occasionally stopped, or rather buffed, by a thick one; on this they play only lively airs, and it owes its various sounds to the lips.
The Mosees, Mallowas, Bournous, and natives from the more remote parts of the interior, play on a rude violin: the body is a calabash, the top is covered with deer skin, and two large holes are cut in it for the sound to escape; the strings, or rather string, is composed of cow's hair, and broad like that of the bow with which they play, which resembles the bow of a violin. Their grimace equals that of an Italian Buffo: they generally accompany themselves with the voice, and increase the humour by a strong nasal sound.
The Oompoochwa is a box, one end of which is left open; two flat bridges are fastened across the top, and five pieces of thin curved stick, scraped very smooth, are attached to them, and (their ends being raised,) are struck with some force by the thumb. I can compare it to nothing but the Staccado nearly deprived of its tone.
The Ashantees have an instrument like a Bagpipe, but the drone is scarcely to be heard.
The rest of the instruments can hardly be called musical, and consist of drums, castanets, gong-gongs, flat sticks, rattles, and even old brass pans.
The Drums (see Drawing No. 7.) are hollowed trunks of trees, frequently carved with much nicety, mostly open at one end, and of many sizes: those with heads of common skin (that is of any other than Leopard skin) are beaten with sticks in the form of a crotchet rest; the largest are borne on the head of a man, and struck by one or more followers; the smaller are slung round the neck, or stand on the ground; in the latter case they are mostly played with the inside of the fingers, at which the natives are very expert: amongst these drums are some with heads of leopard skin, (looking like vellum,) only sounded by two fingers, which are scraped along, as the middle finger is on the tambourine, but producing a much louder noise.
The gong-gongs are made of hollow pieces of iron, and struck with the same metal. The Castanets are also of iron. The Rattles are hollow gourds, the stalks being left as handles, and contain shells or pebbles, and are frequently covered with a network of beads; the grimaces with which these are played make them much more entertaining to sight than hearing.
I was fortunate enough to find a rare instance of a native able to play the radical notes of each tune; he is the best player in the country, and I was enabled to collect the airs now offered: with some of the oldest date I have also selected a few of the latest compositions. Their graces are so numerous, some extempore, some transmitted from father to son, that the constant repetition only can distinguish the commencement of the air: sometimes between each beginning they introduce a few chords, sometimes they leave out a bar, sometimes they only return to the middle, so entirely is it left to the fancy of the performer. The observation made on the time of the Sanko may be extended to almost every other instrument, but it is always perfect, and the children avIU move their heads and limbs, whilst on their mother's backs, in exact unison with the tune which is playing: the contrasts of piano and forte are very well managed.
The singing is almost all recitative, and this is the only part of music in which the women partake; they join in the choruses, and at the funeral of a female sing the dirge itself; but the frenzy of the moment renders it such a mixture of yells and screeches, that it bids defiance to all notation. The songs of the Canoe men are peculiar to themselves, and very much resemble the chants used in cathedrals, but as they are all made for the moment, I have not been able to retain any of them.
To have attempted anything like arrangement, beyond what the annexed airs naturally possess, would have altered them, and destroyed the intention of making them known in their original character. I have not even dared to insert a flat or a sharp.
Akan Music Nos. 1-5. Image by Thomas Bowdich.
No. 1. is the oldest air in the whole collection, and common both to Ashantees and Warsaws; I could trace it through four generations, but the answer made to my enquiries will give the best idea of its antiquity; "it was made when the country was made." The key appears to be E minor.
The old and simple air No. 2, is almost spoiled from the quick method of playing it, but when slow it has a melancholy rarely found in African music, and it is one of the very few in which the words are adapted to the tune. I think it is decidedly in the key of C major. The noun aganka, an orphan, is from the verb agan to leave. Oboibee is a bird that sings only at night, for which I know no other name than the Ashantee.
The Warsaw air, No. 3, also in C major, was composed in consequence of a contest between the two principal caboceers of that country, Intiffa and Attobra; one extremely thin and the other very fat; Allobra ran away, and is derided by Intiffa in the following satirical words: Asoom coocooroocoo oninny agwanny. Asoom is a dolphin, which, as a beardless creature, is an epithet of the strongest contempt. The literal translation is, The big dolphin runs away from the small man.
No. 5, which I should conjecture to begin in E minor, and to end in D minor, was occasioned by an English vessel bringing the report of a battle, in which the French were defeated and their town burned. The words are allegorical.
Abirrikirri croom ogah odum; French town fire put in;
Ocoontinkii bonoo fum; Great fighting man, wolf take you away;
Cooroompun coom agwun. Cooroompun kills all goats.
Abirrikirri applies indiscriminately to all nations beyond the sea, as Dunko does to all nations far in the interior. Cooroompun is a very large insect of the genus mantis (soothsayer) frequently met with here, and the natives believe that it kills the sheep and goats by fascination, standing with its eyes fixed on those of the object, and swinging its head and body from side to side without moving its feet, until the animal falls in fits and dies. Agwun is a noun of multitude, comprehending all the goat kind.
Akan Music, Nos. 6-10. Image by Thomas Bowdich.
A long tale accompanies No. 6. An Ashantee having been surprised in an intrigue with another man's wife, becomes the slave of the King, and is obliged to follow the army in a campaign against the celebrated Attah, the Akim caboceer mentioned in the history. The Ashantee army having retired, this man either deserted or could not join his division, and after concealing himself some time in the forest, was taken by a party of Attah's, whom he addresses in the following words:
Eqqwee odin ahi, Panther bush here (belongs to)
Minawoo! Minawoo! I die! I die!
Me'din adoo croom, Bush now my croom,
Minawoo! Minawoo! I die! I die!
Babisseache Minawoo! Minawoo! For woman's sake I die! I die!
Attah m'incomie! Attah m'incomie! Attah don't kill me! Attah don't kill me!
The man's life, it was added, was preserved when he urged that he understood how to make sandals. The key appears to be E minor.
No. 7, in G major, seems to convey the moral, that riches prompt mankind to wickedness, the word "makes" is understood.
No. 9, became a common song in March last in praise of the present Governor in Chief; who, in consequence of the famine occasioned by the preceding invasion from the Ashantees, daily distributed corn to the starving multitude: the words are even more incoherent and figurative than the others, therefore I have not written them, but the meaning to be gathered is, "Poor woman and poor child got no gold to buy kanky; good white man gives you corn."
Akan Music Nos. 11-14. Image by Thomas Bowdich
It will be observed that the air much resembles No. 11, wherefore I suspect it is an alteration, and not a composition; although the key seems to be G major, and it is impossible to attach any key to the latter.
The dirge, No. 12, certainly in the key of C major, has been mentioned before, but here I must add, that in venturing the intervening and concluding bass chord, I merely attempt to describe the castanets, gong-gongs, drums, &c. bursting in after the soft and mellow tones of the flutes; as if the ear was not to retain a vibration of the' sweeter melody.
No. 13, in D minor, is played by only two flutes, and is one of the softest airs I have met with.
No. 14, is an Accra fetish hymn, sung by one man and one woman, or more, at Christmas:
Afinaie pwee. The year's ends have met,
Gnor woorra. Somebody's child
Morbee. Take blessing.
"Somebody's child," means the child of a person of consequence, reminding us of Hidalgos, "the son of somebody," so applied in Spanish. Its regularity is surprising, and its transition from G major to C major is very harmonious.
No. 15, in G major, is a specimen of the Kerrapee or Kerrapay music, which I have made a point of preserving, as it appeared to me superior even to Ashantee. A young man acknowledges a crime he had attempted to conceal:
Kenneovay nooblou adomevai,
Oh pity! the palaver is spoiled,
Noodooloo adomevai.
It is found, it is spoiled;
Ennoblou;
Think for me;
Dootoh me po me bloh.
Elders, settle it for me,
Adan vo,
I am at a loss,
Ice!
Oh!
Akan Music Nos. 15-20. Image by Thomas Bowdich
The following is a translation of a long Ashantee song, with little or no air. The men sit together in a line on one side, with their sankos and other instruments; and the women in a line opposite to them. Individuals rise and advance, singing in turn.
1st Woman. My husband likes me too much,
He is good to me,
But I cannot like him,
So I must listen to my lover.
1st Man. My wife does not please me,
I tire of her now;
So I will please myself with another.
Who is very handsome.
2nd Woman. My lover tempts me with sweet words,
But my husband always does me good.
So I must like him well,
And I must be true to him.
2nd Man. Girl you pass my wife handsome.
But I cannot call you wife;
A wife pleases her husband only.
But when I leave you, you go to others.
Bowdich, Thomas Edward. Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee. J. Murray, 1819.
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