The music of the Yoruba people of Nigeria, Togo, and Benin is renowned for its advanced drumming tradition. Drums play integral roles in African social life, creating the rhythmic fabrics necessary to support religious, healing, and agricultural rituals. They usher newborns into life and mark the passing of the dead. Royal drums served to enshrine and celebrate the power of kings; even where kingships were replaced by nation-states, the drums serve as a potent symbol of ethnic identity.
Yoruba folk music has become a prominent kind of West African music in Afro-Latin and Caribbean musical styles. Yorùbá music is regarded as one of the more important components of the modern Nigerian popular music scene.
Here's a look at some of the key percussion instruments in Yoruba music:
The Dundun Family
The music of the Yoruba people of Nigeria, Togo, and Benin are perhaps best known for an extremely advanced drumming tradition, especially using the dundun hourglass tension drums. Ensembles using the dundun play a type of music that is also called dundun. These ensembles consist of various sizes of tension drums along with special band drums (ogido).
How to Play the Dundun Kuku Rhythm | African Drums
The leader of a dundun ensemble is the oniyalu who uses the drum to "talk" by imitating the tonality of Yoruba.
Read also: Decoding "Oloribu Omo Ofo Yoruba"
The Dun Dun drum is one of the most important drums within this musical genre. It originates from the Old Oyo Empire in south-western Nigeria. It has been used and is known for its replication of the voice through its own tonality; meaning itself, it speaks a language. In the Yoruba language, it is called dundun.
The strings found on the drum are used for pitch. The overall pitch is determined through the tightness of the strings, for example if this strings are tightened then it will produce a higher pitch, if they are looser then will drum will produce a lower tone. It is used within modern churches, wedding ceremonies, festivals and carnivals.
Gudugudu is a traditional drum used by the Yoruba ethnic group of Nigeria. Gudugudu is a type of drum called a membranophone, meaning the sound is produced by striking a stretched covering. The gudugudu, being a member of the dundun family of drums, is said to mimic speech.
The gudugudu drum is shaped like a bowl. It is round, small, and has a single animal skin drum head. Gudugudu are played with rawhide beaters on a goatskin membrane. Some commentators think that the gudugudu drum is so melodic and danceable that it can sustain a melody without accompaniment. It can be seen and experienced in modern sekere, fuji, apala and possibly juju cultural performances.
The Bata Drum
The Bata drum is a double-headed drum shaped like an hourglass with one end larger than the other. The percussion instrument is used primarily for the use of religious or semi-religious purposes for the native culture from the land of Yoruba, located in Nigeria, as well as by worshippers of Santería in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and in the United States.
Read also: Cultural Wedding Traditions: Yoruba
The Batá drum’s popular functions are entertainment and to convey messages. Its early function was as a drum of different gods, drum of royalty, drum of ancestors and drum of politicians. Traditional drums made and played in Yoruba part of Nigeria. the bata ensemble consists of three drums, the two larger drums; iya ilu bata, and omele abo bata are double headed, each end is played and produces a unique tone. Bata drums are made from a solid wood log from the oma tree.
The drum’s shells are hand-carved and assembled in traditional fashion. The drums are assembled with no metal parts, the playing heads are goat skin, the tension straps are durable cowhide. A natural substance mixture called ida, is applied to some of the heads to lower and fine tune their pitch.
In Cuba, the batá consists of a set of three tapered cylinders of various sizes. Iyá, the largest, is referred to as "mother drum". Itótele, the middle one, and Okónkolo, the smallest, are called "father" and "baby", respectively. In Nigeria, there are five sizes of batá, which can be played either by hand, or using a leather play strap. In Matanzas, the older batá lineages play with one hand and the sole of a shoe or other improvised strap. In Cuba, it is common to see the drums decorated with small bells and chimes, which are called Saworoide or "Saworo" in Yorubaland and Chaworoide or "Chaworó" in Cuba; such bells are attached to one or two "igbaju" leather straps for mounting on the Iya.
The smallest drums in the Bata family, also known as “omele meta”, these three high-pitched drums both accompany and talk. They are played with two leather straps called Bilala (included) not usually with hands.
Components of a Batá Drum
Batá drums are made by fastening skin of goats with wires on a hollowed wood body.
- Wooden frame
- Leather
- Egi Ilu
- Osan
- Iro
- Bulala
- Cowry
Read also: "Ire": A Deep Dive into Yoruba Meaning
Other Yoruba Percussion Instruments
The Omele ako, also known as the ‘Sakara Drum’ is made from baked clay and has a head made from goat skin and uses its side pegs as a means of tuning. They are used within wedding ceremonies, traditional coronations and festivals.
The Gebdu translates as “a big drum”. It usually has a meaningful carvings of a godess, animals and birds. The drum is a symbol of royalty and has a supposed origin from Lagos, the capital city of Nigeria, from the 17th century by edo diplomats, symbolising the leadership of the Benin Empire within the Yoruba.
It is a symbol of roylaty within the Yoruba land. Within ceremonies the ruler (the oba) may dance to this drum but is the only person allowed to do so. It is usually played on state occasions or ceremonies of Ogoni, which is the ancient Yoruba secret society.
The Ashiko drum is a cylindrical shaped drum with its head on the top surface and the narrow end(open) on the bottom. It is made from goatskin hide and is played with a users hands and is tuned like the Dun Dun drum via ropes. They are played mostly at festivals and community celebrations. The origins of the ashiko drum are traced to the Yoruba culture in (mainly) present-day Nigeria and Benin, West Africa.
The Sawroide Drum is also referred to as the ‘Saworo’ Drum. It is a decorative drum which is used to communicate like the Dun Dun drum. However, it has attached brass bells and chimes and are referred to in Cuba as the ‘Chaworoide’ and ‘Chaworo’.
An Agogô is based percussion instrument which is best known for its reproduction of high pitch tonalities. It can either contain a single or multiple bell structure. An agogô (Yoruba: agogo, meaning bell) is a single or multiple bell now used throughout the world but with origins in traditional Yoruba music and also in the samba baterias (percussion ensembles).
The agogô may be the oldest samba instrument and was based on West African Yoruba single or double bells. Each bell is a different size. This allows a differently pitched note to be produced depending on which bell has been hit. Originally wrought iron, they are now manufactured in a variety of metals and sizes for different sound qualities. The most common arrangement is two bells attached by a U-shaped piece of metal. The smaller bell is held uppermost.
A Gudugudu drum is among the Dun Dun Family. It is much smaller however and has an animal-skin based head.
The Bembé drum is essentially a kettle drum and it purposefully used as a based drum.
Evolution of Yoruba Music
Although traditional Yoruba music was not influenced by foreign music the same cannot be said of modern-day Yoruba music which has evolved and adapted itself through contact with foreign instruments, talents and creativity. Yoruba music traditionally centred on folklore and spiritual/deity worship, utilising basic and natural instruments such as clapping of the hands. Playing music for a living was not something the Yorubas did and singers were referred to in a derogatory term of Alagbe, it is this derogation of musicians that made it not appeal to modern Yoruba at the time.
Although, it is true that music genres like the highlife played by musicians like Rex Lawson, Ebenezer Obey Segun Bucknor, Bobby Benson, etc., Fela Kuti's Afrobeat[14] and King Sunny Adé's jùjú[15] are all Yoruba adaptations of foreign music. Some pioneering Jùjú musicians include Tunde King, Tunde Nightingale, Why Worry in Ondo and Ayinde Bakare,Dr. Orlando Owoh, Dele Ojo, Ik Dairo Moses Olaiya (Baba Sala). Another popular genre is waka music played and popularized by Alhaja Batuli Alake and, more recently, Salawa Abeni, Kuburat Alaragbo, Asanat Omo-Aje, Mujidat Ogunfalu, Misitura Akawe, Fatimo Akingbade, Karimot Aduke, and Risikat Abeawo.
The traditions could not be fully stamped out, however; African-derived drumming traditions in Cuba, for example, not only flourished in religious contexts, but went on to influence prominent Latin musics of the 20th century, including cha cha, mambo, and salsa.
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