6/8 Clave Permutations - Bell Patterns and Church Modes

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Postby Thomas Altmann » Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:12 pm

David, this is a commentary to your On-Beat and Up-Beat bell pattern distinction (and open to public discussion, of course):

People who come from the Ewe musical background call it Ewe bell, Cubans call it Bembe bell. It is also played in Brazilian Candomblé, and I suppose it is played in all of the West African countries, correct me if I'm wrong.

Once I gave a percussion class for two men from South Africa. They started playing the "Ewe" ("Bembe") bell pattern, and when I told them that I knew this only from West Africa, they simply answered that it is played in ALL Africa.

It has become my conviction that this pattern is a magic formula (magic in it's original meaning for occult scientific knowledge) originating in Egypt and associated with the diatonic scale that it resembles. It reflects the law of the octave as picked up by Gurdjieff and described by Ouspensky ("In Search of the Miraculous – Fragments of an Unknown Teaching"). The theories of tribal migrations between Egypt and West Africa are still unproven but evident, referring at least to the Yoruba and the Dogon. It's a pity that I will probably never have the chance to prove it scientifically, so perhaps a younger and more scholarly inclined person will do this one day in my place.

By the way, in the same manner like the church modes were obtained by shifting the tonic up or down the diatonic scale, several seemingly different bell patterns derive from our "Ionian" (a.k.a. Ewe/Bembe) bell by shifting the "1" along the figure. Your "On-Beat" bell pattern starts on the third beat of your "Up-Beat" pattern (the "5" of the first 6/8 measure), analogous to the Lydian mode.
The Arará bell pattern that I mentioned in my first post starts on the "5" of the second bar. It starts on an eighth note rest, so there is no modal parallel for this one. There are only 7 church modes known, but in the chromatic scale, as well as in our bell pattern, we have 12 positions to start counting.

Another example I can give is the Lucumí song "Obaloke omo mi wara-wara oké-oké". I don’t know what other people feel, but I feel the metric downbeat, the "1" of the phrase, on the "4" of the second bar. If we assumed this, the clave (it isn’t anything else) would then start on the sixth beat of the Bembe bell, representing the Aeolian mode in rhythmic configuration.

The distinction of 2/3 and 3/2 clave directions in Latin American music is in my opinion a remnant of a wider use of 6/8 clave permutations. The 2/3 clave, applied to the 6/8 Bembe bell pattern, starts on "1" of the second bar, of course. I’m sure the pattern you called "On-Beat" bell exists also in it’s reversed (2/3) form; that means it starts on "6" in the second measure of the (Up-Beat) Bembe bell.

Things like that formed the foundation of a manuscript on the clave that sleeps on my shelf for at least 15 years now. I just don’t have the time to develop and publish everything that I am involved in: Quien mucho embarca, poco aprieta.

Thomas




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Postby Congadelica » Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:33 pm

Another door opens , Thaomas thankyou for the insite light a light bolt you have answered many questions i had on clave . ive been trying to work out the different directions clave fits with 6/8 bell .majical indeed .

Great peice :cool:




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Postby bongosnotbombs » Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:47 pm

Fascinating, the migrtaing bell patterns of Afirca.



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Postby davidpenalosa » Thu Feb 14, 2008 12:11 am

>>Once I gave a percussion class for two men from South Africa. They started playing the "Ewe" ("Bembe") bell pattern, and when I told them that I knew this only from West Africa, they simply answered that it is played in ALL Africa.

Hi Thomas,
That is C.K. Ladzekpo’s contention as well. That bell, or its variants are found within a wide geographic belt stretching from at the very least, northwest Africa to south-central Africa. Richard Graham ("Berimbau") speculates that the use of the binary (two-celled) bell patterns follows the early spread of iron in sub-Saharan Africa. As you move out of that belt, you find simpler structures based on the single three-over-two cell and its duple-pulse correlative - tresillo.

>>It has become my conviction that this pattern is a magic formula (magic in it's original meaning for occult scientific knowledge) originating in Egypt and associated with the diatonic scale that it resembles. It reflects the law of the octave as picked up by Gurdjieff and described by Ouspensky ("In Search of the Miraculous – Fragments of an Unknown Teaching"). The theories of tribal migrations between Egypt and West Africa are still unproven but evident, referring at least to the Yoruba and the Dogon.

I think it’s very unlikely that there was much trade between ancient Egypt and West Africa. The three-over-two cross-rhythm is the basis of the bell and the entire rhythmic matrix. 3:2 is a ratio found in natural laws. It does have mystical/spiritual associations as well.

Dr. Eugene Novotney:
"The 3:2 relationship exists as a natural phenomenon that is not exclusive to any race, culture, or geographic region. Although many people look to ancient Greece as the birthplace of proportional theory, the phenomenon of proportional interaction was not invented in ancient Greece, merely observed. The first to have described this phenomenon was Pythagoras, but the phenomenon itself has been well documented as an occurrence of nature,"(1998:191)

Addressing Western harmony’s basis in Pythagorean theorem, Bronowski (1973:dvd) states:
"These symmetries are imposed on them by the nature of the space we live in; the three dimensions, the flatness within which we live and no assembly of atoms can break that crucial law of nature."

The same could be said about the symmetries of African-based cross-rhythm.

>>It's a pity that I will probably never have the chance to prove it scientifically, so perhaps a younger and more scholarly inclined person will do this one day in my place.
By the way, in the same manner like the church modes were obtained by shifting the tonic up or down the diatonic scale, several seemingly different bell patterns derive from our "Ionian" (a.k.a. Ewe/Bembe) bell by shifting the "1" along the figure. Your "On-Beat" bell pattern starts on the third beat of your "Up-Beat" pattern (the "5" of the first 6/8 measure), analogous to the Lydian mode.<<

Exactly. The relationship between those two patterns is intriguing. I’ve written quite a bit about this phenomenon, which I hope to publish by next year.

Patterns appear in prime positions and in displaced positions. The first half of the bembe bell is 3:2 (prime position) and the second half is a displaced 3:2.

>>The Arará bell pattern that I mentioned in my first post starts on the "5" of the second bar. It starts on an eighth note rest, so there is no modal parallel for this one. There are only 7 church modes known, but in the chromatic scale, as well as in our bell pattern, we have 12 positions to start counting.<<

The more basic or simpler the pattern, the more likely that you will encounter it in different positions within the beat scheme. All patterns do not appear modularly in all possible displaced positions though, and some displaced positions are more prevalent than others are.

However, a lead drum part or improvised solo may utilize modular motifs, playing them in multiple positions within the beat scheme. I’ve enjoyed experimenting with playing patterns in various displaced positions. Sometimes I discover that two different patterns I know actually share the same sequence of strokes. A 4/4 pattern like cascara has 16 possible positions in relation to clave and the bembe bell has 12 positions.


>>Another example I can give is the Lucumí song "Obaloke omo mi wara-wara oké-oké". I don’t know what other people feel, but I feel the metric downbeat, the "1" of the phrase, on the "4" of the second bar. If we assumed this, the clave (it isn’t anything else) would then start on the sixth beat of the Bembe bell, representing the Aeolian mode in rhythmic configuration.<<

>>The distinction of 2/3 and 3/2 clave directions in Latin American music is in my opinion a remnant of a wider use of 6/8 clave permutations.<<

I see what you mean, but the 3-2, 2-3 concept comes from the interface of European harmony with African rhythm, with harmony having primacy.

>>The 2/3 clave, applied to the 6/8 Bembe bell pattern, starts on "1" of the second bar, of course. I’m sure the pattern you called "On-Beat" bell exists also in it’s reversed (2/3) form; that means it starts on "6" in the second measure of the (Up-Beat) Bembe bell.<<

Sure, more possible displacements. The most important ratios in African-based rhythm are 3:2 and 4:3. Those are the two most important ratios in European harmony as well.

>>Things like that formed the foundation of a manuscript on the clave that sleeps on my shelf for at least 15 years now. I just don’t have the time to develop and publish everything that I am involved in: Quien mucho embarca, poco aprieta.

I hear ya! Sounds like a cool manuscript. You might be interested in Godfried Toussaint’s paper on "The Euclidean Algorithm Generates Traditional Musical Rhythm":

http://jeff.cs.mcgill.ca/~godfried/publications/banff.pdf

He shows the connection between African bell parts, spallation neutron source accelerators in nuclear physics, string theory and Euclidean Algorithm.
-David
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Postby bongosnotbombs » Thu Feb 14, 2008 12:32 am

Concerning trade between Egypt and West Africa, it was actully more than probable via oceanic trade and migration.

A proponent of this theory is Thor Heyerdahl, The Ra Voyages.
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Postby davidpenalosa » Thu Feb 14, 2008 12:49 am

Ya gotta love Thor Heyerdahl, but there is ZERO corraboration out there of his theory. All evidence points to the ancient Egyptians trading directly in the eastern Mediterranean. It was the Phoenicians who had the widest trading sphere, but even they were limited to the Mediterranean.

Indirect trading occured from items being passed across great distances from people to people, but direct trading is another matter.
-David




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Postby bongosnotbombs » Thu Feb 14, 2008 1:16 am

Actually, his theory may have concerned the Phoenicians, it's been a while since I have read his books.

Still his experiments did show such oceanic migration was possible.

but then when talking about Egyptians one is referencing a very long time period.
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Postby davidpenalosa » Thu Feb 14, 2008 1:19 am

bongosnotbombs wrote:Still his experiments did show such oceanic migration was possible.

True, and I do find his adventures inspiring.
-David
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Postby bongosnotbombs » Thu Feb 14, 2008 1:22 am

davidpenalosa wrote:It was the Phoenicians who had the widest trading sphere, but even they were limited to the Mediterranean.

Actually the Phoenicians got at least as far as Morroco.
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Postby davidpenalosa » Thu Feb 14, 2008 1:31 am

Morroco along the Atlantic coast?
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Postby bongosnotbombs » Thu Feb 14, 2008 2:28 am

Yes, but I suppose technically that is North Africa?
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Postby windhorse » Thu Feb 14, 2008 3:28 am

Thomas and David, et. al.
My teacher goes nuts on all this! He claims, the "offbeat 6/8 bell" is so awesome that just playing it well can create whole universes.. :;):
He's completely crazy and a genious like you guys! He's mentioned the music scales and the connection between the bell pattern like yourselves, and I wouldn't doubt Dave, that he has either read that manuscript you linked us with, or would love to delve into it.
Good stuff guys!
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Postby Thomas Altmann » Thu Feb 14, 2008 4:06 am

Hi David,

Richard Graham ("Berimbau") speculates that the use of the binary (two-celled) bell patterns follows the early spread of iron in sub-Saharan Africa. As you move out of that belt, you find simpler structures based on the single three-over-two cell and its duple-pulse correlative - tresillo.


That’s an interesting observation.

I think it’s very unlikely that there was much trade between ancient Egypt and West Africa. The three-over-two cross-rhythm is the basis of the bell and the entire rhythmic matrix. 3:2 is a ratio found in natural laws. It does have mystical/spiritual associations as well.


But David - the Ewe bell is based on the 3:2 relation, but it goes beyond that; I don’t think it’s just an accident that it consists of two bars with the second triplet displaced! Why not look at the whole figure that it represents?

I too can hardly imagine that there was a real trade, with a regular shuttle of caravans with merchants traveling back and forth, but I can well imagine migrations from Egypt to West Africa over a certain period of time; not by boats, but across the Sahara, which has not always been a desert. This theory (or speculation, if you want) was brought forward by Olumide Lucas, who tried to prove evidence to his idea that the Yoruba had come from Nubia.

In a television documentary I saw about some mysterious festival of the Dogon in Mali, the thesis that the Dogon had Egyptian roots was stated in a certainty that to me the idea appeared even more possible.

All I must admit is that I cannot scientifically prove it. To read a speculative book or to watch a TV documentary is no legit scientific research method. But sometimes evidence becomes overwhelming, and without the serious intention to ever convince other people of the respective idea, it nevertheless enters the personal (or private) worldview.

Dr. Eugene Novotney: "The 3:2 relationship exists as a natural phenomenon that is not exclusive to any race, culture, or geographic region. Although many people look to ancient Greece as the birthplace of proportional theory, the phenomenon of proportional interaction was not invented in ancient Greece, merely observed. The first to have described this phenomenon was Pythagoras, but the phenomenon itself has been well documented as an occurrence of nature,"(1998:191)
Addressing Western harmony’s basis in Pythagorean theorem, Bronowski (1973:dvd) states:
"These symmetries are imposed on them by the nature of the space we live in; the three dimensions, the flatness within which we live and no assembly of atoms can break that crucial law of nature..."


All this explains musical and rhythmic/metric 3:2 relations in its various forms. But the clave is more than just 3 against 2, and the Ewe bell goes far beyond it.

... The same could be said about the symmetries of African-based cross-rhythm.


Oh, perhaps you mean the juxtaposition of 2 audible clave beats against 3 ? Here I could agree. However, to me, the five-stroke Son clave and Rumba clave never promised as much meaning to me as our 6/8 bell pattern. These binary clave forms are just stripped bell patterns, saving five of seven strokes. Each of these binary forms has its counterpart in ternary meter: The “Up-Beat”-bell pattern minus two strokes becomes the Abakua ekón pattern (and in binary meter Rumba clave), while the “On-Beat” bell leads to a five stroke pattern used in African rhythms like Fume-Fume (relatively recent creation, if I remember well), and it can also be traced in the 6/8-Tabilar timeline, carried by the right hand. This figure, transferred to binary meter, becomes Son clave.

Tabilar (6/8):

x-xxx-xx-xx-
r-rlr-lr-rl-

Right hand:

x-x-x—-x-x--

However, the only instances where I found binary clave patterns like the Cuban Son clave are modern creations like Kpanlogo that post-date Cuban Son. According to Wikipedia;

“Kpanlogo is a recreational dance and music form from Ghana, West Africa. It was first played by the Ga ethnic group, most of whom live in and around the capital city, Accra, but is now performed and enjoyed throughout the country. It is a celebration song that came to popularity around 1960, but is based on much older drumming patterns.”

So my question regarding your theory that binary clave forms existed in Africa before the Cuban Son clave, is: Which other African rhythms do you know that incorporate these patterns?

In Brazil, the pattern known to us as the Son clave forms the basis for the Samba Marcha and the Frevo. There should be a common origin of both the Brazilian and the Cuban clave (if the Brazilians did not adopt it from Cuban slaves at some point in history).

Exactly. The relationship between those two patterns is intriguing. I’ve written quite a bit about this phenomenon, which I hope to publish by next year.


I guess I’m not the only one who is eager to read what you found out.

Patterns appear in prime positions and in displaced positions. The first half of the bembe bell is 3:2 (prime position) and the second half is a displaced 3:2.


Sorry, David; this is a sound description of the phenomenon, but it is somehow not enough to satisfy the “Why” in my brain, my strife for a deeper understanding. Do you really think this is all that can be said?

>>The Arará bell pattern that I mentioned in my first post starts on the "5" of the second bar. It starts on an eighth note rest, so there is no modal parallel for this one. There are only 7 church modes known, but in the chromatic scale, as well as in our bell pattern, we have 12 positions to start counting.<<
The more basic or simpler the pattern, the more likely that you will encounter it in different positions within the beat scheme. All patterns do not appear modularly in all possible displaced positions though, and some displaced positions are more prevalent than others are.


D’accord.

However, a lead drum part or improvised solo may utilize modular motifs, playing them in multiple positions within the beat scheme. I’ve enjoyed experimenting with playing patterns in various displaced positions. Sometimes I discover that two different patterns I know actually share the same sequence of strokes. A 4/4 pattern like cascara has 16 possible positions in relation to clave and the bembe bell has 12 positions.


Undoubtedly – at least from the arithmetic side. But those are experiments, as you said. Surely a lot of these constellations sounded “out of clave”.

I see what you mean, but the 3-2, 2-3 concept comes from the interface of European harmony with African rhythm, with harmony having primacy.


Exactly. But this is only a criticism of the terminology in musical working practice. I agree with you on this. But that doesn’t alter the fact that these are possible positions for what you call “displacements”. (The term suggests irregularity.)

>>The 2/3 clave, applied to the 6/8 Bembe bell pattern, starts on "1" of the second bar, of course. I’m sure the pattern you called "On-Beat" bell exists also in it’s reversed (2/3) form; that means it starts on "6" in the second measure of the (Up-Beat) Bembe bell.<<
Sure, more possible displacements. The most important ratios in African-based rhythm are 3:2 and 4:3. Those are the two most important ratios in European harmony as well.


Right. But I don’t understand how this response refers to my above statement.

I hear ya! Sounds like a cool manuscript. You might be interested in Godfried Toussaint’s paper on "The Euclidean Algorithm Generates Traditional Musical Rhythm": …
He shows the connection between African bell parts, spallation neutron source accelerators in nuclear physics, string theory and Euclidean Algorithm.


I think I know the site, and – you won’t believe it – that’s a little too far out for me. (And hard to understand, especially for non-english speakers)

Greetings,

Thomas




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Postby Derbeno » Thu Feb 14, 2008 8:37 am

May I propose Opus1 by the Pan African Orchestra (one of my favourites)
ewe 6/8, Highlife and Akan clave and other bell and stick patterns to accompany the excellent drumming.
Sadly Opus2 remains forthcoming. You can pre-listen on iTunes store.

Out of Accra, Ghana, comes an ambitious expression of modern Africa. The Pan African Orchestra was started as the brain child of Nana Danso Abiam, who had the vision of integrating for the first time the different regional musics of the continent into a 'new' synthesis. This would simultaneously offer an 'Afrocentric' system of symphonic music, as a substitute for the colonially established western classical repertoire in Africa, and move the cultural climate a degree or two in the direction of the grail of true pan-Africanism: the welding of the continent into a single African state. Danso Abiam describes the repertoire as 're-composed' by which he means traditional themes collected at the village level, reworked and expanded into neo-classical pieces, in some cases of symphonic length. Now put into full effect after years of organization and development, the Pan African Orchestra have succeeded in creating that unique new synthesis of music that is jubilant and vitally rhythmic.
Echale candela, p'afinar los cueros
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Postby davidpenalosa » Thu Feb 14, 2008 9:35 am

Thomas: >>But David - the Ewe bell is based on the 3:2 relation, but it goes beyond that; I don’t think it’s just an accident that it consists of two bars with the second triplet displaced! Why not look at the whole figure that it represents?<<

me:
I am. No, it’s not an accident. The two-cell ("two bar") structure is significantly more complex than the single cell of 3:2. The bell is a cell of 3:2 answered by its diametric opposite, the offbeat 3:2.

>>…these are possible positions for what you call "displacements". (The term suggests irregularity.)<<

I don't mean to suggest irregularity. I meant to convey that patterns generally have a prime position and positions displaced from that prime position. For example, the prime position of four beats is:
1..2..3..4..5..

A displaced position of four beats is the 12/8 "and" pulse (what you play on the itotele chacha for rhythms like Eleggua, Obaloki and ñongo):
.X..X..X..X.

By the way, technically speaking, the three 12/8 patterns and the three 4/4 patterns mentioned here are all in duple meter. They consist of two cells, divided into two main beats each. All the patterns have four main beats. It’s their pulses (subdivisions) that are either triple or duple (quadruple).

>> All this explains musical and rhythmic/metric 3:2 relations in its various forms. But the clave is more than just 3 against 2, and the Ewe bell goes far beyond it.<<

Structurally speaking, it is exactly as I described above, no more no less. If you are referring to the EFFECT of the clave or bell, their significance in the music, or all the things they intimate by the very nature of their archetypal structures, then of course, I agree that they go far beyond that. Their structures have cognates in harmony, architecture, nature and metaphysical concepts.

>>>Patterns appear in prime positions and in displaced positions. The first half of the bembe bell is 3:2 (prime position) and the second half is a displaced 3:2.<<<


>>Sorry, David; this is a sound description of the phenomenon, but it is somehow not enough to satisfy the "Why" in my brain, my strife for a deeper understanding. Do you really think this is all that can be said?<<

As far as the "why" goes, I think it’s an elegant summary. The relationship of the three to the two is profound. I don’t see it as limiting. I mean, Pythagoras was both a philosopher as well as a mathematician and wasn’t there a whole religion established upon his teachings? Joseph Campbell said that the three is the universal number of transcendence and "whenever one moves out of the transcendent one comes into a field of opposites [two]".

I don’t mean to minimize the significance of this music by breaking it down to its fundamental ratios. I can break harmony down to its fundamental ratios too: 3:2 is the perfect fifth and 4:3 is the perfect forth, but is Mozart’s art really just a matter of math? I’m just talking rhythmic ratios here because the topic of this thread is "6/8 Clave Permutations". Permutations of what rhythmic principles?

>> The five-stroke Son clave and Rumba clave never promised as much meaning to me as our 6/8 bell pattern. These binary clave forms are just stripped bell patterns, saving five of seven strokes.<<

The seven–stroke pattern and the two five stroke (clave) patterns are all manifestations of the same rhythmic principle. Some key patterns express it in a more straight forward manner than others. The offbeat 12 bell:
X.X.XX.X.X.X

And the 12 son clave:
X.X.X..X.X..

- are two of the most straight forward expressions of the principle.

I’m not sure if you are saying that the seven-stroke pattern is older than the five-stroke pattern. In his article "The Standard Pattern in Yoruba Music" (1960), Anthony King called the 12/8 son clave pattern the standard and the seven-stroke pattern an embellished variant. In his article "The Clave: Cornerstone of Cuban Music" (1983), John Santos stated the opposite view that the seven-stroke pattern was the original and the five-stroke pattern is a simplified variant. Neither King nor Santos offered any evidence supporting the idea that one pattern was historically older than the other was. I’m not aware of any evidence for either argument.

The seven-stroke bell pattern does have the dynamic configuration of continuous beats with no more than a single pulse rest between strokes.

X.X.XX.X.X.X

The first three strokes are on the six-beat cycle:
X.X.Xx.x.x.x

and the next four are on the off-beat six cycle.
x.x.xX.X.X.X

The interior "double" strokes are where the pattern shifts from the on-six to the off-six. On the pickup before beat 1 of the next cycle (the other "double" strokes), the pattern shifts from the offbeat-six, back to the on-beat six for beat 1.

The 12/8 seven-stroke bell pattern contains both 12/8 son clave and rumba clave patterns.

In her book "Songs from the Dark Continent" (1920), Natalie Curtis was the first person to notate the 12/8 son clave pattern. It was a hand-clap pattern accompanying one of the songs in her book. She learned the pattern from Ndua (Mozambican Bantu) informants visiting the United States.

In his article "African Music" in African Affairs #48 (1949), and his two volume "Studies in African Music" (1959). A.M. Jones documented 12/8 son clave’s widespread use in Africa. In his book "African Musical Symbolism in Contemporary Perspective"(2004) John Collins identifies both the 12/8 son and rumba clave patterns as common Ghanaian children hand-clap patterns.

The 4/4 version of the seven-stroke bell pattern:

X..X..XX..X.X..X

contains both the 4/4 son clave and rumba clave.

You can hear the 4/4 seven-stroke pattern played on a bata drumhead on "Ogogo", from the CD "Yoruba Drums from Benin, West Africa".

I have recordings of a variant used in Brazilian Candomble (Exú):

X..X..XX..X.X...

- which is a combination of the 4/4 son and rumba clave patterns.

That’s also a bell pattern used in an arrangement of Cuban conga de comparsa (sorry, I don’t remember the Cuban city, but it’s on a Boogalu DVD).

>>...regarding your theory that binary clave forms existed in Africa before the Cuban Son clave, is: Which other African rhythms do you know that incorporate these patterns?<<

Are you referring to this statement made by me in an earlier posting?:

"A common misconception is that clave was created in Cuba. In fact, the five-stroke pattern is a timeline that’s found in various regions of Africa. So, the short answer to your question is that clave came directly from Africa"

I was referring to the use of the 1/28 versions of son clave and rumba clave in Africa. There’s also documentation of the 4/4 seven–stroke pattern (which contains both clave patterns) in Africa.

>>the only instances where I found binary clave patterns like the Cuban Son clave are modern creations like Kpanlogo that post-date Cuban Son.<<

I don’t have much documentation of the 4/4 clave patterns outside of Cuba. There’s Kpanlogo, as you mentioned and I also have a recording of the 4/4 son clave in Candomble:
"Afro-Brazileiros" by Luciano Perrone from the CD "Batucada Fantastica" (late 70's). It's a medley of traditional Candomble rhythms using atabaque drums and an agogo bell. You can download it from itunes fro 99 cents.

There’s also an interesting version of son clave that has the first three strokes in triple pulse and the last two in duple pulse. At least, that’s what it sounds like to me. There may be some subtle stroke displacement, like what goes on in some interpretations of rumba clave. You can hear this triple/duple son clave on "Vodú" (Cuban) from the CD "Drum, Jam" and on "Opanije - Rhythms For Omolú" (Brazil), from the CD "Orishas Across The Ocean".

I need to ask C.K. about 4/4 son clave in Kpanlogo and African music in general. I’ve heard the 4/4 son clave in African drum melodies, but other than Kpanlogo, not as a guide-pattern played on a bell.
-David




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