Ewe music is the music of the Ewe people. Its highest form is in dance music including a drum orchestra, but there are also work, play, and other songs. It is featured in A. M. Jones' Studies in African Music. He describes two "rules" (p.24 and p.17): Wikibooks Wikiversity has more about this subject: School of Music Look up Music in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Wikisource, as part of the 1911 Encyclopedia Wikiproject, has original text related to this article: Music Wikicities has a wiki about Music: Music Music City : a collaborative music database All Music Guide... The Ewe people are a people of southern Ghana and Togo. ... For other kinds of drums, see drum (disambiguation). ... A song is a relatively short musical composition for the human voice (possibly accompanied by other musical instruments), which features words (lyrics). ...

1. The Unit of Time Rule or the Rule of Twos and Threes: "African [Ewe] phrases are built up of the numbers 2 or 3, or their multiples: or of a combination of 2 and 3 or of the multiples of this combination. Thus a phrase of 10 will be (2+3)+(2+3) or (2+2+2)+4.
2. The Rule of Repeats: "The repeats within an African [Ewe] song are an integral part of it." If a song is formally "A+A+B+B+B" one cannot leave out, say, one of the B sections.

He also lists the following "Features of African [Ewe] Music" (p.49):

1. "Songs appear to be in free rhythm but most of them have a fixed time-background.
2. The rule of 2 and 3 in the metrical build of songs.
3. Nearly all rhythms which are used in combination are made from simple aggregates of a basic time-unit. A quaver is always a quaver.
4. The claps or other time-background impart no accent what-ever to the song.
5. African [Ewe] melodies are additive: their time-background is divisive.
6. The principle of cross-rhythms.
7. The rests within and at the end of a song before repeats are an integral part of it.
8. Repeats are an integral part of the song: they result in many variations of the call and response form (see summary).
9. The call and response type of song is usual in Africa [sic].
10. African [Ewe] melodies are diatonic: the major exception being the sequence dominant-sharpened subdominant-dominant.
11. Short triplets are occasionally used.
12. The teleological trend: many African [Ewe] songs lean towards the ends of the lines: it is at the ends where they are likely to coincide with their time-background.
13. Absence of the fermata."

See: International System of Units, colloquially called the Metric System, and also metrication. ... Clap may refer to: The act of clapping A slang term for gonorrhoea, possibly named after Margaret Clap A slang term for chlamydia This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Additive rhythms are larger periods of time constructed from sequences of smaller rhythmic units added to the end of the previous unit. ... In music a divisive rhythm is a rhythm in which a larger period of time is divided into smaller rhythmic units, this can be contrasted with additive rhythms, which are larger periods of time constructed from sequences of smaller rhythmic units added to the end of the previous unit. ... Polyrhythm is the simultaneous sounding of two or more independent rhythms. ... A rest is an interval of silence in a piece of music, marked by a sign indicating the length of the pause. ... In music, a call and response is a succession of two distinct phrases usually played by different musicians, where the second phrase is heard as a direct commentary on or response to the first. ... }} Wiktionary has a definition of: Melody In music, a melody is a series of linear events or a succession, not a simultaneity as in a chord. ... In Music theory, the diatonic major scale (also known as the Guido scale), from the Greek diatonikos or to stretch out, is a fundamental building block of the European-influenced musical tradition. ... The word dominant has several possible meanings: In music theory, the dominant or dominant note (second most important) of a key is that which is a perfect fifth above the tonic; in just intonation the note whose pitch is 1. ... SHARP (Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice) are anti-racist skinheads who often confront those they feel to be neo-nazis, racists, or possessed of other prejudices. ... In music, the subdominant is the technical name for the fourth degree of the scale. ... A triplet is a set of three items, and includes in particular: one of three babies in a multiple birth a preparation of opal as a gemstone, with a thin layer of opal backed with a dark material and covered with cap of clear quartz in poetry, a tercet (three... Teleology is the philosophical study of purpose (from the Greek teleos, perfect, complete, which in turn comes from telos, end, result). ... Fermata A fermata is an element of Musical notation indicating that the note should be sustained for longer than the printed note would indicate. ...

Instruments

Background rhythm section

Gankogui, axatse, and atoke. The Gankogui is a clapperless double bell that is pounded in shape rather than cast. It produces much less audible high partials than western bells ("purer" fundamental) and is played with a stick. It produces two notes each of which vary and must vary among gankogui so they may be used together. Axatse are rattles, and the atoke are high pitched gongs played with an iron rod. The gankogui plays a background pattern which the orchestra builds upon, though the tempo is set by the master drummer. Many patterns from 8-12 beats are used but the decidedly most common pattern is called the Standard Pattern:

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (894x109, 2 KB)Gankogui standard pattern Created by Hyacinth using Sibelius and Microsoft Paint. ...

Drums

Master drum: Atsimewu Asiwui: Sogo, Kidi, Kagaŋ.

Claps and song

Voice and hands.

External link

• BridgingDevelopment.org: Culture pages - Ewe Music