Yb

SOME NOTES ON A THEORY OF AFRICAN RHYTHM

ADVANCED BY ERICH VON HORNBOSTEL
by
JOHN BLACKING

In an article on African Music written in 1928, Hornbostel offered an explanation

of certain features of African rhythms which may puzzle Western ears (Hornbostel
’28, p. 52):—
“African rhythm is ultimately founded on drumming. Drumming can be replaced by hand­
clapping or the xylophone; what really matters is the act of beating; and only from this point can
African rhythms be understood. Each single beating movement is again twofold: the muscles
are strained and released, the hand is lifted and dropped. Only the second phase is stressed acousti­
cally; but the first inaudible one has the motor accent, as it .were, which consisre in the straining of
the muscles. This implies an essential contrast between our rhythmic conception and the African’s;
we proceed from hearing, they from motion; we separate the two phases by a bar line, and commence
the metrical unity, the bar, with the acoustically stressed time-unit; to them, the beginning of the
movement, the arsis, is at the same time the beginning of the rhythmical figure; up-beats are unknown
to them. (i.e. up-beats as weak beats, in the way Western musicians use them. J.B.) To us the simple
succession of beats *1 J ' *1 J" appears as syncopated, because we only attend to its acoustic aspect.
In order to understand African rhythms as they really are, therefore, we must thoroughly change
our attitude; and in order to write them down adequately we must place the bar-line before the
rest or the up-beat. . . the elementary form of African 3/4 rhythm is not >~~ »
I c J J I but | J d | . .
(f) O’)
A. M. Jones refers to these remarks in his article “African Drumming” (Jones
’34, p. 49):—
‘ ‘Hornbostel with considerable ingenuity justifies these (marks of emphasis) on the ground
that it is the raising of the arm rather than the actual sound of the strike, that carries the strong
accent in African percussion rhythms. If our version be accepted, note that these accented notes
practically all fall naturally into position, counting the strike as the accent. My African informant
repudiates Hombostel’s notion. In this example, at any rate, it is entirely irrelevant.”
These are the only references to motor concepts of rhythm in African Music that
I have been able to find. Hornbostel does not say whether he deduced the theory himself
or whether he had gotten it from some educated African or European enquirer. If
his theory is correct then it deserves more attention than it has so far received, since
it would be fundamental to the proper understanding of much African music. Although
Hornbostel implies that all African peoples conceive their rhythms physically from
motion rather than musically from hearing, it is more likely that the generalization
applies, if at all, only to certain groups. Jones’ African informant repudiates the notion;
and this suggests that at least one group of Africans may not think of rhythm in this way.
Until Hornbostel’s theory has been hammered out and proved true or false—or
perhaps true and false, according to its application in different parts of Africa—accurate
research into African music is seriously impeded. His proposition raises many problems
and offers some solution to others:—
(1 ) What is the precise nature o f this suggested contrast between A frican and European
concepts o f rhythm ?
If one watches Chopi musicians playing their xylophones, they appear to be
“attacking” their instruments with all the force they can muster. The only movement
downwards that could be interpreted as a release of muscular tension is that which
follows the raising of one arm in the air (see photo below), and this movement appears
to be done only by a leader; it is a sign for the beginning of a new section of the music.
Already an indictment of Hornbostel’s theory? . . . .
High-speed photograph of the leader of a Chopi timbila orchestra preparing to begin a
new section of the music. {Photo—J.B.)
4 A F R IC A N M U S IC S O C IE T Y J O U R N A L

Two high-speed photographs of Chopi musicians playing in the arena of a Johannesburg

Mine Compound. Note the looseness and turning of the wrists, especially of the bass
players (top). If they were hitting their instruments they would not be holding the beaters
m that way. The pictures also show how the wrists are suspended from the shoulders.
In the second photo (bottom) the leader has just jerked his beret on to the xylophone of
the man behind. (Photos—J .B .)
 SO M E N O TES O N A T H E O R Y O F A F R IC A N RHYTHM 15

One has a similar impression of downward “attacking” movements when one

watches the performance of a virtuoso pianist. If in fact he were pounding his instrument
the tone would be unpleasantly harsh (It sometimes is!). Closer analysis of his move­
ments will usually reveal that there is constant upward lift, which makes the downward
“thrust” more of a downward “drop” Some piano teachers insist that all the muscular
effort must be made when preparing to play each tone, so that the note is actually struck
during a moment of muscular relaxation. The fingers are allowed to fall on to the keys
rather than compelled to hit them: thus, contrary to what may seem natural, the louder
one plays the more relaxed one is. In playing groups of tones, or chords, which succeed
each other slowly it is possible to emphasize the periods of effort between the relaxed
sounding of the tones. Obviously this is impossible when the tones are sounded in
quick succession, as in fast semiquaver runs; and here the muscular effort is made
theoretically before the beginning of each musical phrase, each “moment of relaxation”
covering several quickly-changing tones.
Thus when African xylophonists or drummers play successions of notes or beats
quickly and appear to be beating downwards they may still be adhering to Hornbostel’s
theory, with the same modifications that a pianist would have to make to his theory of
effort-^nd relaxation when playing fast passages. The clue to the technique which
underlies tb e if performance, whether conscious or unconscious, is to be found in the
movements of the trunk, and more particularly the shoulders. In the same way one
often learns more by watching a pianist’s arms and shoulders rather than his hands
and fingers. The Chopi play their xylophones with a loose wrist which is supported
directly from the shoulder; if the wrist were supported by the forearm rather than the
shoulder, so that they hit the keys forcefully with the beaters, I do not think that they
could possibly play almost continuosly and as vigorously as they do for more than an
hour at a time, while the Ngodo dance is performed.
The procedure of both European and African performers appears to be virtually
the same: an African drummer raises his hand prior to letting it fall on to the instrument,
and a Eqropean pianist must prepare a chord both mentally and physically before
producing the musical sound. In both cases the performer is a step ahead of his audience;
in a sense the pianist proceeds as much from motion as the African drummer. Similarly
a violinist must make a muscular effort before sounding a musical tone; a wind player
must “strain” and take a breath before he releases the air and plays.
The contrast which Hornbostel suggests is therefore not so much one of procedure
as of attitude towards movements and the production of musical sounds. He claims
that Africans think of the sounds as a bi-product of rhythmical movement, whereas
Westerners pay more attention to the sounds than to the movement which causes them.
(2) Comparison o f H ornbostel’s theory with dancing and the ethos o f much A frican music.
“In Africa, the music of the dance and the dance itself are one indivisible whole.”
(Jones ’52, page 1).
This fact has been corroborated by so many other observers that there seems little
reason to doubt its truth. Since music for dancing must be related to the dance move­
ments and in many cases in Africa might be considered subordinate to them, one might
expect to find musical concepts derived from the physical pattern of the movement.
(Sachs dwells on this point in Sachs ‘37, page 181 ff., giving several examples of the
correlation between styles of music and dancing.)
A large number of African dances might be described as extrovert (see Sachs ’37);
the tendency is to achieve emotional release by straining the body upwards and outwards.
The Ndblamu stamping dance of the Nguni group in Southern Africa might appear at
first to be an obvious contradiction of this: but in fact the tense winding-up of the body
16 A F R IC A N M U S IC S O C IE T Y J O U R N A L

is a longer and more significant movement than the stamping release. The pattern is
one of Tension—Relaxation, Tension—Relaxation. This is the pattern of many African
melodies (see for instance Hornbostel ’28, p. 34 ff.); Sachs calls this type of melody
“pathogenic” (Sachs ’43, p. 41).
The general pattern of Western music is one of Relaxation-Tension-Relaxation.1
The tendency is to sing up the scale, whereas in Africa the tendency is to do the
opposite: some instruments are even tuned from the highest to the lowest note—or,
as African musicians say, from the smallest to the largest.
Telescoping these larger physical patterns into the space of a bar of four beats we
find that the African up-beat should be the strong beat, equivalent to the Western
down-beat. Physically the sensations are similar; the first beat is the strong beat: but
in one case it is a movement upwards and in the other a movement downwards.
Musically, as Hornbostel suggests, the results are not the same: the Western music
runs 1 - 2 - 3 , 1 - 2 - 3 etc., whereas the African music runs 1 - 2 - 3 , 1 - 2 - 3 etc.
I have noticed a similar contrast expressed in the overall movements of ballroom
dancing and jiving. However well one waltzes, dances the Foxtrot or the Quick-
Step, one tends to come down to the ground on the strong beats:—1 - 2 - 3 , 1 - 2 - 3 , 1 -
or 1 - 2 - 3 - 4, 1 - 2 - 3 - 4. In jive dancing, however, one tends to lift the body off
the floor. I have checked this point recently at some European night clubs in Johannes­
burg. During the playing of waltzes, steady and sentimental numbers the couples
danced or slouched around the floor in the normal Western fashion: but as soon
as the band played a semi-hot number several dancers would indulge in a pseudo­
jive style of bounce-dancing. With hardly a single exception amongst all those whom
I observed, they lifted their bodies on the strong beats of the music (Beats 1 and 3,
since all the tunes were in duple' time), and let them drop on the weak beats.
The syncopations of Jazz are often regular and monotonous, and it may be that
this is due to a different conception of up-beats and down-beats. The upward lift, as
opposed to the downward beat, is surely what gives Jazz its bounce. On the few
occasions when I have played jazz on the piano I have found that bouncing up and down
on the piano stool o p lifting the shoulders in time to the music is very helpful to good
rhythmic playing. It might well be shown that the fundamental innovation in Jazz
was the replacement of the down-up movement found in most Western music and dances,
by the up-down movement, a concept apparently derived from African dancing.
(3) How fa r is Hornbostel’s theory likely to apply to the rhythmic foundations o f all
A frican vocal and instrumental music ?
Although I have suggested that, in line with Hornbostel’s hypothesis, the taking
in of the breath for singing and playing wind instruments is equivalent to the raising
of the arm prior to the beating of the drum (Section I of these Notes), it is more likely
that the actual moment of exhalation coincides with the strong upward movement of
the body. Although further tension, that of taking a breath, precedes it, the beginning
of a pathogenic line of melody is really the climactic moment of tension. (When Chopi
dancers sing they wind themselves up, moving their heads forwards, backwards and
sideways left and right before bursting into the melodic phrase with tremendous vigour.
The leader of the Makwaya dance of the Shangaan of Portugese East Africa sizzles

1 See, for instance Hindemith *47, p. 115 etc. Most Western music is shaped like a curve or a rising
plane; very few works could be called pathogenic in outline. One might perhaps' stretch a point and
say that Vaughan Williams’ 6th Symphony in E minor follows a pattern of Tension—Relaxation.
 SO M E N O T E S O N A TH E O RY O F A F R IC A N RHYTHM
17
ominously like the fuse of a thunderflash before putting every ounce of effort into the
first explosion of his speech-song.) Hornbostel deduces that theoreticall/the emphasis
of the vocal line (and presumably that of melodies played on wind instruments also)
should run at loggerheads with the audible beat of the percussion:_

Body Dp Dp
aoTtmtnt down down
Vole#
Perousaion
rf rf

If the whole body is strained and lifted in order to accentuate the melodic
line, it cannot be expected to beat downwards at the same time. Perhaps this is why
handclaps often occur systematically on the off-beats of a sung melody: the raising
of the arms and the spreading of the hands is an act of tension resolved by the clap.
Though these explanations of syncopation may be shown to apply in some areas of
Africa, it must not be thought that they can be applied universally: for instance, in
the areas in Northern Rhodesia and Southern Congo where polyrhythmic technique is
commonly used the syncopation may perhaps be explained in a different way. In a
pounding song of Tonga girls from Northern Rhodesia, analysed by D. K. Rycroft
(Rycroft ’55 ,p. 21), the down-beat of the pestles coincides with the strong beats o f the
vocal line. (This does not of course mean that all work songs will contradict Rom-
bostel’s hypothesis: I can think of many cases where it is best for the physical movement
to follow the vocal effort rather than synchronize with it. For instance, if a group of
men are pulling a rope to the shout of “heave”, the pulling will be more effective if the
effort is made just after the shout rather than with it.)
Similar rhythmic features may be found in Jazz music, according to a recent
definition of F. H. Garner and A. P. Merriam. Under the heading, “Continual off-beat
phrasing of melodic accents”, they list:—
“a. Phrase patterns in which melodic accents fall.between dominant percussive
beats.
b. Melodic cycles of three beats superimposed on a fundamental rhythm of two
or four beats, the beats themselves remaining equal in value.”
Both these features are often loosely called “syncopation”, (b) may be explained
on the basis of polyrhythmic technique (see Jones ’34 etc.); while (a) may perhaps be
explained on the basis of the elaboration of Hornbostel’s theory which I have discussed.
Quite recently I came across some African music which seemed to combine both
these features at the same time. I give below a diagram of the rhythmic foundations
of the ngentso movement of a Chopi Ngalanga dance from the Zavala district of Portuguese
East Africa.2

2 Special dubbings of this recording can be obtained by arrangement from the International Library
of African Music. It was collected on 4.x.55, (Research No. HIM-4), during a short expedition led by
Mr. Tracey.
18 A F R IC A N M U S I C S O C IE T Y J O U R N A L

RATTLE, ahd
J - loo M.M.
XYLOPHONE.
c c c c \c C £ c
Drum, p la y e d
w it h s t i c k .
R ig h t ARM Of
^ \ ^ { i^ \
up down u ji down j up down
^ i '
up down
i
p la y e r.
— 3 3 i f in 3 \ « 3
NXDL0_

p la y e d
R .H .

L .H .
F t p t *p r'Jrt’r
Y Y T<it f ,
(,r rf ~T
w i t h two
b e a te rs.
1
VOICES.
t X U U - L f if f l f T
Rhythmic foundations of ngeniso movement from a Chopi Ngalanga dance.

The notation of the voice part must not be taken too literally, since the rhythm
was governed by the words; nevertheless the tendency was to slow down over the
course of each two-bar phrase, as indicated above. A solo xylophone begins the dance,
the other two join in with the rattle player, and then the two drummers: the voices
enter when the rhythm is well under way. I checked my notation of the drum rhythms
by playing them myself: when I emphasized the first of each triplet group in the Nkulu
part I was corrected: only when I tested Hornbostel’s theory and played with the accent
on the last note of each group (as indicated above), was my performance approved.
I tried playing the Nchuto drum as if it was the second of a group of triplets; that was
also corrected. There is further use of polyrhythmic technique which I have not indi­
cated above; the xylophones were often played with the left hand in duple time and the
right in triple time. I was told by our Chopi interpreter, himself a musician, that the
triple time is regarded as a variation within the basic duple time, and that it is important
that the player should maintain the duple time in the left hand part. (cf. Drum technique
described in Jones ’52 ,p. 36 ff.)
Here, then, is evidence of off-beat accents apparently produced by polyrhythmic
technique and the application of Hornbostel’s theory at the same time. It is worth
mentioning that when I first heard the play-back of part of this recording I was tempted
to think that the beat of the Nchuto drum was in fact the main beat. When they performed
it a second time however, it was quite clear that the main beat was set by the rattle
player and the xylophonists; I noticed also the body movements of the two drummers,
how the Nkulu player seemed to take each phrase in one downward swaying movement,
and the Nchuto player stressed the upward lift of his drumstick almost as much as the
downward beat. I could never have guessed what was happening by listening to the
recording alone.
(4) Further evidence in support o f H ornbostel's theory.
The other day a local boy sang us a song with guitar accompaniment. There was
no hint of polyrhythmic technique in the rhythmical structure of the music (polyrhythm
 SO M E N O T E S O N A T H E O RY O F A F R IC A N RHYTHM 19

does not appear to be used extensively by Africans in the Union of South Africa);
both accompaniment and melody were in duple time, arranged in 4-har periods and with
simple European-influenced harmonies. The player beat time with hp foot; the upward
beat of his foot coincided with the strong, apparently syncopated accents of the melodic
line; but the downward beat of his foot coincided with the strong beats of his Strumming
on the guitar. Being accustomed to European music, I regarded his down-heat as the
main beat and his up-beat as the weak beat, so that the vocal line seemed Excessively
syncopated to me, almost monotonously so. If on the other hand the up-b^at was to
him the strong beat, then his conception of the syncopation would have be^n entirely
different; in fact none of the music would have on him the physical effect of syncopation
if it were perfectly normal for him to accent the voice on the up-beat and the percussive
sound on the down-beat.
(As Hornbostel points out, the motor concept of rhythm poses certain problems
in transcription. Are we to place the bar-line in accordance with the sound or with the
physical movement that causes the sound? Written music should of course indicate
the sound intended, not the methods of producing that sound; on the other hand, if
we are to analyse music thoroughly it seems that we should try to express it in the terms
in which it was conceived. Ideally every transcription of African music should, be
accompanied by some indication of the physical movements which produce the musical
sounds. Transcriptions of drumming, for instance, which do not indicate the hand
used to play each note, are not very enlightening.)
In listening to some items of African music, and trying to beat time with my foot,
I have often found that I wanted to lift not only my foot but my whole body on what
should be the first beat of the “bar”; only in this way could I feel the rhythm of the
music. An excellent example of this sort of tune is Mwana aboyi mama (Ngoma 1378.
78 r.p.m., also on Decca LP 1224, No. 10 in the “Music of Africa” Series).
There is, moreover, evidence that African drummers f e e l their rhythms rather than
listen to them. A typical example of this occurs in A. M. Jones’ book on the Icila Dance
(Jones ’52): Mr. Kombe, an African musician, gives demonstrations on the drum;
when he makes a mistake it is significant that he says not that he HEARS he has gone
wrong, but that he FEELS that he has gone wrong, (p. 36 op. cit.)
I witnessed some of the most striking evidence in support of Hornbostel’s theory
at the Third African Eisteddfod in Bulawayo (described elsewhere in this issue in the
Section ‘Notes and News’). All the Choirs had to sing set pieces of European composed
music, arranged either for part- or unison-singing. These songs where conducted by
the African teachers who coached the choirs: I was astonished to see that several of
them gave vigorous up-beats on all the strong beats where I should have given a
down-beat. An excellent example of this occurred in the song, “The Lass of Richmond
Hill”, where eight out of nine African conductors beat thus:—

On Rich - mond Hill there lives a lass,

Conductor s' beat: down - UP down UP down UP down UP etc.

The average European conductor would have done the exact opposit^ (I t must
be said that this upward thrust to the strong beat of the bar is consider ^ y ^ -
than the downward beat common in European conducting
20 A F R IC A N M U S I C S O C IE T Y J O U R N A L

with some of the African teachers afterwards, and they said that they definitely felt the
up-beat to be the strong beat.
These then are some of the thoughts which have occurred to me and some of the
evidence I have been able to muster since I was struck so forcibly by the methods of
conducting employed by some African teachers at the Bulawayo Eisteddfod. Hom-
bostel, I discovered, had drawn attention to the ‘motor concept’ in African rhythms as
long ago as 1928; the full significance of what he said does not seem to have been
appreciated.
I have written these notes in the hope that they will stimulate correspondence and
views both for and against Horbostel’s notion from observers and research
workers, and above all from African musicians themselves—for the last word in this
matter must inevitably come from the*».

WORKS QUOTED
Paul Hindemith: 1937—“The Craft of Musical Composition”, Book I—Theoretical Part. Associated
Music Publishers Inc., New York.
E. M. von Hombostel: 1928—“African Negro Music”, A frica, Vol. I, No. 1.
A. M. Jones: 1934—-“African Drumming”, Bantu Studies, the Journal of the University of the
Witwatersrand, Vol. 8, No. 1: reprinted 1949, No. 4 of the Occasional Papers of the Rhodes-Livingstone
Museum.
A. M. Jones: 1952—“The Icila Dance, Old Style” (with L. Kombe), African Music Society.
D. K. Rycroft: 1955—“Tribal Style and Free Expression”, African M usic, Vol. 1, No. 1.
Curt Sachs: 1937—“World History of the Dance”.
Curt Sachs: 1943—“The Rise of Music in the Ancient World East and West”.
 TH E LU K UM BI

THE LUKUMBI N
A six-toned slit drum of the Batetela

h
DOROTHY R. GILBERT

Three types of drum are used by the Batetela, a Bantu tribe situated betw
Lomami and the Sankuru rivers in the Kasai Province of central Belgian Cong
ngomo skin drum is used for dancing, usually accompanying the lukumbi, the si:
slit drum. The ekuli, a small cylindrical two-toned drum, formerly used to signal
in batde, is now used to call people to church and classes. The lukumbi is th
interesting and intricate of the three, and constitutes a highly developed poe
musical art form as well as a means of communication.
The scale of the lukumbi consists of a whole tone interval, an interval of two
two intervals of 1£ tones, and a whole tone. Notes 5 and 6 are an octave repeti
1 and 2. For example, the lukumbi I own, a medium sized one of a type often u
sending messages, has this scale:—

Notes 1, 3, and 5 are on the right side as the drummer holds the drum; 2, 4,
are on the left side. The lowest tone is nearest the mouth. The Lukumbi varies i
the larger they are the “larger” (lower) the tone, but the relative scale remaii
same.
Although the Otetela language has only two relative tones, at least three
and sometimes more, are used in sending messages on the lukumbi. This adds
most ordinary message a shading, a musical quality impossible on the purely util
ekuli.
For example, Kenda lokendo shamanya, meaning “come in a hurry”, is expresse«
on the lukumbi: and on the ekuli:
Kenda lokendo shamanya Kenda lokendo shai
3 4 5 3 2 3 4 5 ' 1 2 2 1 1 1
The lukumbi is also used as a purely musical instrument, but for the purpose c
article I am interested in its telegraphic and poetic function.
Since many words have the same tones and could not be distinguished if drui
alone, a phrase is usually made to represent a word. The phrase may be a prov
picturesque definition, or a simple sentence which has become stylized.
Examples: saka, a basket, is expressed by a proverb ukumba haluli mbulu, \
means, “The big basket is not filled by the copper objects (crosses, bracelets,
offered as bride price.” This is said of one who asks and is never satisfied.
dja, fire, becomes lumbi la mpetsha uluku, “the flame for heatinj
coffee.”