Fall 2023: State of research in djembe performance

Programme

The seminar started out from broader contextual perspectives and then zoomed in to more analytical perspectives on rhythm, timing, meter, and entrainment. A key perspective was to reflect on the degree to which previous djembe research was narrowly focusing on the drumming alone (particularly but non only in the more analytical research) or already reaching out to include dance and auditors' participation (at least to some degree in some of the more ethnographic and contextual research; e.g., Polak 2007; Polak 2021, Polak in preparation; Polak & Doumbia 2022); and whether and how the narrower analytical perspective of rhythm research in djembe drumming should and can be rolled out to include the dancing and audiencing.

Anthropology/Ethnomusicology perspectives:

• 21.09.  The big picture: a social history of djembe performance contexts

• 28.09.  Performance theory: multimodal expression and embedded audiency

Analysis perspectives related to the project's research questions:

• 02.11.  Music analysis: parts, patterns, polyrhythm, and form in  djembe drumming
• 16.11.  Where is the beat?  Polyrhythm and the (inter)subjectivity of meter
• 23.11.  Pulsation non-isochrony in djembe drumming (and beyond)
• 07.12.  Ensemble entrainment in djembe performance

References

• Charry, E. S. (2000). Mande Music: Traditional and Modern Music of the Maninka and Mandinka of Western Africa. University of Chicago Press. 
• Cimardi, L. (2022). Whose jembe? A drum as a countercultural icon and a symbol of African authenticity in Zagreb. Ethnomusicology Forum, 31(3), 393¨C411. https://doi.org/10.1080/17411912.2022.2151027
• Flaig, V. H. (2010). The politics of representation and transmission in the globalization of Guinea's djembe [Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan]. RILM Abstracts of Music Literature (EBSCO).
• Gaudette, P. (2013). Jembe Hero: West African Drummers, Global Mobility and Cosmopolitanism as Status. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 39(2), 295¨C310. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2013.723259
• Jacoby, N., Polak, R., & London, J. (2021). Extreme precision in rhythmic interaction is enabled by role-optimized sensorimotor coupling: Analysis and modelling of West African drum ensemble music. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 376(1835), 20200331. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0331
• Jakubowski, K., Polak, R., Rocamora, M., Jure, L., & Jacoby, N. (2022). Aesthetics of musical timing: Culture and expertise affect preferences for isochrony but not synchrony. Cognition, 227, 105205. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105205
• London, J., Jacoby, N., & Polak, R. (2023). Theoretical and Practical Aspects of Cross-Cultural Corpus Studies: Two Case Studies from Mali. In D. Shanahan, J. A. Burgoyne, & I. Quinn (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Music and Corpus Studies. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190945442.013.32
• London, J., Polak, R., & Jacoby, N. (2017). Rhythm histograms and musical meter: A corpus study of Malian percussion music. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 24(2), 474¨C480. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-016-1093-7
• Neuhoff, H., Polak, R., & Fischinger, T. (2017). Perception and Evaluation of Timing Patterns in Drum Ensemble Music from Mali. Music Perception, 34(4), 438¨C451. https://doi.org/10.1525/mp.2017.34.4.438
• Polak, R. (in preparation). Performance in the round and embedded audiency at music/dance events in Mali.
• Polak, R. (2007). Performing audience: On the social constitution of focused interaction at celebrations in Mali. Anthropos : Internationale Zeitschrift F¨¹r V?lker- U. Sprachenkunde, 102(1), 3¨C18.
• Polak, R. (2010). Rhythmic Feel as Meter: Non-Isochronous Beat Subdivision in Jembe Music from Mali. Music Theory Online, 16(4). http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.10.16.4/mto.10.16.4.polak.html
• Polak, R. (2012). Urban Drumming: Traditional Celebration Music in a West African City (Bamako). In E. S. Charry (Ed.), African expressive cultures. Hip hop Africa: New African music in a globalizing world (pp. 261¨C281). Indiana University Press.
• Polak, R. (2017). The lower limit for meter in dance drumming from West Africa. Empirical Musicology Review, 12(3-4), 205¨C226. https://doi.org/10.18061/emr.v12i3-4.4951
• Polak, R. (2019). Jembe music. In D. Horn, J. Shepherd, G. Kielich, & H. C. Feldman (Eds.), Bloomsbury encyclopedia of popular music of the world. Volume XII: Genres: Sub-Saharan Africa (pp. 315¨C319). Bloomsbury Academic.
• Polak, R. (2021). Presenting yourself through dance: Participatory and presentational aspects of dance performance at local festivities in southern Mali. In V. Apjok, K. Poved¨¢k, V. Sz?nyi, & S. Varga (Eds.), Dance, Age and Politics: Proceedings of the 30th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Ethnochoreology. 28th July ¨C 3rd August 2018 Szent-Gy?rgyi Albert Ag¨®ra Cultural Centre, Szeged (pp. 67¨C82). University of Szeged.
• Polak, R. (2022). Non-isochronous Metre in Music from Mali. In M. Doffman, E. Payne, & T. Young (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Time in Music (pp. 252¨C274). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190947279.013.22
• Polak, R. (2024 (in print)). From Mali to Ghana: Pulsation Non-Isochrony in West African Percussion Music Genres. Analytical Approaches to African Music, 1(1).
• Polak, R., & Doumbia, N. (2022). Learning to dance in rural Mali. In A. v. B. Wharton & D. Urbanavi?ien? (Eds.), Dance and Economy, Dance Transmission: Proceedings of the 31st Symposium of the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) Study Group on Ethnochoreology (pp. 282¨C290). Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre.
• Polak, R., Jacoby, N., Fischinger, T., Goldberg, D., Holzapfel, A., & London, J. (2018). Rhythmic Prototypes Across Cultures: A Comparative Study of Tapping Synchronization. Music Perception, 36(1), 1¨C23. https://doi.org/10.1525/mp.2018.36.1.1
• Polak, R., Jacoby, N., & London, J. (2016). Both isochronous and non-isochronous metrical subdivision afford precise and stable ensemble entrainment: A corpus study of Malian jembe drumming. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 10, 285. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2016.00285
• Polak, R., & London, J. (2014). Timing and Meter in Mande Drumming from Mali. Music Theory Online, 20(1). http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.14.20.1/mto.14.20.1.polak-london.html
• Polak, R., & London, J. (2022). Tempo, meter, and form: An analysis of ¡°Dansa¡± from Mali. In L. Shuster, S. Mukherji, & N. Dinnerstein (Eds.), Trends in Word Music Analysis (pp. 143¨C159). Routledge.
• Polak, R., Tarsitani, S., & Clayton, M. (2018). IEMP Malian Jembe. A collection of audiovisual recordings of Malian jembe ensemble performances, with detailed annotations, Osf. https://osf.io/m652x/
• Price, T. Y. (2013). Rhythms of Culture: Djembe and African Memory in African-American Cultural Traditions. Black Music Research Journal, 33(2), 227¨C247. https://doi.org/10.5406/blacmusiresej.33.2.0227
• Zanetti, V. (1996). De la place du village aux sc¨¨nes internationales: l¡¯¨¦volution du jembe et de son repertoire. Cahier de Musiques Traditionelles 9:167-188.