Asante Ntahera Trumpets in Ghana: Culture, Tradition, and Sound Barrage

by S.Kaminski,Joseph

• ISBN13: 9781409426844
• ISBN10: 140942684X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2012-11-07
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Dr Joseph Kaminski provides a valuable examination of the Asante trumpet tradition by focusing on its historical and socio-cultural context, as well as analysing the music itself and considering issues of performance practice. Based on interviews, field recordings, oral traditions, written accounts, archaeological evidence, and linguistic analyses, Kaminski shows how the Asante trumpets are symbols of Asante strength and have an important role in their cosmology. When several ensembles play simultaneously as a representation of power, they make staggered entrances beginning separate songs in order. This results in a simultaneous performance of separate songs. The author has termed this phenomenon "sound-barrage," for it is an ancient aesthetic based on sound energy and intensity factor to protect the kingdom and the ancestors. It is both spiritual and acoustical. This "sound barrage" is believed to act in the metaphysical world, dispelling evil spirits from court rituals, ancestor venerations, and funerals. Surrogate speech is performed via lipped tones through a tusk in praise of the Asante royal ancestors, and the living Asante king. The book includes transcriptions and analyses of surrogate speech texts and their accompanying ensemble songs, as well as analyses of musical structure and logic. The book is intended to reflect both the musicological and anthropological processes of this Asante tradition.