Agbadza Dance

Composer's Note:

Agbadza is the most popular genre of music of the Ewe tribe of Ghana and Togo. I studied Ewe music from 2005–2009 with David Locke (Tufts University professor), and during this time I performed with the Agbekor Society, Locke’s West African music ensemble. I have been inspired to incorporate aspects of Ewe music in some of my compositions since then. The Agbadza ensemble includes an iron double bell (the central instrument of the ensemble), a gourd rattle, and several barrel-shaped drums in addition to singing, hand clapping and dancing. The polyrhythm of 6/4 and 12/8 is central to Ewe music, and it is remarkable to me that Ewe musicians can feel both pulses simultaneously. The first part of this piece alternates between these two time feels. Later, the rhythm of the melody is the rhythm of the double bell. In the second half of the piece, the original melody returns while the viola plays the rhythm of the kagan, the smallest drum in the ensemble.

Agbadza songs have a “call and response” form, and the violins begin the piece with a popular Agbadza melody, with the first violin playing the “call” and the second violin playing the “response.” I then recompose the melody until it is unrecognizable. The unusual lyrics of the song are translated as: “Big carnivore eats forbidden meat and says, ‘My liver is burning.’ He eats forbidden meat.” Agbadza songs are open to interpretation: different Ewe scholars explain that this song is about biting off more than one can chew, or it is about plotting the downfall of a powerful person through food.