Norvinyo Borborbor: A Study of Ewedome Dance-Drumming from Kpando, Ghana.
Gallo, Brett.
2015
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Abstract: This thesis draws attention to Borborbor, a performance idiom from the northern part of Ghana's Volta Region that sings of and speaks to the modern Ewe identity. As a popular musical genre, Borborbor has merged Christianity and surviving cultural forms to produce a music that resonates with the widest segment of Ewe society in Ghana. Furthermore, this work aims to redress the significant ... read moreamount of effort devoted to the study of Ewe musics in a ternary metric framework by examining Borborbor, whose melodic and rhythmic material can be theoretically rendered in a quaternary metric framework. The first half of this study accounts for Borborbor's origins in Kpando, Ghana, its eventual affiliation with Christianity, and the organization of the Norvinyo Borborbor Band, a contemporary Borborbor group with whom I studied during the summer of 2014. It also examines a sample of Borborbor songs. The second half analyzes Norvinyo's musical material while contemplating a possible ecology of meter in Ewe music. Transcriptions, recordings, and commentary on instrumental technique and improvisation further provide the reader with the resources to practically engage with Borborbor.
Thesis (M.A.)--Tufts University, 2015.
Submitted to the Dept. of Music.
Advisor: David Locke.
Committee: James Burns, and Richard Jankowsky.
Keywords: Music, African studies, and Cultural anthropology.read less - ID:
- s4655t14j
- Component ID:
- tufts:21445
- To Cite:
- TARC Citation Guide EndNote
