Posted on June 12, 2022

A new study explores how the dùndún replicates tones and patterns of the Yorùbá language

“Bàtá drums, a very close relative of the dùndún, use drum strokes as a code that translate into Yorùbá language,” write the researchers in the study. “Dùndún drummers, however, draw elements from music and speech to communicate emotions on the drum.”

In a previous paper published in the same journal in May, Durojaye and her colleagues noted that Yorùbá drummers use the dùndún as a “speech surrogate” to communicate announcements, warnings, prayers, jokes, proverbs and poetry. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, skilled dùndún players use the instrument to offer up “ritual praise poetry to a deity or king.”

Durojaye’s doctoral thesis, completed at the University of Cape Town in 2019, won the African Studies Review’s 2020 annual prize for the best Africa-based doctoral dissertation. Her graduate work focused on the dùndún’s role in conveying emotion and information.

“[T]his speech surrogacy functions in the dissemination of Yorùbá oral history, recitation of various forms of Yorùbá poetry, saying proverbs and even informing a king about the arrival of guests,” Durojaye told Helen Swingler, a member of the university news team, earlier this year. “The drum texts can also be philosophical, humorous or they can be a form of advice, prayer or vilification.”

She added that when the drums are used as speech surrogates, they’re performed without accompanying songs or vocals. When played alongside vocal music or poetry, however, the instruments are performed in a purely rhythmic fashion.

In the statement, Durojaye says that studying non-Western cultures can help scientists understand how humans process music and speech.

“These kinds of multicultural findings are useful for considering deeper relationships and understanding of types of auditory communication and the evolution of language and music,” she says.

Original Post: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-west-african-drums-really-talk-180978296/