Giles Swayne Senegal Collection

Bio

The Giles Swayne Senegal Collection contains nearly 20 hours of Jola music recorded in January and February 1982 in Gambia and Senegal by British composer, Giles Swayne. Much of his work is often directly or indirectly linked to his knowledge and experiences of African music.

With a collection of 78 items, his collection was inspired by some ‘pygmy polyphony’ in 1979. He ventured to Africa to find and record some music himself. He embarked on a trip to record music of the Jola (also known as the Diola, Diola-Fogny, Dyola, Jâoola, Jola and Yola) people in the Casamance region of Southern Senegal and The Gambia, a culture group that had previously been only minimally recorded and researched.

Jola music is characterised by chorus singing and as a rule they sing as groups of men or women only as they set about their respective work and other activities. He recorded many men’s and women’s songs, providing insight not only into musical characteristics but also into gender role divisions within the society.

An important genre in Jola music is the Bugaar or Bugarabu, a celebratory dance (performed at marriages, baptisms, confirmations, circumcision ceremonies or any other joyous occasion), which uses three (differently) tuned drums played by one man, who usually wears jingles on his wrists. Both men and women will dance in a circle and at the same time a row of men sing and a semi-circle of women clap, often with wooden sticks / clappers. Their rhythm is distinctive: first they clap altogether and then, when someone starts to dance, they clap in an interlocking pattern of six claps to the original beat. The dance can last from an hour to several days.

Another dance he recorded was that performed during the Futamp circumcision festival, which uses Mandinka Kuttiro drums, iron bells and elit end-blown whistles. This festival is only celebrated every 15 to 20 years and all boys from ages 4 to 18 will go into a sacred forest for 2 to 3 weeks to get circumcised and to be instructed in their new roles as adult men.

Other instruments recorded were the Jola simbing spike harp; the Mandinka kontingo plucked lute; a music bow; the ebongei, a lamellaphone; the kasihök horn played together with a flute during wrestling songs and some kyeba sticks, used to accompany some songs recorded in Kabajo.

GBLondon, United Kingdom

Contact

+443303331144
British Library
Profile added by Ano Shumba on 29 Sep 2015
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