Finding the beat in African music: Further notes and caveats
A central issue for (mainly non-African) analysts of African music is the question of a regulative beat: does it exist, is it made manifest or merely assumed, and is it single or multiple in ensemble performance? Proceeding from the belief that what is now needed is not another grand, overarching theory but detailed studies of specific performances, this paper describes some of the factors that influence beat awareness in a handful of items chosen from Ghanaian repertories. I note the absence of a word for ‘beat’ in indigenous languages alongside the normative embodiment of meter by dancers. My main caveat is that beats are not intrinsic to the sonic material and so cannot be discovered by internal means; rather, beats are mental constructs of conventional origins brought to the music by acculturated listeners, drummers and dancers.