Studies in African Music is a 1959 book in two volumes by A.M. Jones. It is an in-depth analysis of the traditional music of the Ewe tribe

Ewe music

Ewe music is the music of the Ewe people of West Africa. Instrumentation is primarily percussive and rhythmically the music features great metrical complexity. Its highest form is in dance music including a drum orchestra, but there are also work, play, and other songs. Despite his title Ewe music...

.

Summary

The work is divided into two volumes, with the first volume being an analysis of the music presented in Volume II, and the second being full-score reproductions of the pieces in question.

Volume I Contents

1. Introduction
2. Play-Songs and Fishing Songs
3. The Instruments of the Orchestra
4. The Nyayito Dance
5. Yeve Cult Music
6. Club Dances - The Adzida Dance
7. The Social Dance - Agbadza
8. A Comparison of Drumming
9. The Homogeneity of African Music
10. Tone and Tune
11. The Neo-Folk-Music

Volume II Contents

1. Play-Songs and Fishing Songs
2. The Nyayito Dance
3. Yeve Cult Music: (a) The Husago Dance, (b) The Sovu Dance, (c) The Sogba Dance
4. The Adzida Dance
5. The Agbadza Dance
6. The Icila Dance

Influence

Steve Reich

Steve Reich

Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...

 has listed this work as an influence on his music, particularly his "fooling around with tape loops, which [he] began to envision as little mechanized Africans [laughs]." It is also cited extensively in Volume I of Gunther Schuller

Gunther Schuller

Gunther Schuller is an American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, and jazz musician.- Biography and works :...

's (who introduced Reich to the work) History of Jazz.

External links

• Studies in African Music: Volume I at The Internet Archive
• Studies in African Music: Volume II at The Internet Archive