Works Cited

Putumayo Presents Women of Africa, Abiani, by Dobet Gnahoré, (P) 2004 Putumayo World Music


Nation by Nation the multimedia history company. http://www.multied.com/nationbynation/index.html


The Africa Guide. Ivory Coast people and culture 1996 http://www.africaguide.com/country/ivoryc/culture.htm


Cloudburst, With a Lily in Your Hand, Eric Whitacre



Wikipedia the free encyclopedia. Music of Côte d'Ivoire http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_C%C3%B4te_d'Ivoire
modified on March 31 2008

An Ivory Coast History of it and its Music

Not very much is known about the early history of the Ivory coast, in fact the earliest history known is from the early 1400's when the Portuguese arrived. In the early 19th century, two Akan groups invaded the Ivory Coast. Shortly after the invasion, the French, British and Dutch came to this area and it became a French colony in 1893.
However, in 1960 independence was gained and the Ivory Coast thrived for quite a long time until civil war began in 2002 and unfortunately, this civil war is still waging today.

The traditional music and popular music of the Ivory Coast are very different from one another. The traditional music has strong vocal polyphony and is characterized by a series of melodies and harmonies at one time. One factor that is very important in traditional music is that none of the elements should overpower another. Talking drums are also very common. Music is used to celebrate festivals, ceremonies and just everyday life.
In popular music, a bété rhythm is common and most of the songs are written about happiness. Most popular styles are reggae from the Caribbean and hip hop from the United States. A style of popular music is called zouglou and the text of this music is satirical in nature and is accompanied by dance. The popular music has a simplified melody that allows for the bass and the percussion to be heard easily.

Comparing the Two Pieces

With a Lily in Your Hand is a very complex piece that has lots of syncopation throughout. Most of the time the different sections have contrasting rhythms that cause a sense of syncopation. The syncopation adds more interest to an already elaborate piece. Eighth rests and the multimeters cause a large portion of the syncopation but dotted rhythms are also used a lot.
The ostinato in this piece is very short and simple. The tenors and bass parts have a triplet pattern switches between two notes but the alto part has a triplet pattern of three notes. The tenor and alto parts are really dissonant. The ostinato is used to give the image water by giving the sense of a fluid motion. While the lower three parts are singing this ostinato the sopranos are introducing a slower different image into the piece. At this section Eric Whitacre decided to use word painting and use the triplet ostinato to help make this section more water like.


Abiani is a much more simple song but has a lot of dotted rhythms and eighth rests causing syncopation. The guitar solo at the bridge and at the introduction specifically uses dotted rhythms to create its syncopation. Since the tune is simple the syncopation adds interest and makes the piece itself more complex. Some of the ostinatos have syncopation in them as well.
Ostinato is used throughout the entire piece. Every time there is an ostinato the ostinato is different. Most of the harmony line is ostinato. The ostinato is used to give many different effects. At some points in the song the ostinato is used as a call and response, at other parts it is used to emphasize that the women of the village are calling everyone else in the village to be positive. The ostinato is also used to keep a tangible melody going while the lead singer improvises and uses ornamentation overtop.


Now to find the similarities between the pieces. Both of them use the ostinato effectively to convey some type of message. Whether the message is and image or calling people. Most of the ostinatos are very short and simple. The ostinato is always in the harmony parts. It can also be used as accompaniment.
The syncopation in Abiani and With a Lily in Your Hand use very typical techniques to create syncopation, eighth rests and dotted rhythms. The syncopation is also used to add interest. As well both of the pieces have at least two lines with different syncopated rhythms going at the same time. Whether it is in the accompaniment guitar or the other voices.

Abiani Western African Music Simply at it's Best

Now we come to the West African (Ivory Coast) vocal music. The song I chose to analyze from the Ivory Coast is called Abiani that means “People”. Unlike the Western choral music, a guitar and various other percussion instruments like maracas accompany Abiani. In fact the song starts with and introduction with just guitar, maracas and bongos. The instruments play at mezzo piano with lots of ornamentation and accenting the first beat of the bar. The piece is conjunct and is in ¾ time.

Eight seconds later, in section A, the solo vocalist comes in at a mezzo forte, with the vocalists singing harmony coming in two seconds later. The tesatura of the singers is about an octave. The lyrics in this section are saying, “come and take a seat”, inviting the villagers to join them and listen to what they have to say. The harmony throughout adds consonance and the piece is in a major key.

In Part B the solo vocalist continues with the simple melody, accompanied by the guitar and percussion. There are plenty of syncopated rhythms thrown around in this section caused by dotted rhythms and eighth beat rests. The vocalists have an ostinato rhythm of two eighth notes followed by a half note.

Now we come to part C. Here the melody, sung by the group of vocalists, is a vocal ostinato that is four bars long and repeated three times. As you can probably already tell, ostinatos are very common in West African music. The soloist is singing embellishments overtop of the ostinato melody. The guitar and vocalists are in contrary motion here.

The next bit (section D) is a shorter section. The group of singers is still the melody with an improvised solo above it. The solo adds interest to the otherwise simple melody. Everything here is syllabic.

E – This section is very different from the others because there are no vocals, it’s a monophonic guitar bridge. The guitar plays a sequence that goes down a tone each time. The sequence is played twice. The rhythm for the sequence is rz e. re rz tr.

Section F is also very short. The guitar plays three chords and then the vocal ostinato comes in. There is not very much to this section because it is another transition section to the last bit of the piece.

Part G has a syncopated vocal melody, sung by the soloist, with an ostinato underneath. The ostinato and melody act as a call and response. The solo melody is the call.

Section G is repeated twice more, now acting as a stretto. The last time it’s repeated it fades out.

The song Abiani is a plea to the people of Africa to be positive in the face of death. The women are all pleading together for positivity. The song is set to a fairly upbeat and bright tune meant to bring happiness. The main message of the song is “Our time will come, so let’s live and make the best of every single moment”.

Initial thoughts and Analysis of With a Lily in Your Hand

At first glance, the similarity you notice is the fact that both of theses songs are forms of vocal music but through deeper analysis I noticed that both of these pieces use ostinato and have quite a lot of syncopation. I would also like to point out that vocal music can range from hard rock to gentle ballads and it can be accompanied by various instruments or it can be song a Capella. The song I chose for western choral music is a beautiful a Capella piece called “With a Lily in Your Hand” music by Eric Whitacre and lyrics from a poem by Federico Garcia Lorca.
Throughout the entirety of “With a Lily”, Eric Whitacre connects the contrasting elements of fire and water. The piece begins with fire growing from embers and eventually bursting into flames. Later on in the section, the lowest three voices sing a triplet rhythm ostinato while the sopranos sing the melody. The ostinato plays a significant role in creating the illusion of waves. The water then slowly returns to the element of fire.

The piece is in A major and begins very legato and at a piano dynamic. The choir sings a series of 5-part chords within a wide tesatura, which grow increasingly more dissonant, with no vibrato. The chords are very conjunct.
Nineteen seconds later, it suddenly erupts to a faster tempo (presto) but it is still at a piano dynamic. The song is multimetric with a constant eighth note, which creates syncopation along with the staccatos and accents.





0:28 The sopranos come in with a haunting legato melody while the lower coives create contrast by having a staccato countermelody. This is subito piano which is effective for building intensity through crescendos, which occur several times.
Now we come to the point of the piece where the element changes from fire to water using the triplet ostinato in the altos, tenors and basses. This uses the technique of imitation.

Whitacre uses the concept of thematic development by altering the theme in the following ways of an accelerando to the tempo of presto, syncopation and contrary motion between sections.
1:30 There is a sudden diminuendo and ritardando to the tempo larghetto and the piano dynamic starts the transformation back into fire. It is syllabic and in order to create a visual image of waves the musical line is conjunct. The singers sound bell-like by using accents and they are moving in parallel motion. The multimetres ends and it remains in common time.
The next section is legato at a mezzo piano dynamic creating the feeling of dolce. The chords are very dissonant creating contrast and it changes into C sharp major. To create interest at this point of the song, hemiolas occur at several spots. In the soprano and alto parts they have quarter note triplets while the tenors and basses have quarter notes.



Finally we come to the end of the piece. Similarly to the beginning of the piece the multimetric feel returns. The sopranos and 1st and 2nd altos hold onto a major chord while the tenors and basses start an accented rhythm

And two bars later the sopranos and altos join the lower parts in the same rhythm. Every note is accented and there is an accelerando to the end of the piece where they end with a glissando. BRILLIANT!