So my idea was to compare Haitian and Beninese vodoo music. What has happened in 200 years to it? Obviously many things have changed from language to percussion patterns. Still the band form is really close. Usually there are three drums and a cowbell pattern that is the anchor for the music. The cowbell patterns have remained quite similar and most of the music is in 6/8 time singnature. In Benin there can be five different bell patterns simultaneously and 30 players for them. In Haiti there is normally just one bell played. In both countries the solo drum player has a stick in the leading hand. But in Haiti solo drum is the lowest of the three drums and in Benin the highest. Usually the band includes some kind of shaker also. It can be a caxixi or a chequere.
I have never been to Haiti. Santiago de Cuba is close to it. I will keep on talking about the rhythms and songs as Haitians because my masters in Santiago have learnt them in Haiti.
Janne Halonen explains how he approaches a new vodoo rhythm and I totally agree on his method to be the best. ”To me the particularly intriguing part of Voudou music has always been the ”rhythmic cycle” patterns usually performed with the bell, and the way the rest of the rhythms are orchestrated around the bell. According to Saïzonou, the Gong (the bell), is the most important instrument in Beninese music - the anchor of the bands. Before anyone can be allowed to start experimenting with the drums, one needs to first master the gong. At some point of my first trip to Benin, extended contemplation of this idea led me to a major realization: once one has mastered to hear the patterns of gong, and how everything locks around them, especially with rhythms that fall into 6/8- meter, the concept of time signature becomes irrelevant. Through the Gong, one begins to hear 4/4, 3/4, 6/8 and 12/8 all at once, and at the end of the day you will be just repeating 12 or 24 subdivision beats. For a musician with Western education, this kind of hearing of rhythms opens whole new horizons both in composition and improvisation.” (Halonen, 2018, p. 10-11).
My method has always been the same as Janne’s. If I have forgotten to ask the clave, the bell pattern, when starting to learn a new percussive melody it becomes hard to turn it around later if the bell pattern does not start where I imagined. Cuban and Beninese teachers start the rhythm where it melodically begins. Not on the first beat like some of are used to learn rhythms with Western education.
In Benin the supporting drums are called Glogus and the solo drum is Kpahoule. The cowbell is called Gong
In Haiti the low solo drum is called Mamma miel, the middle drum is Sugót and the highest drum is Legede. The cowbell is called Trian.
