Listening to the batá drums

 

To fully appreciate the music of the batá drums, it is necessary to invert our listening habits. Whereas in most Western music the solo part is usually played on a treble instrument, the opposite occurs in the batá. The conjunto is led by the player of the iyá, the instrument with the lowest sound, on which the other players and the listeners focus their attention. Some Cuban musicologists have noted that the presence of the soloist on the bass is a common feature of several Caribbean musical genres of African origin.

 

One of the main tasks of the iyá player is to introduce the various toques and lead the transition from one to another. Each toque may be “called” by the playing of a formula known as a llamada. Each toque has its own llamada, whose rhythmical configuration allows the other two players to synchronise with the beat.

 

However, in the orun seco, the toques are played one after the other without interruption. In this case, the vire is used, a short rhythmic figure played by the iyá player during a toque to indicate the move to the next one. Sometimes the vire has an articulate and recognisable rhythmic figure, but often a slight advance or delay of a beat on the iyá is sufficient to indicate to the other two musicians that it is the moment to change.

 

In some cases the transition takes place directly. According to the configuration of the two toques, the iyá player may switch directly to the new rhythm and the other two players will be able to follow him.

 

The leader may also use a particular sound signal called an agó, which tells the other two musicians to stop and await the llamada for the next toque. The agó consists of two beats, one abierto and one tapado, on the larger skin of the iyá. It is essential that this short sequence is played “out of time” with the toque the tamboreros are playing, so that it is easily identifiable. The first video, recorded at various ceremonies in Havana between 2010 and 2011, shows the llamada for the first toque of the orun seco, called Latopa, followed by examples of various types of transition.

 

Some toques include conversaciones, which are rhythmic exchanges between the iyá and the itótele in the form of call and response. These conversaciones develop through conventional formulas proposed by the iyá player. At any moment, he can play the call to which the itótele must respond. The second video shows some of these conversaciones during an orun seco performed in Havana in October 2011. Those of the toques dedicated to the orichas Eleguá, Ogun and Obaloke in particular are shown.

 

In addition to leading the conjunto, the iyá player is free to improvise. In theory, a toque is an overlaying of the three drums’ rhythmic figures. In practice, the okónkolo and the itótele must continuously repeat the base figure, while for the iyá this is only a reference from which to start playing increasingly complicated and articulate improvisations.

The third video presents the toque Latopa dedicated to the oricha Eleguá. Initially, the base pattern played by the three drums, together and separately, is illustrated. The second part analyses the improvisation of the iyá through a transcription system that allows the succession (and sometimes the repetition) of the different rhythmic formulas to be visualised. Finally, the same sequence is shown again at a speed reduced to 75%.