A field recording made in 1951 at Oyo, capital of the Oyo kingdom, during the festival of Orishanla, a principal orisha of the Yoruba pantheon. The recording documents the three-legged, sacred Igbin drums played with hands and sticks, the Dundun or pressure drums, whose changeable tension lets them carry melody and mimic speech, and the two-toned Bata drums unique to the Yoruba people. First issued by the Ethnic Folkways Library of New York and later carried forward by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings after the Smithsonian Institution's 1987 acquisition of the Folkways catalogue.
Facts
Production
Primary Artist / ComposerYoruba drummers of Oyo, recorded 1951 (unattributed field recording, Ethnic Folkways Library) 1 Place of Origin Subject Matter
Religious Subject MatterSacred drumming at the festival of the orisha Orishanla at Oyo: named outright as the recording's setting and subject by the publisher's own catalogue record. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Belongs to Tradition
The publisher's own catalogue record names the recordings as made during the orisha Orishanla's own festival and calls the drums sacred, a second musical work the atlas now holds for the tradition, distinct from Beyonce's "Lemonade."
Sources
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.