The Fruits of Apatampa

Abstract

In trying to expand the modern post-tonal music practices and techniques, using traditional idioms, this work is focused on Apatampa dance music (a recreational dance of the Fante people in the Central Region of Ghana) in an original composition named ‘The Fruits of Apatampa.’ The study seeks to explore the rhythmic resources of Apatampa dance music in a contemporary art composition. It blends new trends in contemporary art compositions with traditional drum idioms found in Apatampa dance music to generate a post-tonal music. Considering the nature of the study, participant observation, interviews, video recording, modern musical composition techniques and documentary search are included in the data collection.