horn, trumpet, abẹn, abẹntia, seseẹ, ntahera, mmaranee

Horn system of the Asante (Akan) people of Ghana, described in Kaminski (2008), Nketia (1962), and Carter (1971) and (1984). Kaminski discusses two main instruments in the Asante trumpet family, called abẹn generally. Seseẹ, the leading horn in the Kumasi royal court’s ntahera ensembles, is a large side-blown horn fashioned from a hollow elephant tusk; a slot for the lips is cut near the narrow end, and a single fingering hole is “drilled into the natural hole for the [elephant’s] nerve canal” at the tip of the horn (Kaminski 2008:119). Twi is tonal, with H and L tones that are encoded with two notes, typically about two semitones apart, on the instrument. Syllable onsets correspond variably to rearticulation on the horn, but sequences of “words ending with vowels … followed by words beginning with vowels …[make] blends occur” (122), perhaps encoding matching vowel elision processes in the natural language. In addition, slurring, sliding and embellishment are employed on the instrument, reportedly producing “glide tones more in common with the glides in speech” (117). Often, certain syllables are omitted altogether (123)Surrogate texts (mmaranee) are performed non-metrically as introductions to musical pieces; they are typically composed of standard enphrased sequences that are subject to improvisational ornamentation, ordering, and repetition (125). Some surrogate texts are also embedded in metric ensemble contexts as melody lines. Kaminski also suggests that the trumpets were used historically for “combat and politics, wherein the surrogate speech functioned clandestinely to keep orders secret from enemies” (1) and that “nowadays [it is used for] performing eulogies to tutelary spirits and ancestor chiefs” (1). Content also includes directions to other musicians, names and titles, praises, proverbs/poetics, and other ceremonial texts of the royal Asante courts. Comprehension is limited to practitioners and Asante chiefs familiar with the texts.  The abẹntia is a similar but shorter, higher-pitched horn also employed in royal Asante music. Intended to be “heard by all at great distances” (124), they are used to play shorter phrases with less stylization and vowel concatenation: “the players do not glide their speaking tones like the ntahera seseẹ players do. Almost a one-to-one correspondence of tone to syllable occurs” (124). Content includes long distance communication, typically of short phrases of praise in royal ceremonies and processions.

J. H. Kwabena Nketia. (1962). The Hocket-Technique in African Music. Jintefolkmusicou Journal of the International Folk Music Council, 14, 44–52.,Carter, W. G. (1971). The Ntahera Horn Ensemble of the Dwaben Court: An Ashanti Surrogating Medium.,Carter, W. G. (1985). Asante music in old and new Juaben: A comparative study.,Kaminski, J. S. (2008). Surrogate speech of the Asante ivory trumpeters of Ghana. Yearbook for Traditional Music, 40, 117–135.