seperewa, Akan harp

Chordophone system used by the Akan people of Ghana, described by Nketia (1972) and by Harper and Korankye (2017). The instrument itself (seperewa in Twi) is a double-course harp with six or seven strings, strung perpendicular to a wooden box resonator. The strings are plucked with the fingers of both hands. Twi is tonal, analyzed to have H and L tones, with attested grammatical tone processes as well as downstep and downdrift (Nketia 1972:16). The surrogate is of a 'sung mode' type, reproducing the output of tonal text-setting in Akan vocal music. The process of tonal text-setting embeds linguistic tone—including an utterance's grammatical tonal elements, downstep, and downdrift—into a melodic frame, in which the relative direction of tonal transitions (e.g., H to downstepped H) are matched to congruent melodic intervals (e.g, descending one scale degree) (18). Phrase boundaries and syllable structure also guide the rhythmic and metric characteristics of the melody (12). While seperewa melodies can reproduce vocal melodies, seperewa playing is also used as an accompaniment for vocal performance: "While the tunes of some songs are played in whole or in a modified form on the instrument along with the voice, others are designed to be accompanied by the instrument without duplicating the tunes in their entirety" (21).Content of seperewa surrogate song is proverbial and poetic, in line with other Akan vocal and instrumental musical traditions (Harper and Korankye 2017).As of 2020, University of Ghana-based seperewa performer and teacher Osei Korankye is one of the "few [seperewa] musicians remaining] and a "keeper of a dying tradition" (Harper and Korankye 2017).

Nketia, J. H. (1962). Generative Processes in Seperawa Music. Africa.,Harper, C., & Korankye, O. (2017, April 27). A Song of and about Time: Osei Korankye and the Seperewa Harp. Medium. https://medium.com/recital/a-song-of-and-about-time-osei-korankye-and-the-seperewa-harp-478c9e112b7f