African Composition

In school I was looking at the topic of "African Composition". As an assessment we had to compose a 24 bar long piece of music with at least 3 African Instruments in the ternary form. 

Below is my composition. It didn't have to sound African, but it had to have melodic and rhythmic ostinatos. I wrote for Clave, wood block and 2 marimbas.

This is the final draft that I submitted. Please leave feedback. I noticed later the two marimbas clashed a bit.

The woodblock isn't African; it's Asian.  The Clave rhythm is sub-Saharan but the instrument instrument is more Afro-Cuban.  I would say scratch the clave and woodblock and add more appropriate instruments like the kalimba, djembe,  djun-djun. Use those with the marimba and NOW you're talking!!!!

Very nice piece. It reminds me to some minimalist works.

On 5/18/2020 at 6:52 PM, maestrowick said:

The woodblock isn't African; it's Asian.  The Clave rhythm is sub-Saharan but the instrument instrument is more Afro-Cuban.  I would say scratch the clave and woodblock and add more appropriate instruments like the kalimba, djembe,  djun-djun. Use those with the marimba and NOW you're talking!!!!

 

On 5/18/2020 at 9:08 PM, Luis Hernández said:

Very nice piece. It reminds me to some minimalist works.

 

thank you for your reviews.

Hi, My name is Manu and I'm a lover of African Percussion and instruments, especially of djembes. I've been playing them since I was 22. Some days ago while I was founding information about djmbes (I wan to buy a new one) I found this website which speaks about african percussion, history... but specifically about djembe drums. So if you are insterted about them you should check it.
 

No comment on the instruments ... however, I found the melodic/hamonic content to be a bit static and would benefit form some variation(s).

I love djembe sound! It sounds the same in midi as in real life. I've done a lot of comparisons between the sounds and they are in 99,9% similar (https://musescore.com/sheetmusic?text=Djembe)