Frederick
Kwasi Dunyo
What they are saying...
Outside
the Voice Box
Lorna
MacDonald with master drummer Kwasi Dunyo, who teaches
African Drumming at the Faculty of Music, University
of Toronto.
By
Prof. Lorna MacDonald
I've
looked at the Ocean all my life having been born and raised
in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. But my vantage point has
been changed; now I have the recollection of looking at
the marvelous, ocean deep from the western shores of Ghana,
Africa.
In
July 2003 I participated in the Western African Cultural
Exchange, led by drummer, percussionist and alumna Kathy
Armstrong (MusBac Ed 1989, MusM Perf 1992). What was the
Lois Marshall Chair in Voice Studies doing learning African
singing, drumming and dancing? I was thinking "outside
the box" -- literally outside the vioce box! As Head of
Voice Studies I continue to look for ways to enhance and
refine our cultural, musical and vocal program for our
singers. Sometimes I fear that the "study" of voice tends
to hinder the vocal imagination rather than ignite it.
With
a variety or thoughts about the definition and recognition
of true, innate vocal talent, and the desire for more
spontaneity within our collective music-making, I headed
to the remote, beautiful Ewe village of Dagbamete, in
western Africa. Here I was to encounter the vulnerability
of being a student again; trying my hand at music-making
for the first time as a drummer, learning songs that had
nothing to do with beautiful tone, but with the culture
of the spirit, and dancing barefoot in the burnt red sand
of Africa. Singing in an unknown ancient language and
feeling rhythm, undiscovered within me learning both in
a completely oral tradition -- was freeing and celebrating
the human spirit through the patterns of chant and drums
were as exhilarating as I could have imagined.
The
experience of being a student never ends in academe; but
the experience of learning now, as a full professor, the
way I did did as a child, when I first explored my voice
and capacity for expression through music was a glorious
rediscovery.
My
master drummer teacher, Kwasi Dunyo said "Our spirits
tell our bodies what we need to do, and not the opposite",
and in that spirit lies our true talent. In the same way
that I see the Atlantic Ocean and the galaxies above it
from the African perspective, so too, do I see and feel
the spirit of music-making anew... more "outside the voice
box", so to speak!
Reprinted
from a University of Toronto Faculty of Music publication,
2004.
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