Agbekor Music

hello my name is Brandon Walker and I decided to focus on the Agbekor music example. The legend stands that the Agbekor began with human observations of monkeys in the forest. It is odd to think of monkey's suddenly coming from trees and changing into human form to drum and dance. This could be the origin of modern anthropological beliefs about the evolution of man. This belief system tells the history of music from the point of view of the Ewe's. Agbekor also served as the war drumming. It was either performed before a combat as a means to attain the required frame of mind, or after battle, as a means of excommunicating what happened. It can also serve as a war dance when people return from an expedition. Aside from its use in war music must is actually learned through acculturation which requires special training. Each student is expected to develop their own learning style. Agbekor is so complex that people practice in seclusion for up to a year before performing in public. It is obviously a very precise skill because one must have the utmost focus in order to learn the style. One of teh most important activities involving music are the texts. Ancestors play a significant role in the txts and the song's affective power actually derives directly from this. Contemporary Ewe traditional music do not use the past like Agbekor songs do. Qualities such as courage and loyalty seem to be very important to the Ewe warriors. It seems that warriors do not fear death, but rejoice it by celebrating all of their fallen heroes by memorializing them.