The music of one of the dominant and culturally important ethnic groups in Ghana. The Asante number about 1,500,000 and are grouped politically into large territorial units, each of which is headed by a paramount chief under whom there are district chiefs of different ranks. The constitutional head of the Asante is the Asantehene, to whom all paramount chiefs owe allegiance. In the pre-colonial period, the Asante sphere of influence spread over many parts of Ghana and extended westwards to the borders of Côte d’Ivoire and eastwards across the Volta.
The traditional political structure of the Asante is reflected in the organization of their music. Firstly, the music of the court is separated from that of the community, while the hierarchical ordering of chiefs under the Asantehene is reflected in the number and types of instruments and ensembles that each royal court can have. Secondly, court music is performed on state occasions and festivals, whereas community music is performed on all other social occasions. Thirdly, as the practice of music in community life is organized on the basis of the social groups within it, the inventory of musical types and songs of the community is much larger than that of the court. Fourthly, although there is no idiomatic differentiation between court music and the music of the community, the music of the court tends to be more sophisticated or elaborate in organization, or more complex in structure. Accordingly, the training and recruitment of court musicians is institutionalized.
Asante music lays more emphasis on the use of idiophones and membranophones than on other instrumental types. Idiophones include dawuro and nnawuta (single and double clapperless bells); firikyiwa (castanets made of iron); torowa (vessel rattles); astratoa (concussion rattles); mmaa (stick clappers); sraka (scraped idiophones); and prempensua (large sausas). The flat board sausa with five wooden lamellae is no longer widely used.
Membranophones are generally open and single-headed. They fall into three groups: twenesin (signal drums), akukuadwo and atumpan, which are the principal talking drums of the court, and those drums played in ensembles as basic supporting drums or those played as master drums. A few closed or double-headed membranophones, such as the donno (hourglass drum; see Drum, fig.1f) and gyamadudu (large cylindrical drum), as well as some frame drums, are also used.
Aerophones include two varieties of flute: the aten teben (bamboo flute) and the odurugya (cane flute) played at the court of the Asantehene. Court trumpets are made from animal horns or elephant tusks and are played in hocket fashion in ensembles of five or seven instruments. Chordophones are rare, and only the benta (mouth bow) and the seperewa (bridge-harp) are found.
With the exception of the kwadwom historical chant and the song preludes of kete drum music and dance, the music of the court is almost entirely instrumental, while that of the community lays stress on vocal music. Asante songs are based on a seven-tone scale. They have a general descending trend. Melodic movement within the phrase is limited to 2nds, 3rds and 4ths and may be stepwise, interlocking or pendular. The singing of simultaneous melodies in parallel 3rds and the use of leader-chorus forms in alternating or overlapping sections are dominant characteristics of Asante vocal style.
As Asante is a tonal language, the melodic contour follows the intonation contour of speech. The rhythm of songs similarly follows speech rhythm closely. Hence spoken verse, declamations and other styles which treat song as a form of speech utterance are exploited.
J.H.K. Nketia: African Music in Ghana (Accra, 1962)
J.H.K. Nketia: Drumming in Akan Communities of Ghana (Edinburgh, 1963)
J.H.K. Nketia: Folk Songs of Ghana (Legon, 1963)
J.T. Koetting: An Analytical Study of Ashanti Kete Drumming (thesis, UCLA, 1970)
C.D. Woodson: The Atumpan Drum in Asante (diss., UCLA, 1983)
W.G. Carter: Asante Music in Old and New Juaben: a Comparative Study (diss., UCLA, 1984)
J.H.K. Nketia: ‘Asante Court Music’, Golden Stool: Studies of the Asante Center and Periphery, ed. E. Schildkrout (New York, 1987), 200–208
P. Sarpong: The Ceremonial Horns of the Ashanti (Accra, 1990)
J.H. KWABENA NKETIA