Yiri Koko

West African Music

Much traditional West African music is performed by professional musicians that are known as 'Griots'. Musical knowledge is passed down over generations by oral tradition.
Typical features of West African Music are:
- Call-and-Response is when a soloist sings or plays a phrase of music and a larger group responds to that with an answering phrase. 
- Improvised melodies are frequently made up of improvised phrases. 
- Repetition of rhythms, harmonies and melodies to form ostinatos.
- Layered textures are built up from independent lines that are designed to be heard together.

General Points

- Koko is a group made up of 6 professional musicians.
- They come from the country'Burkina Faso'.
- The word 'Yiri' means 'wood'.
- The song might be called Yiri because all the instruments heard in it (other than the bell) are made of wood.
- Koko performed Yiri from memory and the score was made later by notating the music heard on the recording. This is otherwise known as 'transcription'.

Instrumentation

The following 3 instruments are heard in Koko's 'Yiri':
1) The djembe - a drum that is played with the hands.
2) The Balafon - it's an instrument similar to the xylophone but is made up of wooden bars which are all tuned to different pitches. 
3) The Talking Drum - a drum played with a…