Contextual Associations

The kete dawuro (‘kete bell’) is a struck bell idiophone used in the royal kete ensemble of the Akan peoples of southern Ghana. Morphologically similar bells are also found in a number of ensembles of the Ewe and the Ga peoples of southern Ghana who call it atoke and nono, respectively.

Description

The shape of this iron bell is quite unique. Its elongated form might be seen as trough or tubular shaped, or even like a banana with a longitudinal slit. Because the lips or rims of the slit are the active acoustical segment of the instrument, classifiers think of it as a bell even though it does not have the classical bell shape. The beater is an iron rod.

Player - Instrument Interface and Sound Production

The player of this bell rests the rounded backside of the instrument in his left palm and strikes on of its rims with the iron rod, which is held in the right hand. Two sound qualities are produced: one ringing (produced by a bounce-like beater stroke) and the other damped (produced by a stroke with no rebound). The ringing sound in particular is loud, crisp, and penetrating, making it clearly audible even when being played with a number of robust sounding drums. Short, distinctive, iterative rhythmic patterns played on the kete dawuro provide a timeline around which all the other kete ensemble musicians coordinate their rhythmic patterns to produce the multilayered polyrhythmic texture characteristic of kete music.

Origins/History/Evolution

The kete dawuro differs in its form from bells (dawuro) used in other Akan music making. What this difference might signify is not known.
 

Bibliographic Citations

Koetting, James T. 1984. “Africa/Ghana.” In Worlds of Music ed. Jeff Todd Titon. New York: Schirmer Books, pp. 64-104.

Nketia, J. H. 1963. Drumming in Akan Communities of Ghana. Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson and Sons LTD.

Younge, Paschal Yao. 1992. Musical Traditions of Ghana, v.1. 2^nd ed. Legon, Ghana: University of Ghana.