The Sambla
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I belong to the Sambla people who live in Burkina Faso, about 50 km west of Bobo Dioulasso, in 12 villages on the border between the Mande and the Gur cultures. The language and culture of this Mande sub-group with its archaic characteristics has hardly been researched and will probably disappear before the world takes any notice of it. The Sambla are crop farmers planting millet, corn, peanuts and cotton. The climate is extremely dry and hot and the ground is hard and stony. There are no passable roads and no electricity. As the use of agricultural machinery is almost impossible their yields are very minimal leaving them extremely poor.
However, as far as music is concerned, the Sambla are unimaginably rich. Each village, each important family and every profession has its own piece of music which functions like a coat of arms. Music is composed for every important occasion. Any work carried out by the village community is accompanied by music. What outsiders consider to be beautiful music is in reality the Sambla language transposed into music. The children learn this musical language simultaneously to their spoken language (boys actively, girls passively). Everything that can be expressed verbally can also be expressed in this musical language. Dialogue between a Balafon or Lunga player and verbal responses is common. Jazz experts find the tonal system particularly interesting as it has close affinities with the "Blues" pentatonic tunings. The notes would be played on a piano in descending order as A, G, E, Eb, C. Another remarkable attribute is that the Sambla music has all the characteristics of Blues whereby any returning influence from America can be excluded, partly because it is dated earlier and the close ties between their music and their daily activities.
The general feature of the Sambla music reminds of the Chaconne or Passacaglia (variations on a permanently repeated "basso ostinato"), that were prevalent in the compositions of Frescobaldi, Buxtehude, Couperin, Händel and Bach in the 17th and 18th centuries. In Africa, two or more ostinato patterns are used simultaneously. The audience, however, does not recognise the distinct parts within the texture. In the contrary, disoriented by the interlocking technique (the instrumental parts are connected together like cog-wheels to create a dense, melodic and rhythmic composite) the audience may actually perceive several, seemingly independent melodic-rhythmic patterns in diverse pitch areas: these have been referred to as inherent patterns. These perceived patterns are not played by any single musician, but they do exist within the combined parts, and it is the intention of the composer that we hear them.
There are two kinds of the Sambla xylophone called Ba. The portable small one with 19 keys played by one musician is used for entertaining the workers, the big one with 23 keys played by three musicians is for festive performances. A senior musician called "Ba-tsin-gyera-bre" plays the solo in the high register. He tells the story, he communicates with the audience. On his left side the "Ba-anya-bre" completes and comments the solo in the bass range and interacts with the second supporter. His part is more difficult than the parts of the two other musicians. He is the main actor in the music for the spirits like "Ji te so" and "San tsyobe din" (on my CD Keneya). On the opposite side of the xylophone the "Ba-le-kpan" plays (or rather tells) the basic ostinato – a single word or a name, a phrase or a complete sentence - with a constant speed to give orientation to the "free flying" soloist, the dancers and workers. Several different accompaniments exist for the same composition in diverse technical grades. They will be chosen depending on the abilities of the musicians and according to the occasion.
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