ERITREA: MUSIC AND DANCE

Eritrea has its own rhythms, but that’s fairly apparent. (Well, to be fair, it probably shares some of this with Ethiopia and neighboring countries as well. That’s just how music is. Good music is hard to keep in one place.) Dance often utilizes these rhythms, most notably seen in two of the most prominent dance styles.  One dance called the quda starts as a circle dance where the dancers shuffle their feet to the beat, moving their shoulders as well. The dancers will migrate to form groups of three and dance to each other before expanding back out to the group circle.  By the end of the song, the tempo starts to accelerate, and the dancers try to keep up with the frenetic dance moves, which require a lot of strength and agility.  Another common dance style involves two lines of dancers facing each other (usually men on one side and women on the other), and they dance towards each other. Like an Eritrean country line dance. (Or not.) Different ethnic groups have their own variations and styles of dances based on the function and purpose of these dances. 

Instruments that are used in Eritrean music commonly include the kraar (five- or six-stringed lyre, tuned to the pentatonic scale), the kebero (a double-headed hand drum, available in large and small sizes), lyres, and the wata (a rough version of an early violin).  Modern Eritrean music uses a variety of horns, woodwinds, and electronic instruments. 

Kebero

Kraar

One of the most popular musicians is Bereket Mengesteab.  His music is definitely rhythm driven, with a unique identifying rhythm that stubbornly beats its way into my head. From what I can tell, it’s like a 4/4 beat where the second and fourth beat is a triplet, which gives it a driving feel to it.  With its woodwinds as polyphonic accompaniment to the vocals, I find it somewhat complex in composition after really listening to it. 

I also listened to Yemane Barya’s album Zemen.  Slightly more ethereal sounding in instrumentation, yet the vocal style –and I noticed this with Bereket Mengesteab’s music as well— seems to make use of the scales and trills indicative of Middle Eastern and Indian music.  The rhythms seem to be typically straight 4/4; however, there are variations of the rhythms I mentioned earlier and subtle syncopations included at times in the music. 

I also came across the very beautiful Elsa Kidane, and I was happy that I was able to find some of her music on Spotify.  There weren’t too many female musicians mentioned in lists of Eritrean musicians.  I listened to the album Tezezta Fiqri.  At first listen, it seems to be in the same style and utilizes the same instrumentation as Bereket Mengesteab.  However, while listening to the title track and other tracks, she makes use of the pentatonic scale, giving it more of an “Asian” sound.  It makes me wonder if the kraar is used because of that.  I liked it though. 

Up next: the food!