Description: Scope/Content: Isundunrin: various Seli-Wakka ensembles with Keke (igi) sticks, recorded during Ramadan in early a.m. Side No. 1Description: The recording features seli/were bands performing waka music. Waka is a music performed during Ramadan, when youth bands are tasked with moving from compound to compound and "serenading" and waking the women of the household. Waka includes Muslim religious and local topical songs. They feature seli concussion idiophones [see OMR 069]. The seli are here accompanied by rhythm sticks and various drums. One of the groups features were drums, rhythm sticks, and an agogo bell. Seli are circular tin plate-shaped concussion idiophones, with iron rings around the outside for added timbral effect. They are held vertically by handles and played like European orchestral cymbals. Seli ensembles vary in instrumentation and these Muslim youth bands may serve recreational, ceremonial, or religious purposes. Often seli will be played with an agidigbo lamellophone, rhythm sticks known as keke or oparun, sekere or seed-pod rattles, and various types of drums including akuba/ogido, samba, gangan, and were. Were is a stick-beaten, single-membrane drum with a rectangular frame. It is used in Muslim youth bands for recreational or religious purposes. Bands that include were but no seli are sometimes referred to simply as were bands. Were are often combined with rhythm sticks (keke) and/or agogo (Thieme 1969: 281-82, 363-367).
Item number: 2005.09_073. Includes updated metadata from Jesse Ruskin. Collector notes as "Side No. 1" Conserv. note: Digitized 2012-10-02 at 24bit/96khz. Staff note: Hand written liner notes included.
Participant/Performer Note
Contributors: Darius Louis Thieme.
Original Version
Reproduction of: Reel no. B10; IS-13 January 1966. n.d. sound tape reel: 7 1/2 ips, single track, mono.; 7 in. Field Recording.
Location of Originals
UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive, University of California, Los Angeles
Copyright Note
UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive, University of California, Los Angeles
