Mustapha Tetty Addy

Mustapha Tetty Addy:
Some notes about the music

The concert of the Obonu Drummers is an opening path in African music which has taken a leading role in the general development of music of our times and in the future, worldwide.

Dering early times, this type of music was termed as "music of the indigenios folks", a classification which limited its meaning and led to various misinterpretations of its real worth. Today, the African music has its right place and can stand for its deserved international reputation.

The drum music of the Obonu Drummers is overwhelming and captivating in the sense of its originality, energetic strength, vitality and magical radience. It leads us on a journey to the characteristic and mythological roots of African drum music, through its unlimited thematic. With this music the Obonu Drummers aim at transporting a creative spiritual and traditional message accross borders and hop to present a new positive picture of African music to a wid public.

The Royal Obonu music
The ceremonial music of the Obonu (=royal) drums of almost all of the 13 tribes and royal houses of Ghana was never before brought together. For the first time this music was recorded and arranged to be played international in concert halls.
The Obonu drums of the different tribes - e.g. the Ga, Ewe, Ashanti, Dagarti - are normally wellkept in the king's palace, and they are brought out only at dunbars, special festivals or when the king dies.
In 1982, Mustapha Tettey Addy started to collect and arrange the Obonu drum music which has its main roots in the Ashanti region. He became a student of the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana, and he also travelled through the region of Ghana where he researched the music and the language of the different tribes.
In agreement with the tribes of Ghana, Mustapha Tettey Addy recorded their ceremonial music in 1991 (CD/MC). However, the music has not been played before this tour of the Obonu Drummers.
All pieces of the Obonu program start in their original version, as they are played since the beginning og the century at the king's palace. But during each piece Addy continues to rearrange and reinterpret the music, though the original theme is still being retained.
It is the merit of Mustapha Tettey Addy to have reunited the often hostiled clans to form a genuine Ghanaian collective music, played by the 7 Obonu Drummers.