Live music: Teranga, el legado de los griots de Senegal

Last Wednesday, January 20, second year students  went to the Filarmonica theatre to see «Teranga, el legado de los griots de Senegal». The show started with a presentation of the group and then the lights turned off and two people entered to the stage from side doors. On the stage the other three musicians were singing and dancing.

They taught us typical dances and songs from Senegal, for example, a ritual song that they sing when it doesn't rain. Sometimes there was an alternation of singers. This style is called «call and response» and it is a very important characteristic of African music. About instruments, they used a lot of percussion instruments and some unusual instruments, for example the «tama» that means «talking drum». We also saw the «balafón», a percusssion instrument that can play melodys (pitched instrument). The only string instrument we listened was the «kora». In this show the rhythm, the percussion and the dance were very important.

We think that Senegalese music is very different from  Spanish music because they use different instruments and they use their voices differently, for example they use call and response. We didn´t ’t like the music from Senegal so much because it's so strange.

Diego Álvarez García and Cristina Barril Fernández, 2º ESO A

Second year students walking to the Filarmónica theatre.