Rhythms and instruments
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Drums that do not all play the same thing, a metal that cuts the beat, and an acceleration that must “cross the pass”.
Two or four beats
According to the Encyclopédie berbère, the Ahwach rhythm is in two or four beats, where ahidous is most often in five. An older source speaks of a ternary metre; the Encyclopédie, drawing on Lortat-Jacob’s work, is the authority on this point.
Reality is richer than a number: as early as 1939 Alexis Chottin observed that different parts of the body follow different metres at once, and noted simultaneous layers in 2/4 and 6/8 in Chleuh choreography.
Sources Encyclopédie berbère, “Danse” Larousse encyclopedia, “ahouach”
Each drum its role
This is one of the traits that most clearly separate Ahwach from ahidous: its drums share the work. Some hold the basic figure while others play variations and syncopation. The musicologist Ahmed Aydoun sums it up: a soloist opens with a poem, the chorus answers, then the percussion takes over and accelerates by degrees, from slow to fast.
In the central High Atlas, Lortat-Jacob names three functions: the low-pitched ensemble drums (thrrim), the lead soloist who improvises (txllif) and a second soloist with a sharp, crystalline sound (assiff).
Sources A. Aydoun, e-taqafa.ma (Fondation Hassan II pour les MRE) B. Lortat-Jacob, Cahiers de littérature orale
The frame drum and its names
The principal instrument is a large frame drum about sixty centimetres across: a wooden hoop with a single goat skin, without a snare, whereas the ahidous drum has one. Before playing, the skin is tightened by heating it over a fire. Its name changes from valley to valley; the table below gives the names recorded by the sources, without claiming an exact map.
| Instrument | Recorded names | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Frame drum | tagnza, taguenza, tknza (pl. tkanziwin) | central High Atlas, Ouarzazate, Aoulouz |
| Frame drum | allun, alloun | central High Atlas, Middle Atlas |
| Frame drum | tallunt, talount | Souss, Imintanout, western High Atlas |
| Frame drum | bendir (generic Arabic term) | everywhere |
| Great double-headed drum, played with a stick | dendoum, demdom | Ouarzazate, Aoulouz |
| Great double-headed drum | tbel; ganga | Tata (tbel); southern Souss (ganga) |
| Metal idiophone struck with two iron rods | naqus, naqous | Souss, Anti-Atlas, Ouarzazate region |
Sources B. Lortat-Jacob, Cahiers de littérature orale Encyclopédie berbère, “Danse” Ouarzazate Online Ma3lama High Atlas Foundation A. Aydoun, e-taqafa.ma (Fondation Hassan II pour les MRE)
The great drum and the naqus
The great cylindrical drum with two goat-skin heads, struck with a stick (called tio in an account from Ouarzazate), punctuates the long phrases; Aydoun describes the ganga of the southern Souss as a large African drum marking the ends of periods. Because its name varies by region, it is best simply called the great drum.
The naqus gives the whole its edge: a piece of metal, a bell, a gong or sometimes a brake drum, struck with two iron rods, setting a sharp pulse above the skins. Flutes are not universal; they appear in the west and south-west, among the Haha and in Taskiwin.
Sources Ouarzazate Online A. Aydoun, e-taqafa.ma (Fondation Hassan II pour les MRE) High Atlas Foundation Al Alam UNESCO, intangible cultural heritage, “Taskiwin”
Crossing the pass: the tizi
In the central High Atlas described by Lortat-Jacob, a poet opens with a couplet, at once taken up in alternation by the men’s and women’s choirs over the drums. About two-thirds of the way through, the drums must “cross the pass”, the tizi: through a continuous acceleration the rhythm shifts from a symmetrical four-beat cycle to an asymmetrical one. As the tempo rises the words become inaudible and give way to a collective cry, the ahayyu; attention turns entirely to the dance. A substantial piece lasts about twenty minutes.
A small Ahwach needs at least three drums, around fifteen for proper synchronisation; a village feast mobilises about sixty people, and the great summer weddings could gather a thousand. Crossing the tizi well engages the village’s honour. In Imintanout, one author describes a complete cycle of seven rhythmic passages, five led by men and two by women, lasting about twenty-five minutes, opened by the tamzgert that tests the performers.
Sources B. Lortat-Jacob, Cahiers de littérature orale B. Lortat-Jacob, “Musique et fêtes au Haut-Atlas” (1980), Symétrie publisher page Ma3lama