Dununba by Dave Harris

The dununba is a traditional dance from the Maninka ethnic group, originating in the Hamana, in the Houroussa region of Upper Guinea.

 It is essentially a fertility dance, traditionally performed by young men who use it to display to their betrothed and the other important people of the community their vitality and bravery. It is a violent and athletic dance involving risky stunts, although in some areas it is practiced more peacefully. Woman participate with their own roles too. There are many different variations of the dununba rhythm; this pieces use two.

The goal of this piece was a cross-cultural fusion; a traditional Guinea dance combined with octatonicism, straight from the harmonic language of twentieth-century Western music. As such, in the music there are moments of pure rhythm to bookend the music, with an extensive secion of melodic development in the centre, based on chord clusters and pitches from the octatonic scale.

This music should be played frenetically and aggressively and, especially in the improvisation section, there should be a feeling of barely maintained control.