Reflecting on Eritrean Music and Choreography

Reflecting on Eritrean Music and Choreography

Rahel Asgedom

It was an interesting at the same time enthralling moment, when the musicians played in a magnificent harmony just orchestrated by their music director. The music director was waving his hands in all directions; his body was also directing the musicians in a musical language as to lead them in creating a beautiful melody. A language that is attainable only between the musicians and their instructors or any other professional in that particular field. However, it was a crystal clear image that each participants of the workshop was entertained with full interest and amazement by the harmonized performance of Eritrean musicians. The standing ovation at the end of the performance was enthralling which reveals how they all have been engrossed.

A conference on Eritrean music and choreography was conducted from October 20-21 in Asmara, at hotel Asmara Palace. On the occasion, President Isaias Afwerki, higher officials, musicians, singers, lyrists and other invited guests participated. Different research papers were also presented by professionals on music and choreography of Eritrea.

Mr.Tesfalem Keleta coordinator of the conference gave an opening speech on the event and he said “the aim of the workshop is to evaluate the standard of Eritrean music and to create a ground for exchanging ideas and experiences between the current generation and the veteran singers, lyrists, dancers and musicians.” The music that is produced thus far has played a great role in encouraging, strengthening, refreshing, and inspiring the nationals both in abroad and within the country during the pre and post independence of the nation. Additionally, Eritrean music and songs have been developed in a larger extent and degree during the struggle time thus the revolutionary period was the backbone for the development of the current progress scored in our music industry, expressed Mr. Tesfalem.

In addition, chairperson of the Eritrean MusicAssociation Mr. Eyob Habteab disclosed that music is the expression of a respective culture; it has an international language that makes you communicate in any country with any kind of person. In music you are not forced to study the language of a particular language since you are able to assess quality of the music without really knowing or understanding the language. “We are more focused on the music instead of the language for music entertains everyone regardless of their age, gender, race or culture. Hence music has a great power in attracting people. We can not separate music from its culture for they went hand in hand. Our musicians have made a great change and played a big role since the colonization time,” explained Mr. Eyob.

On the occasion, President Isaias Afewrki expressed the paramount of music in culture and society and said “it nurtures, relaxes and recharges once spirit at any time of the day. The performances that were just staged right now were really great and I am satisfied. I can say that the performances of the music serve us just like food. I like to listen to a good music early in the morning in order to refresh my spirit through out the day. Thus, music is life.” Further, he said that one couldn’t speak about the music or culture within an hour for it holds many issues however music can say sermons and have the ability to express what words can’t and the progress of music in the country is promising. “We are not only realizing the food security in the country but we will also have abundant music in quality to feed our nerves,” expressed the President.

In the conference different kinds of papers on diverse aspects of music and choreography were discussed. The presentations mainly focused on the impact of music on the audiences, compositions of lyrics with melody, discipline of musicians and their participation in the association, choreography, arrangements of music and technical music, arrangements of vocal and music instruments, copyrights, and media. Plus, a lot of considerations and other issues were raised and discussed openly and have reached into a common conclusion.

Moreover, the conference opened a ground for the musicians, singers, choreographers, lyrists and composers to discus and evaluate their works as a family and not just like collogues. The conferees conducted the two day conference with full of zeal and enthusiasm, they all were in their good mood when assessing their work together unlike their working time.

Tirhas Tekleab has been singing for almost fourteen years and she is one of the many young women artists who are flourishing after independence. “The aim of the conference is to evaluate the works and potentials of musicians. It tries to look music from different aspects and raised questions, are we improving our capacity in music? Are we progressing to something promising? Are we keeping the cultural music within its originality? These are some of the issues we are going to discuss,” said Tirhas. Furthermore, she indicated that Eritrean music is progressing each day in quality and content. “During the pre independence period our music were too few for the then musicians had a restrictions in expressing their emotions and feelings and especially if it was about their country and the people. However, we, the current generation don’t have any boundary in expressing our feelings whether it’s about the love of country or love affairs. Therefore, music is developing each day,” explained Tirhas. She additionally pointed out that such kind of conference should be arranged at least once in two month in order to asses the works of the musicians.

Mohammed Druf is a member of Sibirit cultural troupe which works under PFDJ. He is from the Hidareb ethnic group; he sings cultural songs and has worked very hard especially in introducing the Hidareab culture within and outside the country. “We do have some ethnic groups who have started their performance from almost nothing and have gained a lot of audiences from abroad. This can tell us how the music is succeeding within the past nineteen years,” disclosed Mr. Mohammed Druf.

Yosef Teklay another singer on his part said that such kind of workshops are necessary to discuss about music under one roof with a lot of veteran and young singers coming together, musicians and other expertise in the area. “Musicians have been flourishing dynamically even though there is no training or schooling that is given by the Eritrean music association. However, we are all doing our best as to empower our performances, but, if some training were provided for us we would have produced more quality songs than we already have, said Yosef. Hence, he suggested the Eritrean Music Association to put efforts in supporting and upgrading the capacity of the members.

At the end of the conference the participants have passed recommendations after a thorough discussion and debating which lasted for two continuous days. Some of the recommendations the conferees agreed upon are providing training to enhance their knowledge about music, and that an emphasis on teamwork to strength their unity thus they have suggested to develop such habits. As such, some foreign dances have to be eliminated in the cultural shows for they are shadowing the originality of the work within. Research papers on music have to be presented on meetings and seminars, writing lyrics should also be improved. The music performances that were presented on the occasion not only added beauty to the conference but also have in their way expressed the stage and level where our music have reached.

Share this post