Talking Drums

Talking Drums is a guitar duo constructed using drumming patterns from West Africa. Each player has their own series of independent time signatures and bar lines that very occasionally coincide. The impetus for the piece came from the Hibernian Guitar Duo's commissioning project that encourages the incorporation of ceremonial Batá drumming techniques into new works by contemporary composers. Batá drumming ensembles participate in religious ceremonies conducted by the Yoruba people, who mainly reside around the mouth of the river Niger (Nigeria, Benin, and Ghana).