Rhythmic Imagination in African Music

Renowned musicologist Kofi Agawu lectures on his most recent book, "The African Imagination in Music," with a focus on the chapter about rhythm.

Speaker Biography: Born in Ghana, Kofi Agawu is the Hughes-Rogers Professor of Music at Princeton University. He has taught at Harvard, Yale, Cornell and King's College London, and held visiting positions at the University of Toronto, the University of Pavia, Cremona, the University of Ghana, Hong Kong University and Oxford University. His work focuses on analytical issues in selected repertoires of Western Europe and West Africa. He is the author of five books: "Playing with Signs: A Semiotic Interpretation of Classic Music," "African Rhythm: A Northern Ewe Perspective," "Representing African Music: Postcolonial Notes, Queries, Positions," "Music as Discourse: Semiotic Adventures in Romantic Music" and "The African Imagination in Music." His awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Dent Medal and the Frank Llewellyn Harrison Medal. A fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, he is also a corresponding fellow of the British Academy.

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