A journey to the animal kingdom

„Hello, I am Felix Nassi and I am happy to welcoming you here at my workshop. Today we will learn a lot about rhythms and African sounds. Please stand up!”

With these words Nassi welcomed a group of interested singers in his workshop about the African way of singing. All people in the room stood up and were ready for the first rhythm exercises: Body percussion, in Europe mostly used as warm-up exercise, in Africa an essential part of the music culture.

Felix Nassi reports about his mother being his first music professor. Already in the babyhood when he was carried on the back of the dancing mother, he learned the first basics of Rhythm-teaching. This kind of learning is common especially in the rural areas of Africa.

To describe the rhythms and movements easier to the attendees, he explained the exercises as a kind of imitation of the wildlife. A parade of African elephants was now arrived in Sochi through rhythmical footsteps. Fights between antelopes and sounds of birds were imitated by the own body. Nassi explained the strong influence of the wildlife to the African music through the close co-existence of humans and animals in former times.

Felix Nassi – he describes himself as an autodidact – has only learned choral conduction as an adult. Today he is a distinguished choral conductor of four choirs of different ages and travels as workshop leader around the world.

His choice of music, an African lullaby “Suhen” and the song “Afiti ba?” from Benin are well are very popular in his home country. The participants learned really quickly that music in Africa does not work without dancing. In Benin there’s a lot of dancing – said Nassi – in some regions they dance with feet , in other parts of the country with the shoulders or even with the whole body. Dancing belongs to the African music just like the air belongs to the voice.