Tribal Culture?

These days I've had a special affinity for the Baroque composer Telemann. One reason is that his personal history bears a superficial resemblance to mine. As with me, his parents tried very hard to steer him away from music, even to the point of more or less forcing him to major in a university subject that was more commercially "safe" but didn't really suit him (in his case law). However, he continued to do music on his own, and he was able to make headway in it mainly thanks to both his own efforts and the various contacts he made. Another reason I like Telemann is that, even despite (or perhaps because of) the enormous volume of compositions he cranked out, he was known to be one of the most progressive composers of his day. He often used unusual combinations of instruments. He was also fond of experimenting with musical structures and rhythms which were wholly uncommon at the time. In other words, he's definitely a man (or at least a ghost) after my own heart.

I'm not sure why, but recently I began to think to myself: "You know, Telemann may have tried a lot of different things in his music, but he never made a tune in African or Afro-Caribbean style. If he were to try, what would it sound like...?"

Well, I decided to find out. This is the result. Tribal Culture. More details can be found on my Minstrel's Muse site.