Hambone

Libby Larsen used three inspirations from her life to write Hambone. First, she was inspired by early rock 'n roll rhythms, particularly those written by Bo Diddley, from her high school days when she had her own rock band. The second inspiration is the African-American tradition of hamboning - clapping and slapping to create fun, new rhythms, and finally the melodies of the traditional cakewalk, reminiscent of Debussy's "Golliwog's Cakewalk." The curriculum explores all three of these inspirations with various musical and visual examples, and explains African American oral traditions, linking this piece to places all over the world, from Ghana and the Ivory Coast to Paris, France. A free downloadable interdisciplinary curriculum for teaching Hambone is available at