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How the hourglass pressure drum is built and why it can speak, how bàtá encodes speech differently and why scholars disagree about it, the Àyàn drumming lineages, and worked examples of drummed Yoruba with the acoustic measurements behind them.

The dùndún as a literary instrument rather than a technical curiosity: oríkì and proverbs delivered on the drum, what the drummer composes from, and how drummed, sung and spoken text relate in one performance.

An examination of the week-long festival commemorating the founder of the Oyo Empire, detailing its historical traditions, ritual officiants, performance genres, and modern institutionalization.

An organological, linguistic, and historical analysis of the Yorùbá dùndún hourglass tension drum, its direct acoustic speech surrogacy, ensemble hierarchy, hereditary Àyàn drumming lineages, and institutional museum presence.

A tale in which a bird left off the king's invitation list sings the cleared bush back into growth three times, and the king's son, who lost an ear over the bird's escape, recaptures him by drumming him into a dance.

Oríkì delivered on the talking drum rather than the voice, with the patron deity of drumming's own praise text and a documented case of drummed praise used to warn a rival.

A historical and organological clarification of the five major modern Yorùbá popular and neo-traditional musical genres, tracing their distinct religious roots, instrumental configurations, and social trajectories.