Africa - Toto

Form and structure: The piece is in strophic or verse-chorus form. Intro Verse 1 / Verse 2 Chorus 1 / Chorus 2 Link 1 / Link 2 Instrumental Chorus 3 Outro 1 – 4 4 bars 5 – 39 / 14 – 39 35 bars / 26 bars 40 – 57 18 bars 58 – 65 8 bars 66 – 82 17 bars 40 – 92 22 bars 93 – 96 4 bars Background details: Composed by band members David Paich and Jeff Porcaro. Recorded by the American rock band Toto in 1981 for their fourth studio album entitled Toto IV. Released in 1982 and reached number one in America on 5 February 1983. Genre: soft rock. Instrumentation: Rock band: drum kit with additional percussion, lead and bass guitars, synthesisers, male lead vocals and male backing vocals. Texture: Homophonic: melody and accompaniment. Metre and rhythm: Simple duple time – 2/2 (split common time) – with two minim beats in every bar. Uses distinctive ostinato rhythms for both riffs, consisting almost totally of quavers, with constant use of syncopation. Vocal rhythm looks complex but follows the natural rhythm of the lyrics. Harmony: Diatonic; mixture of root position and inverted chords. Riff a can be heard during the intro, verses, link sections, instrumental and outro. This riff uses a three-chord pattern: A – G#m – C#m. Choruses use a standard chord pattern: vi (F#m) – IV (D) – I (A) – V (E). The harmonic rhythm (the rate of chord change) is mostly once per bar. Tonality: The majority of the song is in B major whilst the choruses are all in A major. Dynamics: Most of the song is mezzo-forte (moderately loud) whilst the choruses are forte. Tempo: The tempo is moderately fast.