Rainer Polak

Rainer Polak is a music and dance researcher and djembe drummer who has worked in the field of West African celebration music performances and written in the fields of social anthropology, ethnomusicology, empirical musicology, and rhythm perception. He is Associate Professor for Interdisciplinary Rhythm Research at the RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion, and at the Department of Musicology at the University of Oslo in Norway. ^{[1] [2]}

Biography

Rainer Polak studied social anthropology, African linguistics, Bambara language, and History of Africa from 1989 to 1996 at Bayreuth University (Germany), and djembe music performance from 1991 until today in Bamako (Mali). All of his studies and work in Bamako were accomplished with the help of locally and traditionally minded drummers whose playing is presented in his book and the corresponding CD.

Polak worked as a professional djembe player in Bamako for one year in 1997/98, performing at well over a hundred traditional weddings, spirit possession dances and other celebrations on the basis of being hired by the late Jaraba Jakite, most of the times, and occasionally by the late Yamadu Bani Dunbia, by Jeli Madi Kuyate, and by Drissa Kone. The ethnomusicological dissertation and book he wrote on that experience won the academic prize of the German African Studies Association in 2003/04. Polak ranks as an outstanding jenbe soloist in Germany. As a teacher he has specialized in giving focused classes on micro-timing, and master-classes in jenbe solo performance.

Prior to becoming an associate professor at the University of Oslo, Polak held researcher positions at RITMO (2022–2024), MPI for Empirical Aesthetics (2017-2022), and HfMT Köln (2011-2016). At RITMO, he leads a research project funded by the Research Council of Norway, DjembeDance (2023–2027).

Publications

Source: ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}

Books

• Polak, Rainer. (2004). Festmusik als Arbeit, Trommeln als Beruf. Jenbe-Spieler in einer westafrikanischen Großstadt. Berlin: Reimer.

Articles, Chapters/Entries, and referred Proceedings

• Polak, R. (2025). From Mali to Ghana: Pulsation Non-Isochrony in West African Percussion Music Genres. Analytical Approaches to African Music, 1(1).
• Jacoby, N., Polak, R., Grahn, J. A., Cameron, D. J., Lee, K. M., Godoy, R., Undurraga, E. A., Huanca, T., Thalwitzer, T., Doumbia, N., Goldberg, D., Margulis, E. H., Wong, P. C. M., Jure, L., Rocamora, M., Fujii, S., Savage, P. E., Ajimi, J., Konno, R., . . . McDermott, J. H. (2024). Commonality and variation in mental representations of music revealed by a cross-cultural comparison of rhythm priors in 15 countries. Nature Human Behaviour.
• London, J., Jacoby, N., & Polak, R. (2022). Theoretical and Practical Aspects of Cross-Cultural Corpus Studies: Two Case Studies from Mali. In D. Shanahan, J. A. Burgoyne, & I. Quinn (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Music and Corpus Studies. Oxford University Press.
• Polak, R., & Doumbia, N. (2022). Learning to dance in rural Mali. In A. v. B. Wharton & D. Urbanavičienė (Eds.), Dance and Economy, Dance Transmission: Proceedings of the 31st Symposium of the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) Study Group on Ethnochoreology (pp. 282–290). Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre.
• Jakubowski, K., Polak, R., Rocamora, M., Jure, L., & Jacoby, N. (2022). Aesthetics of musical timing: Culture and expertise affect preferences for isochrony but not synchrony. Cognition, 227, 105205.
• Polak, R., & London, J. (2022). Tempo, meter, and form: An analysis of “Dansa” from Mali. In L. Shuster, S. Mukherji, & N. Dinnerstein (Eds.), Trends in Word Music Analysis (pp. 143–159). Routledge.
• Polak, R. (2022). Non-isochronous Metre in Music from Mali. In M. Doffman, E. Payne, & T. Young (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Time in Music (pp. 252–274). Oxford University Press.
• Jacoby, N., Polak, R., & London, J. (2021). Extreme precision in rhythmic interaction is enabled by role-optimized sensorimotor coupling: analysis and modeling of West-African drum ensemble music. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. Advance online publication.
• Polak, R. (2021). Presenting yourself through dance: Participatory and presentational aspects of dance performance at local festivities in southern Mali. In V. Apjok, K. Povedák, V. Szőnyi, & S. Varga (Eds.), Dance, Age and Politics:Proceedings of the 30th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Ethnochoreology (pp. 67–82). University of Szeged.
• Polak, R., Repetto, R. C., Holzapfel, A., & Pearson, L. (Eds.). (2021). Proceedings of the first symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Sound, Movement, and the Sciences (SoMoS). Zenodo.
• Clayton, M., Tarsitani, S., Jankowsky, R., Jure, L., Leante, L., Polak, R., Poole, A., Rocamora, M., Alborno, P., Camurri, A., Eerola, T., Jacoby, N., & Jakubowski, K. (2021). The interpersonal entrainment in music performance data collection. Empirical Musicology Review, 16(1), 65-84.
• Wald-Fuhrmann, M., Pearson, L., Roeske, T., Grüny, C., & Polak, R. (2021). Music as a trait in evolutionary theory: A musicological perspective. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 44.
• Polak, R. (2020). Review of the book Thought and play in musical rhythm: Asian, African, and Euro-American perspectives, by Richard Wolf, Stephen Blum and Christopher Hasty (Eds.). Ethnomusicology Forum, 1–4.
• Polak, R. (2020). Non-isochronous meter is not irregular. A review of theory and evidence. In M. Aydintan, F. Edler, R. Graybill, & L. Krämer (Eds.), Gegliederte Zeit: 15. Jahreskongress der Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie (GMTH) : 1. bis 4. Oktober 2015 (pp. 365–379). Olms.
• Polak, R. (2020). Wozu polychrone Pulsation? Funktionalistische Perspektiven auf metrische Strukturen in malischer Musik. In M. Sharif & K. Stepputat (Eds.), Understanding Musics: Festschrift on the Occasion of Gerd Grupe's 65th Birthday (pp. 19–36). Shaker.
• Jacoby, N., Margulis, E. H., Clayton, M., Hannon, E., Honing, H., Iversen, J., Klein, T. R., Mehr, S. A., Pearson, L., Peretz, I., Perlman, M., Polak, R., Ravignani, A., Savage, P. E., Steingo, G., Stevens, C. J., Trainor, L., Trehub, S., Veal, M., & Wald-Fuhrmann, M. (2020). Cross-cultural work in music cognition. Music Perception, 37 (3), 185–195.
• Polak, R. (2019). Jembe music. In D. Horn, J. Shepherd, G. Kielich, & H. C. Feldman (Eds.), Bloomsbury encyclopedia of popular music of the world. Volume XII: Genres: Sub-Saharan Africa (pp. 315–319). London: Bloomsbury Academic.
• Polak, R. (2019). Celebration. In J. Sturman (Ed.), The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Music and Culture (Vol. 2, pp. 476–480). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.
• Polak, R., Jacoby, N., Fischinger, T., Goldberg, D., Holzapfel, A., & London, J. (2018). Rhythmic Prototypes Across Cultures: A Comparative Study of Tapping Synchronization. Music Perception, 36(1), 1–23.

• Polak, R., Tarsitani, S., & Clayton, M. (2018). IEMP Malian Jembe. A collection of audiovisual recordings of Malian jembe ensemble performances, with detailed annotations. Open Science Framework (OSF).
• Polak, R. (2017). The lower limit for meter in dance drumming from West Africa. Empirical Musicology Review 12 (3-4), 205-226.
• Neuhoff, H., Polak, R., & Fischinger, T. (2017). Perception and Evaluation of Timing Patterns in Drum Ensemble Music from Mali. Music Perception 34 (4), 438–451.
• London, J., Polak, R., & Jacoby, N. (2017). Rhythm histograms and musical meter: A corpus study of Malian percussion music. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review , 24(2), 474–480.
• Polak, R., London, J., Jacoby, N. (2016). Both isochronous and non-isochronous metrical subdivision afford precise and stable ensemble entrainment: A corpus study of Malian jembe drumming. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 10, 285.
• Polak, R., Jacoby, N., & London, J. (2016). Kulturelle Diversität in  der empirischen Rhythmusforschung: Drei Analysen eines Audio-Korpus von Percussion-Ensemblemusik aus Mali. Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie, 13(2).
• Polak, R. (2015). Pattern and Variation in the Timing of Aksak Meter: Commentary on Goldberg. Empirical Musicology Review 10(4).
• Polak, R., & London, J. (2014). Timing and Meter in Mande drumming from Mali. Music Theory Online 20(1).
• Polak, R. (2014). Bala; Bara; Bàtá; Bendre; Bonkolo; Dùndún; Dunun; Jembe; Sabar; Tama. New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Polak, R. (2014). Die Djembe. Eine Trommel aus Westafrika im Kontext der Globalisierung. Racz, G., & Schwandner, H. (ed.), Das große Buch der Schlagzeugpraxis. Regensburg: ConBrio, 219–239.
• London, J., & Polak, R. (2013). Microtiming in Ngòn: Categorical production and perception of a non-isochronous meter. Williamon, A., & Goebl, W. (eds.), Proceedings of the International Symposium of Performance Science 2013. Brussels: European Association of Conservatories (AEC), 645–650.
• Polak, R., & London, J. (2013). Mande ensemble drumming: An introduction to Ngòn. Williamon, A., & Goebl, W. (eds.), Proceedings of the International Symposium of Performance Science 2013. Brussels: European Association of Conservatories (AEC), 639–644.
• Polak, R. (2012). A Musical Instrument Travels Around the World: Jenbe Playing in Bamako, in West Africa, and Beyond. Baumann, M. P. (ed.), Readings in Ethnomusicology. Berlin: VWB Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung, 134–170. [Reprint, first ed. 2000 in The World of Music 42/3: 7–46]
• Polak, R. (2012). Urban Drumming: Traditional Celebration of Music in a West African City (Bamako). Charry, E. (ed.) Hip-Hop Africa: New African Music in a Globalizing World. Indiana University Press (African Expressive Cultures), 261–281.
• Polak, R. (2010). Rhythmic Feel as Meter: Non-Isochronous Beat Subdivisions in Jembe Music from Mali. Music Theory Online 16(4).
• Polak, R. (2007). Performing Audience: On the Social Constitution of Focused Interaction at Celebrations in Mali. Anthropos 102.2007(1): 3–18.
• Polak, R. (2006). – A Musical Instrument Travels Around the World: Jenbe Playing in Bamako, in West Africa, and Beyond. Post, J. (ed.), Ethnomusicology: A Contemporary Reader. NY: Routledge Press, 161–185. [Reprint, first ed. 2000 in The World of Music 42/3: 7–46]
• Polak, R. (2005). Drumming for Money and Respect. The Commercialization of Traditional Celebration Music in Bamako. Jansen, J., & Wooten, S. (eds.), Wari Matters: Ethnographic Explorations of Money in the Mande World. LIT Verlag, pp. 135–161.
• Polak, R. (2004). Die Kommerzialisierung der Hochzeitsfestmusik in Bamako. Beck, K., Förster, T., und Hahn, H. P., (ed.), Blick nach vorn. Festgabe für Gerd Spittler zum 65. Geburtstag. Köln: Köppe, S. 235–249.
• Polak, R. (2003). City rhythms: The urbanization of local drum/dance celebration music in Bamako. Jansen, J. (ed.), Experts in Mandé. Leiden: Nederlandse Vereniging van Afrika Studies, pp. 1–24.
• Polak, R. (2001). Ein Musikinstrument geht um die Welt. Zur Verflechtung lokaler, nationaler und internationaler Kontexte im Bamakoer Jenbe-Spiel. Bauer, U., Egbert, H., & Jäger, F. (ed.), Interkulturelle Beziehungen und Kulturwandel in Afrika. Beiträge zur Globalisierungsdebatte. Frankfurt a. M.: Peter Lang Verlag, S. 291–312.
• Polak, R. (2001). Festmusik: Zur Ethnographie musikalischer Gattungen in Westafrika. Marianne Bröcker (ed.), Berichte aus dem ICTM-Nationalkomitee DeutschlandIX/X. Bamberg: Universitätsbibliothek, S. 19–50.
• Polak, R. (2000). A Musical Instrument Travels Around the World: Jenbe Playing in Bamako, in West Africa, and Beyond. The World of Music 42/3: 7–46.
• Polak, R. (1998). Jenbe Music in Bamako: Microtiming as Formal Model and Performance Practice. Iwalewa-Forum 2: 24–46.
• Polak, R. (1997). Bewegung, Zeit und Pulsation. Theorierelevante Aspekte der Jenbemusik in Bamako. Jahrbuch für musikalische Volks- und Völkerkunde 16: 59–70.

Music books (Field recording transcriptions)

• Polak, R. (2008). The Jenbe Realbook, vol. 2. Nürnberg: Bibiafrica
• Polak, R. (2006). The Jenbe Realbook, vol. 1. Nürnberg: Bibiafrica

CD-liner notes (selection)

• Polak, R. (2008). The Mali Tradition: The Art of Djembe Drumming, vol. 2. Nürnberg: Bibiafrica
• Polak, R. (2006). The Mali Tradition: The Art of Djembe Drumming, vol. 1. Nürnberg: Bibiafrica
• Polak, R. (1997). Dònkili – Call to Dance. Festival Music from Mali. PAN CD 2060
• Polak, R. (1994). Bamako Fòli – Jenbe Music from Bamako. Self-edited.

Book/CD reviews

• Polak, R. (1999). Andreas Meyer: Afrikanische Trommeln. The World of Music 41/1.
• Polak, R. (1999). Gilbert Rouget: Guinée. Musique Malinké. The World of Music 41/2.
• Polak, R. (1999). Thomas Hale: Griots and Griottes. The World of Music 41/3.

References

1. Polak, Rainer. "Personal website". Rainer Polak. Retrieved 2025-01-22.
2. University of Oslo. "Profile page at University of Oslo". www.uio.no. Archived from the original on 2022-12-19. Retrieved 2025-11-06.
3. ORCID. "ORCID profile". orcid.org. Retrieved 2025-11-06.
4. Google. "Google Scholar profile". scholar.google.de. Retrieved 2025-11-06.{{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)