publications/writings

Book with DVD, sense of sound, West African philosophy, musical expression, and adaptation to African American music and jazz drum set; publication as an ebook with digital video links coming soon

Article, ‘Evolution of the Drumset in the African-American Tradition’ for the Percussive Arts Society’s Percussive Notes magazine, Vol. 57, No. 1, March 2019

Publication/release of feature-length documentary film we are one, directed by Sara Pettinella, with my blood drum spirit ensemble (www.weareonethemovie.com; June 2017); world premiere in Ghana, West Africa, August 2017. The film has won numerous awards, including Best Feature Documentary (Jukebox, 2018), Best Musical Score, (Moscow, Russia, 2018), finalist in the Calcutta, India, Indie Festival (2018)

Article, ‘Adapting Three Asante Spiritual Music Styles for Drumset’ for the Percussive Arts Society’s Percussive Notes magazine, Vol. 55, No. 2, May 2017

Article, a Fulbright Scholar Story, ‘Thinking Critically and Creatively: Teaching, Researching, and Performing Jazz in Ghana, ’
J. William Fulbright Program, U. S. State Department, selected as one of the top 10 Scholar Stories for 2016

Article, ‘The Pulse of World Music: Fɔntɔmfrɔm Drumming for Drum Set’ for the Percussive Arts Society’s online magazine, Rhythm! Scene, Vol. 3, No. 6, December 2016 

Video archives of my original concepts, performances, and educational demonstrations in African American Jazz and world music traditions, including sections with a focus on percussion and drum set, at www.youtube.com/royalhartigan; see playlists; begun September 2011 and ongoing

Book with DVD, West African Eʋe Rhythms for Drumset, 365 pages of text, notations, pictures, and adinkra symbols, Print Tech Publishers, Burlington, VT, and Tapspace Publishers, Portland OR, September 2010; publication as an ebook with digital video links coming soon 

Article, “The American Drum Set: Black Musicians and Chinese Opera along the Mississippi River,” in Afro-Asia: Revolutionary Political and Cultural Connections Between African Americans and Asian Americans, Eds. Fred Ho and William Mullen, Duke University Press, Durham, NC, June 2008 

Article, “Giving Back in the Philippines” my first Fulbright Scholar Story, 2007

Articles, “The Beijing Midi School of Music’s Modern Music Festival in May 2006 and royal hartigan’s blood drum spirit Ensemble Tour in Southern China” and “A Field Trip to West Hunan Province, P.R. China: Daliuzi and Wei Gu Percussion Music,” with Ethnomusicologist Weihua Zhang, in the online periodical Music in China, Los Angeles, CA, November 2007

Book with DVD, Dancin’ on the Time, on layers of coordinated independence for drumset, Tapspace Publications, Portland, OR, October 2006; publication as an ebook with digital video links coming soon 

Editor and producer, percussion book by Clifford Adams of Pittsfield, MA, Rudiments on Parade, June 2004; publication as an ebook coming soon 

Unpublished article, “Jazz in Beijing,” on my blood drum spirit ensemble performances and workshops at universities and performance spaces in Beijing, P. R. China in 2004

Article, “Ongoing Report on Jazz in Beijing,” with Weihua Zhang, Music in China, Vol. 3, No. 2, Oct. 2001 

Article, “Ghanaba and the Heritage of African Jazz,” The Annual Review of Jazz Studies 9, 1999

Book review, “Thinking in Jazz – The Infinite Art of Improvisation,” by Paul Berliner, The Annual Review of Jazz Studies 9, 1999

Book with CD, West African Rhythms for Drumset, published by Manhattan Music/Warner Bros., Miami FL, 1995; Alfred Publishing, Los Angeles, CA. 2004. This work was chosen as one of the top 25 books in the history of percussion publications by Modern Drummer Magazine, December 2011

Book Review, “New Musical Figurations – Anthony Braxton’s Cultural Critique,” by Ronald M. Radano, the world of music, Vol. 37 (2) 1995

Article, “The Heritage of the Drumset,” The African American Review, Spring 1995

Transcription for article by Diane Gordon, “Obo Addy’s Donno – The Talking Drum of Ghana, As Played in an Ensemble Format With a Drumset With Transcription and Analysis by Royal Hartigan, Ph.D,” on the artistry of master drummer Obo Addy; and “The Role of the Drumset in Ghanaian Highlife and its Relation to Traditional Drumming Styles of the Akan, Ga, and Eve Peoples,” transcription and article with master drummer Abraham Kobena Adzenyah, Percussive Notes magazine, Vol. 31, No. 4, April 1993

Ph.D. Dissertation, Blood Drum Spirit: Drum Languages of West Africa, African America, Native America, Central Java, and South India (1986), 1700 pages with 30 digital audio files; and M.A. thesis, The Drum: Concepts of Time and No Time, from African, Latin American, and African American Origins (1983), 400 pages with 21 audio cassettes, published by UMI/ProQuest, Ann Arbor, MI; www.proquest.com; publication as an ebook with digital audio links coming soon 

Article on Jazz and world music, “Cultural Dimensions in Aleatoric Music,” Berkshire Jazz Society Newsletter, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, May 1975