Life And Works Of Nigerian Art Composers
Life and Works Of Nigerian Art Composers
Chief Olufela Obafunmilayo
"Fela" Sowande
Born 29 May 1905
Location of Birth Abeokuta, Nigeria
Died 13 March 1987 (aged 81)
Nationality Nigerian
Occupation Musician and composer
Chief Olufela Obafunmilayo "Fela" Sowande MBE (29 May 1905 – 13 March 1987) was a Nigerian musician and composer. Considered the father of modern Nigerian art music, Sowande is perhaps the most internationally known African composer of works in the European "classical" idiom.
BIOGRAPHY
Sowande was born in Abeokuta, near Lagos, the son of Emmanuel Sowande, a priest and pioneer of Nigerian church music. As a child he sang in the Choir of the Cathedral Church of Christ. He studied at the C.M.S. Grammar School and at King's College, Lagos.[2] The influence of his father and Dr T. K. Ekundayo Phillips (composer, organist and choirmaster) was an important factor in his early years. At that time, Sowande was a chorister and was introduced to new Yoruba works being introduced into the churches. During that period, he studied organ under Phillips (including works by Bach and European classical masters), and earned the Fellowship Diploma (FRCO) from the Royal College of Organists. At that time, he was also a bandleader, playing jazz and popular highlife music. All of these had considerable influence on his work.
In 1934 Sowande went to London to study European classical and popular music. In 1936, he was solo pianist in a performance of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. He also played as duo-pianist with Fats Waller, and was theatre organist for the BBC as organist and Choirmaster at Kingsway Hall (unfortunately recently demolished) London and as pianist in the 1936 production of Blackbirds. In 1939, he played organ in some recordings by Adelaide Hall and Dame Vera Lynn. Later, he studied organ privately under Edmund Rubbra, George Oldroyd, and George Cunningham and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists in 1943, winning the Limpus, Harding and Read Prizes.
He also won several prizes and obtained a Bachelor of Music degree at the University of London and became a Fellow of Trinity College of Music. He also worked as musical advisor for the Colonial Film Unit of the Ministry of Information during the Second World War, providing background music for educational films.
From 1945, he was a renowned organist and choirmaster at the West London Mission of the Methodist Church until 1952, and a considerable amount of organ music dates from this period. These are based on Nigerian melodies that gave a special appeal to the Black members of his congregation in the early years of migration from the African continent and the Caribbean. Also during this time, he became known as a dance pianist, bandleader, and Hammond organist, playing popular tunes of the day.
Western and African ideas prevail in his music which included organ works such as Yorùbá Lament, Obangiji, Kyrie, Gloria, Jesu Olugbala, and Oba Aba Ke Pe. Most of these show a strong influence of Anglican Church music combined with Yoruba pentatonic melodies.
His orchestral works include Six Sketches for Full Orchestra, A Folk Symphony, and African Suite for string orchestra, and show African rhythmic and harmonic characteristics. The final movement of African Suite became known to Canadian audiences as the theme of the popular CBC music programme Gilmour's Albums,[3] and is now a Canadian orchestral standard.[4] He also wrote a significant amount of secular and sacred choral music, mainly a cappella. Some of these works were composed during his period with the BBC Africa Service. He went back to Nigeria to scholarly work with the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation and later the University of Ibadan. He was appointed MBE in the 1955 Queen's Birthday Honours for his work in the Nigerian Broadcasting Service [5]. In 1968 he moved to Howard University in Washington, D.C., then the University of Pittsburgh.
In the last years of his life Sowande taught in the Department of Pan-African Studies at Kent State University, and lived in nearby Ravenna, Ohio with his wife, Eleanor McKinney, who was one of the founders of Pacifica Radio. He died in Ravenna and is buried in Randolph Township, Ohio.
In addition to his position as a professor, Sowande also held the chieftaincy title of the Bariyo of Lagos.
There is currently a move to set up a centre to research and promote his works, as many remain unpublished or are out of print.
Compositions
1945 –
Ka Mura, Chappell, London
1952 –
Pastourelle (for organ), Chappell, London
1955 –
Jesu Olugbala, Chappell, London
1955 –
Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho, Chappell, London
1955 –
Kyrie, Chappell, London
1955 –
Obangiji, Chappell, London
1955 –
Yorùbá Lament, Chappell, London
1958 –
Oyigiyigi, Ricordi, New York
1958 –
Gloria, Ricordi, New York
1958 –
'Prayer, Ricordi, New York
1959 –
Responses in 'A’
KÕa Mo Rokoso
Oba Aba Ke Pe
Choral
"The Wedding Day" for S.S.A. with piano, 1957, RDH
"Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" for S.A.T.B. a cappella, 1955, Chappell, London
"My Way's Cloudy" for S.A.T.B. with piano, 1955, Chappell, London
"De Ol' Ark's a-Moverin" for S.A.T.B.B. a cappella with tenor solo, 1955, Chappell, London
"Same Train" for S.A.T.B.B. a cappella, 1955, Chappell, London
"Roll de Ol' Chariot" for S.A.T.B.B. with piano and rhythm combo, 1955, Chappell, London
"All I d"o for S.A.T.B.B. with piano and rhythm combo, 1961, Ricordi, New York
"Goin' to Set Down" for S.A.T.B. a cappella with soprano solo, 1961, Ricordi, New York
"Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray" for S.A.T.B. a cappella with soprano solo, 1958, Ricordi, New York
"De Angels Are Watchin'" for S.A.T.B. a cappella with soprano and tenor solo, 1958, Ricordi, New York
"Nobody Knows de Trouble I See" for S.A.TB. a cappella, 1958, Ricordi, New York
"Wheel, Oh Wheel" for S.A.T.B. a cappella, 1961, Ricordi, New York
"Wid a Sword in Ma Hand" for S.A.T.B.B. a cappella, 1958, Ricordi, New York
"Sit Down Servant" for T.T.B.B. a cappella and tenor solo, 1961, Ricordi, New York
"Out of Zion" for S.A.T.B. with organ, 1955
"St. Jude's Response" for S.A.T.B. with organ
"Oh Render Thanks" (hymn-anthem) for S.A.T.B. with organ, 1960
Nigerian National Anthem (an arrangement) for S.A.T.B. with organ, 1960
Solo Songs
Three Songs of Contemplation for tenor and piano, 1950, Chappell, London
Because of You for voice and piano, 1950, Chappell, London
Three Yoruba Songs for voice and piano, 1954, Ibadan
Orchestral
Four Sketches for full orchestra, 1953
African Suite for string orchestra, 1955, Chappell, London
Folk Symphony for full orchestra, 1960
Books
(1964). Ifa: Guide, Counsellor, and Friend of Our Forefathers. Ibadan.
(1966). The Mind of a Nation: The Yoruba Child. Ibadan: Ibadan University.
(1968). Come Now Nigeria, Part 1: Nationalism and essays on relevant subjects. Ibadan: Sketch Pub. Co.; sole distributors: Nigerian Book Suppliers. (All the material presented in this book first appeared in the form of articles in the pages of the Daily Sketch, Ibadan.)
(1975). The Africanization of Black Studies. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Institute for African American Affairs. African American Affairs Monograph Series, v. 2, no. 1.
Articles
(1971). "Black Folklore", Black Lines: A Journal of Black Studies (special issue: Black Folklore), v. 2, no. 1 (Fall 1971), pp. 5–21.
Akin Euba
Born 28 April 1935
Location of Birth Lagos, Nigeria
Died 13 March 1987 (aged 81)
Nationality Nigerian
Occupation Musicologist, Composer and Pianist
Known For:
Born on 28 April 1935 in Lagos, Nigeria, Euba studied composition with Arnold Cooke at the Trinity College of Music, London, obtaining the diplomas of fellow of the Trinity College London (Composition) and fellow of the Trinity College London (Piano). He was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship in 1962. He received B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he studied with Mantle Hood, Charles Seeger, Professor J. H. Kwabena Nketia, Klaus Wachsmann, and Roy Travis. He holds a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the University of Ghana, Legon (1974). While at Legon, Euba's doctoral work was supervised by Professor Nketia, and his dissertation is entitled "Dundun Music of the Yoruba".
He was professor and director of the Centre for Cultural Studies at the University of Lagos, and has also served as a senior research fellow at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) in Nigeria. He served as head of music at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation for five years. He was a research scholar and artist in residence at IWALEWA House, the African studies center of the University of Bayreuth in Germany between 1986 and 1992. He was the Andrew Mellon Professor of Music at the University of Pittsburgh between 1993 and 2011 and he is the current Andrew W. Mellon Professor, Emeritus in music. He is the founder and director of the Centre for Intercultural Music Arts, London (founded in 1989), and director emeritus of the Centre for Intercultural Musicology at Churchill College, University of Cambridge.
Euba's scholarly interests include the musicology and ethnomusicology of modern interculturalism. He has organized regular symposia on music in Africa and the Diaspora at Churchill College, Cambridge as well as the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. These events have featured such notable composers and scholars as J. H. Kwabena Nketia and Halim El-Dabh. With his Elekoto Ensemble, he has brought together musicians from Nigeria, China, India, Germany, Malta, and the United States.
His compositions involve a synthesis of African traditional material (often from his own ethnic group, the Yoruba people) and contemporary classical music. His most ambitious composition is the opera Chaka: An Opera in Two Chants (1970), which blends West African percussion and atenteben flutes with twelve tone technique.
Works
Six Yoruba Folk Songs, arranged for voice and piano
1956 – Introduction and Allegro, orchestra
1963 – Five Pieces for English Horn and Piano for Derek Bell
1964 – Four Pictures from Oyo Calabashes
1964 – Impressions From an Akwete Cloth, piano
1967 – Morning, Noon, and Night, singers, dancers, and Nigerian instruments
1967 – Olurounbi (or Olurombi), Symphonic study for Orchestra
1970 (rev. 1999) – Chaka, Opera
1970 – Ice Cubes, string orchestra
1970 – Scenes From Traditional Life, piano
1975 – Alatangana, ballet for singers, dancers, and Nigerian instruments
1979 – Black Bethlehem, soloists, chorus, Nigerian drums, and jazz ensemble
1987 – Wakar Duru: Studies in African Pianism 1-3, piano
2003 – Below Rusumo Falls, voice, dancer, kayagum, flute, drums, and piano (text: Olusola Oyeleye)
Discography
1989 – Piano Music of Akin Euba, performed by Peter Schmalfuss (includes Scenes from Traditional Life and Wakar Duru: Studies in African Pianism)
1999 – Chaka: An Opera in Two Chants, from an epic poem by Léopold Sédar Senghor. Point Richmond, California, United States: Music Research Institute MRI-001CD.
2005 – Towards an African Pianism: An Anthology of Keyboard Music From Africa and the Diaspora. Vol. 1. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States: A Bridge Across: Intercultural Composition, Performance, Musicology, Department of Music, University of Pittsburgh, ABA 001 CD.
2005 – Towards an African Pianism: An Anthology of Keyboard Music From Africa and the Diaspora. Vol. 2. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States: A Bridge Across: Intercultural Composition, Performance, Musicology, Department of Music, University of Pittsburgh, ABA 002 CD.
Writings
Euba, Akin (1970). "Music Adapts to a Changed World: A Leading Composer Looks at How Africa's Musical Traditions Have Expanded to Suit Contemporary Society." Africa Report, November 1970, pp. 24–27.
Euba, Akin (1989). "Yoruba Music in the Church: The Development of a Neo-African Art Among the Yoruba of Nigeria." In African Musicology: Current Trends: A Festschrift Presented to J. H. Kwabena Nketia, ed. J. C. DjeDje and W. G. Carter (Atlanta, Georgia), pp. 45–63.
Thomas King Ekundayo Phillips
Thomas King Ekundayo Phillips was a Nigerian organist, conductor, composer and teacher who has been described as the "father of Nigerian church music"
BIOGRAPHY
Thomas Ekundayo Phillips was born in 1884. His father was Bishop Charles Phillips of Ondo. He attended the CMS Grammar School, Lagos, then went to the Government Training School for Dispensers, where he qualified as a Chemist. He became an optician by profession. Phillips was encouraged to study music by the Archdeacon Nathaniel, his uncle. His uncle Johnson Phillips, an Anglican priest, gave him his first organ lessons. Solomon Moses Daniels, a well-known organist at Saint Paul's Church, Aroloya, gave him lessons in organ playing. He was Assistant Organist at Saint Paul's Church, Lagos until 1914.
Phillips attended Trinity College of Music in London from 1911 to 1914, where he studied organ, piano and violin. He was given the Fellowship of Trinity College of Music, London (FTCML) in organ playing, Phillips was the second Nigerian to obtain a baccalaureate degree in music. When he returned to Nigeria in 1914 Bishop Herbert Tugwell invited Phillips to become organist and Master of the Music at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos. He would retain this position for 48 years. His elder brother became bishop of the cathedral, the second African bishop there after Archbishop Leslie Vining.
Phillips trained well-known students such as Fela Sowande, Ayo Bankole, Lazarus Ekwueme, Christopher Oyesiku and his son Charles Oluwole Obayomi Phillips, who succeeded him at the Cathedral Church of Christ. Fela Sowande always remembered the training that Phillips provided, which was a great help in his own career. In 1964 the University of Nigeria, Nsukka awarded Phillips an honorary Doctor of Music degree for his contributions to development of Nigerian church music. Phillips died on 10 July 1969. He had five children.
Works
In 1926 Phillips presented a proposal to the Synod of the Diocese of Lagos, which was accepted, to use "native airs" in church services. Most of his work consisted of church music that included hymns, antiphonal chants, choral anthems in Yoruba language and two organ solo works, Passacaglia on an African Folk Song and Variations on an African Folk Song. Phillips wrote three short organ solo compositions, but most of his organ pieces were based on existing indigenous themes. He made the first modern arrangement of Ise Oluwa, the most popular Yoruba Christian hymn, for SATB with organ accompaniment. Phillips was the author of Yoruba Music (Johannesburg: African Music Society, 1953), the first musicological treatise by a trained African musician to discuss African music. The book describes Yoruba traditional music in detail and shows how the concepts in this indigenous tradition can be incorporated in modern works.
References
^ David Dabydeen; John Gilmore; Cecily Jones (2008). The Oxford Companion to Black British History. Pennsylvania State University (Oxford University Press). p. 463. ISBN 978-0-199-2389-41.
^ a b c d e f Agordoh 2005, p. 130.
^ a b Peel 2003, p. 387.
^ a b Motunrayo Joel 2014.
^ a b Godwin Sadoh 2008.
^ a b c d e Sadoh 2007.
^ Michael Olutayo Olatunji 2005, p. 11.
^ Fela Sowande (1905-1987), AfriClassical.com.
^ Agordoh 2005, p. 131.
^ Sadoh 2008, p. 3.
^ Sadoh 2008, p. 53.
Ayo Bankole
Born 17 May 1935
Location of Birth Jos, Nigeria
Died 6 November 1976 (aged 41)
Nationality Nigerian
Occupation Organist and composer
Known For: He was a Senior Producer in Music at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, Lagos, he was a lecturer in music at the School of African and Asian Studies, University of Lagos, he was a composer, choral conductor, a performer and a musicologist
BIOGRAPHY
Early Life and Education
Ayo Bankole was born in Jos, Nigeria, into a musical family: his father, Theophilus Abiodun Bankole was an organist and Choirmaster at St. Luke's Anglican Church in Jos. His mother was a music instructor for several years at Queen's School, Ede, Osun State, a Federal government high school.
Bankole studied in London at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. There he met drama student and poet Brian Edward Hurst and set one of Hurst's poems, "Children of the Sun", to music; this was performed at the Guildhall School in 1960. He also studied at Clare College, Cambridge and received a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship to study ethnomusicology at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Musical career
Bankole returned to Nigeria in 1966 and was appointed Senior Producer in Music at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, Lagos, where he worked until 1969, after which he was appointed lecturer in music at the School of African and Asian Studies, University of Lagos.
He worked as music educator, composer, choral conductor, performer and musicologist with independent choral groups, including the Choir of Angels (students from three high schools in Lagos: Reagan Memorial, Lagos Anglican Girls Grammar School, and the Methodist Girls High School), Lagos University Musical Society, Nigerian National Musico-Cultural Society, and the Chapel of the Healing Cross Choir, all in Lagos. He wrote much Christian liturgical music in the Yoruba language and his compositions show elements of both traditional Nigerian music and Western classical music. He also composed theme songs for some Nigerian television drama series.
Works
Ya Orule
African Suite: V. Igunnugun
Variations for little Ayo
African Suite: II. Ioahun Re
African Suite: IV. Mase Jina Sagiri
Piano Sonata No. 2 in C-Major 'The Passion': II. And He was crucified
Piano Sonata No. 2 In C-Major 'the Passion': I. And They Sought About For To Kill Him
Nigerian Suite: II. Oyaka Kongs
Nigerian Suite: V. Warrior March
Nigerian Suite: I. Forest Rains
Piano Sonata No. 2 in C-Major 'The Passion': III. Mary's Song or Mary's Rondo
Nigerian Suite: III. Orin Fun Osumare
African Suite: III. Afoju Ekute Meta
African Suite: I. Eiye Kire O?
Nigerian Suite: IV. October Wind
Cause Of Death
In 1976, aged 41, Bankole was brutally murdered with his wife in Lagos by a half-brother.
References
Sadoh; Godwin. "Ayo Bankole at 80". Musical Times. Questia.
^ Schmidt, Cynthia, "Bankole, Ayo", in Samuel A. Floyd Jr (ed.), International Dictionary of Black Composers, Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1999, pp. 75–80. ISBN 1884964273.
Noel DaCosta
Born 25 December 1929
Location of Birth Lagos, Nigeria
Died 29 April 2002 (aged 72)
Nationality Nigerian - Jamaican
Occupation Jazz Player, Conductor, Violinist and composer
Known For: He was known for his mastery on th violin and uniqueness as a Jazziest
BIOGRAPHY
Early Life and Education
Noel DaCosta was born on December 24, 1929 Lagos, Nigeria to parents from Kingston, Jamaica, who were Salvation Army missionaries. After returning to Jamaica while DaCosta was young, they emigrated to New York City, living in Harlem. While in High School, he was inspired by one of his teachers to work in an artistic field.
DaCosta completed his Bachelor's at Queens College in 1952 and his Master's in theory and composition at Columbia University in 1956, studying with Otto Luening and Jack Beeson. He studied with Luigi Dallapiccola in Florence, Italy under a Fulbright Fellowship, and shortly thereafter in 1961 took positions teaching at Hampton University and the City University of New York. In 1970 he accepted a position at Rutgers University, where he taught until 2001. He died the following year at the age of 72.
DaCosta was married to his wife Patricia, with whom he had a son and a daughter.
Musical career
DaCosta was also a co-founder of the Society of Black Composers. He was an accomplished violinist, playing his own works as well as both classical and jazz music; he played on albums by Les McCann, Roland Kirk, Bernard Purdie, Roberta Flack, McCoy Tyner, Donny Hathaway, Felix Cavaliere, Willis Jackson, Eddie Kendricks, and others. His first music set to poetry being Tambourines by Langston Hughes. He also worked with choral groups, becoming the director of the Triad Choral in 1974, and played with both Symphony of the New World and several orchestras on Broadway theatre productions.
DaCosta's works are marked by an infusion of elements of jazz, Caribbean music, and African music into the framework of Western classical music. The New York Times has described his music as "conservatively chromatic."
Works
Tops Down
Five Verses With Vamps: IV. -
Four Preludes For Trombone And Piano: I. Eighth-Note = 112
Four Preludes For Trombone And Piano : III. Bright, Eighth-Note = 192
Jes' Grew
Five Verses With Vamps: III. -
Four Preludes For Trombone And Piano: II. Quarter-Note = 72
Five Verses With Vamps: I. -
Five Verses With Vamps: II. -
References
Southern, Eileen (1982). Biographical Dictionary of Afro-American and African Musicians. Westpoint, Conn: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313213-397.
Chief Olufela Obafunmilayo
"Fela" Sowande
Born 29 May 1905
Location of Birth Abeokuta, Nigeria
Died 13 March 1987 (aged 81)
Nationality Nigerian
Occupation Musician and composer
Chief Olufela Obafunmilayo "Fela" Sowande MBE (29 May 1905 – 13 March 1987) was a Nigerian musician and composer. Considered the father of modern Nigerian art music, Sowande is perhaps the most internationally known African composer of works in the European "classical" idiom.
BIOGRAPHY
Sowande was born in Abeokuta, near Lagos, the son of Emmanuel Sowande, a priest and pioneer of Nigerian church music. As a child he sang in the Choir of the Cathedral Church of Christ. He studied at the C.M.S. Grammar School and at King's College, Lagos.[2] The influence of his father and Dr T. K. Ekundayo Phillips (composer, organist and choirmaster) was an important factor in his early years. At that time, Sowande was a chorister and was introduced to new Yoruba works being introduced into the churches. During that period, he studied organ under Phillips (including works by Bach and European classical masters), and earned the Fellowship Diploma (FRCO) from the Royal College of Organists. At that time, he was also a bandleader, playing jazz and popular highlife music. All of these had considerable influence on his work.
In 1934 Sowande went to London to study European classical and popular music. In 1936, he was solo pianist in a performance of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. He also played as duo-pianist with Fats Waller, and was theatre organist for the BBC as organist and Choirmaster at Kingsway Hall (unfortunately recently demolished) London and as pianist in the 1936 production of Blackbirds. In 1939, he played organ in some recordings by Adelaide Hall and Dame Vera Lynn. Later, he studied organ privately under Edmund Rubbra, George Oldroyd, and George Cunningham and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists in 1943, winning the Limpus, Harding and Read Prizes.
He also won several prizes and obtained a Bachelor of Music degree at the University of London and became a Fellow of Trinity College of Music. He also worked as musical advisor for the Colonial Film Unit of the Ministry of Information during the Second World War, providing background music for educational films.
From 1945, he was a renowned organist and choirmaster at the West London Mission of the Methodist Church until 1952, and a considerable amount of organ music dates from this period. These are based on Nigerian melodies that gave a special appeal to the Black members of his congregation in the early years of migration from the African continent and the Caribbean. Also during this time, he became known as a dance pianist, bandleader, and Hammond organist, playing popular tunes of the day.
Western and African ideas prevail in his music which included organ works such as Yorùbá Lament, Obangiji, Kyrie, Gloria, Jesu Olugbala, and Oba Aba Ke Pe. Most of these show a strong influence of Anglican Church music combined with Yoruba pentatonic melodies.
His orchestral works include Six Sketches for Full Orchestra, A Folk Symphony, and African Suite for string orchestra, and show African rhythmic and harmonic characteristics. The final movement of African Suite became known to Canadian audiences as the theme of the popular CBC music programme Gilmour's Albums,[3] and is now a Canadian orchestral standard.[4] He also wrote a significant amount of secular and sacred choral music, mainly a cappella. Some of these works were composed during his period with the BBC Africa Service. He went back to Nigeria to scholarly work with the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation and later the University of Ibadan. He was appointed MBE in the 1955 Queen's Birthday Honours for his work in the Nigerian Broadcasting Service [5]. In 1968 he moved to Howard University in Washington, D.C., then the University of Pittsburgh.
In the last years of his life Sowande taught in the Department of Pan-African Studies at Kent State University, and lived in nearby Ravenna, Ohio with his wife, Eleanor McKinney, who was one of the founders of Pacifica Radio. He died in Ravenna and is buried in Randolph Township, Ohio.
In addition to his position as a professor, Sowande also held the chieftaincy title of the Bariyo of Lagos.
There is currently a move to set up a centre to research and promote his works, as many remain unpublished or are out of print.
Compositions
1945 –
Ka Mura, Chappell, London
1952 –
Pastourelle (for organ), Chappell, London
1955 –
Jesu Olugbala, Chappell, London
1955 –
Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho, Chappell, London
1955 –
Kyrie, Chappell, London
1955 –
Obangiji, Chappell, London
1955 –
Yorùbá Lament, Chappell, London
1958 –
Oyigiyigi, Ricordi, New York
1958 –
Gloria, Ricordi, New York
1958 –
'Prayer, Ricordi, New York
1959 –
Responses in 'A’
KÕa Mo Rokoso
Oba Aba Ke Pe
Choral
"The Wedding Day" for S.S.A. with piano, 1957, RDH
"Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" for S.A.T.B. a cappella, 1955, Chappell, London
"My Way's Cloudy" for S.A.T.B. with piano, 1955, Chappell, London
"De Ol' Ark's a-Moverin" for S.A.T.B.B. a cappella with tenor solo, 1955, Chappell, London
"Same Train" for S.A.T.B.B. a cappella, 1955, Chappell, London
"Roll de Ol' Chariot" for S.A.T.B.B. with piano and rhythm combo, 1955, Chappell, London
"All I d"o for S.A.T.B.B. with piano and rhythm combo, 1961, Ricordi, New York
"Goin' to Set Down" for S.A.T.B. a cappella with soprano solo, 1961, Ricordi, New York
"Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray" for S.A.T.B. a cappella with soprano solo, 1958, Ricordi, New York
"De Angels Are Watchin'" for S.A.T.B. a cappella with soprano and tenor solo, 1958, Ricordi, New York
"Nobody Knows de Trouble I See" for S.A.TB. a cappella, 1958, Ricordi, New York
"Wheel, Oh Wheel" for S.A.T.B. a cappella, 1961, Ricordi, New York
"Wid a Sword in Ma Hand" for S.A.T.B.B. a cappella, 1958, Ricordi, New York
"Sit Down Servant" for T.T.B.B. a cappella and tenor solo, 1961, Ricordi, New York
"Out of Zion" for S.A.T.B. with organ, 1955
"St. Jude's Response" for S.A.T.B. with organ
"Oh Render Thanks" (hymn-anthem) for S.A.T.B. with organ, 1960
Nigerian National Anthem (an arrangement) for S.A.T.B. with organ, 1960
Solo Songs
Three Songs of Contemplation for tenor and piano, 1950, Chappell, London
Because of You for voice and piano, 1950, Chappell, London
Three Yoruba Songs for voice and piano, 1954, Ibadan
Orchestral
Four Sketches for full orchestra, 1953
African Suite for string orchestra, 1955, Chappell, London
Folk Symphony for full orchestra, 1960
Books
(1964). Ifa: Guide, Counsellor, and Friend of Our Forefathers. Ibadan.
(1966). The Mind of a Nation: The Yoruba Child. Ibadan: Ibadan University.
(1968). Come Now Nigeria, Part 1: Nationalism and essays on relevant subjects. Ibadan: Sketch Pub. Co.; sole distributors: Nigerian Book Suppliers. (All the material presented in this book first appeared in the form of articles in the pages of the Daily Sketch, Ibadan.)
(1975). The Africanization of Black Studies. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Institute for African American Affairs. African American Affairs Monograph Series, v. 2, no. 1.
Articles
(1971). "Black Folklore", Black Lines: A Journal of Black Studies (special issue: Black Folklore), v. 2, no. 1 (Fall 1971), pp. 5–21.
Akin Euba
Born 28 April 1935
Location of Birth Lagos, Nigeria
Died 13 March 1987 (aged 81)
Nationality Nigerian
Occupation Musicologist, Composer and Pianist
Known For:
Born on 28 April 1935 in Lagos, Nigeria, Euba studied composition with Arnold Cooke at the Trinity College of Music, London, obtaining the diplomas of fellow of the Trinity College London (Composition) and fellow of the Trinity College London (Piano). He was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship in 1962. He received B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he studied with Mantle Hood, Charles Seeger, Professor J. H. Kwabena Nketia, Klaus Wachsmann, and Roy Travis. He holds a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the University of Ghana, Legon (1974). While at Legon, Euba's doctoral work was supervised by Professor Nketia, and his dissertation is entitled "Dundun Music of the Yoruba".
He was professor and director of the Centre for Cultural Studies at the University of Lagos, and has also served as a senior research fellow at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) in Nigeria. He served as head of music at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation for five years. He was a research scholar and artist in residence at IWALEWA House, the African studies center of the University of Bayreuth in Germany between 1986 and 1992. He was the Andrew Mellon Professor of Music at the University of Pittsburgh between 1993 and 2011 and he is the current Andrew W. Mellon Professor, Emeritus in music. He is the founder and director of the Centre for Intercultural Music Arts, London (founded in 1989), and director emeritus of the Centre for Intercultural Musicology at Churchill College, University of Cambridge.
Euba's scholarly interests include the musicology and ethnomusicology of modern interculturalism. He has organized regular symposia on music in Africa and the Diaspora at Churchill College, Cambridge as well as the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. These events have featured such notable composers and scholars as J. H. Kwabena Nketia and Halim El-Dabh. With his Elekoto Ensemble, he has brought together musicians from Nigeria, China, India, Germany, Malta, and the United States.
His compositions involve a synthesis of African traditional material (often from his own ethnic group, the Yoruba people) and contemporary classical music. His most ambitious composition is the opera Chaka: An Opera in Two Chants (1970), which blends West African percussion and atenteben flutes with twelve tone technique.
Works
Six Yoruba Folk Songs, arranged for voice and piano
1956 – Introduction and Allegro, orchestra
1963 – Five Pieces for English Horn and Piano for Derek Bell
1964 – Four Pictures from Oyo Calabashes
1964 – Impressions From an Akwete Cloth, piano
1967 – Morning, Noon, and Night, singers, dancers, and Nigerian instruments
1967 – Olurounbi (or Olurombi), Symphonic study for Orchestra
1970 (rev. 1999) – Chaka, Opera
1970 – Ice Cubes, string orchestra
1970 – Scenes From Traditional Life, piano
1975 – Alatangana, ballet for singers, dancers, and Nigerian instruments
1979 – Black Bethlehem, soloists, chorus, Nigerian drums, and jazz ensemble
1987 – Wakar Duru: Studies in African Pianism 1-3, piano
2003 – Below Rusumo Falls, voice, dancer, kayagum, flute, drums, and piano (text: Olusola Oyeleye)
Discography
1989 – Piano Music of Akin Euba, performed by Peter Schmalfuss (includes Scenes from Traditional Life and Wakar Duru: Studies in African Pianism)
1999 – Chaka: An Opera in Two Chants, from an epic poem by Léopold Sédar Senghor. Point Richmond, California, United States: Music Research Institute MRI-001CD.
2005 – Towards an African Pianism: An Anthology of Keyboard Music From Africa and the Diaspora. Vol. 1. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States: A Bridge Across: Intercultural Composition, Performance, Musicology, Department of Music, University of Pittsburgh, ABA 001 CD.
2005 – Towards an African Pianism: An Anthology of Keyboard Music From Africa and the Diaspora. Vol. 2. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States: A Bridge Across: Intercultural Composition, Performance, Musicology, Department of Music, University of Pittsburgh, ABA 002 CD.
Writings
Euba, Akin (1970). "Music Adapts to a Changed World: A Leading Composer Looks at How Africa's Musical Traditions Have Expanded to Suit Contemporary Society." Africa Report, November 1970, pp. 24–27.
Euba, Akin (1989). "Yoruba Music in the Church: The Development of a Neo-African Art Among the Yoruba of Nigeria." In African Musicology: Current Trends: A Festschrift Presented to J. H. Kwabena Nketia, ed. J. C. DjeDje and W. G. Carter (Atlanta, Georgia), pp. 45–63.
Thomas King Ekundayo Phillips
Born 1884
Location of Birth Ondo, Nigeria
Died 10 July 1969 (aged 85)
Nationality Nigerian
Occupation Organist and composer
Known For:
Being the Father of Nigerian Church Music
Location of Birth Ondo, Nigeria
Died 10 July 1969 (aged 85)
Nationality Nigerian
Occupation Organist and composer
Known For:
Being the Father of Nigerian Church Music
Thomas King Ekundayo Phillips was a Nigerian organist, conductor, composer and teacher who has been described as the "father of Nigerian church music"
BIOGRAPHY
Thomas Ekundayo Phillips was born in 1884. His father was Bishop Charles Phillips of Ondo. He attended the CMS Grammar School, Lagos, then went to the Government Training School for Dispensers, where he qualified as a Chemist. He became an optician by profession. Phillips was encouraged to study music by the Archdeacon Nathaniel, his uncle. His uncle Johnson Phillips, an Anglican priest, gave him his first organ lessons. Solomon Moses Daniels, a well-known organist at Saint Paul's Church, Aroloya, gave him lessons in organ playing. He was Assistant Organist at Saint Paul's Church, Lagos until 1914.
Phillips attended Trinity College of Music in London from 1911 to 1914, where he studied organ, piano and violin. He was given the Fellowship of Trinity College of Music, London (FTCML) in organ playing, Phillips was the second Nigerian to obtain a baccalaureate degree in music. When he returned to Nigeria in 1914 Bishop Herbert Tugwell invited Phillips to become organist and Master of the Music at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos. He would retain this position for 48 years. His elder brother became bishop of the cathedral, the second African bishop there after Archbishop Leslie Vining.
Phillips trained well-known students such as Fela Sowande, Ayo Bankole, Lazarus Ekwueme, Christopher Oyesiku and his son Charles Oluwole Obayomi Phillips, who succeeded him at the Cathedral Church of Christ. Fela Sowande always remembered the training that Phillips provided, which was a great help in his own career. In 1964 the University of Nigeria, Nsukka awarded Phillips an honorary Doctor of Music degree for his contributions to development of Nigerian church music. Phillips died on 10 July 1969. He had five children.
Works
In 1926 Phillips presented a proposal to the Synod of the Diocese of Lagos, which was accepted, to use "native airs" in church services. Most of his work consisted of church music that included hymns, antiphonal chants, choral anthems in Yoruba language and two organ solo works, Passacaglia on an African Folk Song and Variations on an African Folk Song. Phillips wrote three short organ solo compositions, but most of his organ pieces were based on existing indigenous themes. He made the first modern arrangement of Ise Oluwa, the most popular Yoruba Christian hymn, for SATB with organ accompaniment. Phillips was the author of Yoruba Music (Johannesburg: African Music Society, 1953), the first musicological treatise by a trained African musician to discuss African music. The book describes Yoruba traditional music in detail and shows how the concepts in this indigenous tradition can be incorporated in modern works.
References
^ David Dabydeen; John Gilmore; Cecily Jones (2008). The Oxford Companion to Black British History. Pennsylvania State University (Oxford University Press). p. 463. ISBN 978-0-199-2389-41.
^ a b c d e f Agordoh 2005, p. 130.
^ a b Peel 2003, p. 387.
^ a b Motunrayo Joel 2014.
^ a b Godwin Sadoh 2008.
^ a b c d e Sadoh 2007.
^ Michael Olutayo Olatunji 2005, p. 11.
^ Fela Sowande (1905-1987), AfriClassical.com.
^ Agordoh 2005, p. 131.
^ Sadoh 2008, p. 3.
^ Sadoh 2008, p. 53.
Ayo Bankole
Born 17 May 1935
Location of Birth Jos, Nigeria
Died 6 November 1976 (aged 41)
Nationality Nigerian
Occupation Organist and composer
Known For: He was a Senior Producer in Music at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, Lagos, he was a lecturer in music at the School of African and Asian Studies, University of Lagos, he was a composer, choral conductor, a performer and a musicologist
BIOGRAPHY
Early Life and Education
Ayo Bankole was born in Jos, Nigeria, into a musical family: his father, Theophilus Abiodun Bankole was an organist and Choirmaster at St. Luke's Anglican Church in Jos. His mother was a music instructor for several years at Queen's School, Ede, Osun State, a Federal government high school.
Bankole studied in London at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. There he met drama student and poet Brian Edward Hurst and set one of Hurst's poems, "Children of the Sun", to music; this was performed at the Guildhall School in 1960. He also studied at Clare College, Cambridge and received a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship to study ethnomusicology at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Musical career
Bankole returned to Nigeria in 1966 and was appointed Senior Producer in Music at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, Lagos, where he worked until 1969, after which he was appointed lecturer in music at the School of African and Asian Studies, University of Lagos.
He worked as music educator, composer, choral conductor, performer and musicologist with independent choral groups, including the Choir of Angels (students from three high schools in Lagos: Reagan Memorial, Lagos Anglican Girls Grammar School, and the Methodist Girls High School), Lagos University Musical Society, Nigerian National Musico-Cultural Society, and the Chapel of the Healing Cross Choir, all in Lagos. He wrote much Christian liturgical music in the Yoruba language and his compositions show elements of both traditional Nigerian music and Western classical music. He also composed theme songs for some Nigerian television drama series.
Works
Ya Orule
African Suite: V. Igunnugun
Variations for little Ayo
African Suite: II. Ioahun Re
African Suite: IV. Mase Jina Sagiri
Piano Sonata No. 2 in C-Major 'The Passion': II. And He was crucified
Piano Sonata No. 2 In C-Major 'the Passion': I. And They Sought About For To Kill Him
Nigerian Suite: II. Oyaka Kongs
Nigerian Suite: V. Warrior March
Nigerian Suite: I. Forest Rains
Piano Sonata No. 2 in C-Major 'The Passion': III. Mary's Song or Mary's Rondo
Nigerian Suite: III. Orin Fun Osumare
African Suite: III. Afoju Ekute Meta
African Suite: I. Eiye Kire O?
Nigerian Suite: IV. October Wind
Cause Of Death
In 1976, aged 41, Bankole was brutally murdered with his wife in Lagos by a half-brother.
References
Sadoh; Godwin. "Ayo Bankole at 80". Musical Times. Questia.
^ Schmidt, Cynthia, "Bankole, Ayo", in Samuel A. Floyd Jr (ed.), International Dictionary of Black Composers, Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1999, pp. 75–80. ISBN 1884964273.
Noel DaCosta
Born 25 December 1929
Location of Birth Lagos, Nigeria
Died 29 April 2002 (aged 72)
Nationality Nigerian - Jamaican
Occupation Jazz Player, Conductor, Violinist and composer
Known For: He was known for his mastery on th violin and uniqueness as a Jazziest
BIOGRAPHY
Early Life and Education
Noel DaCosta was born on December 24, 1929 Lagos, Nigeria to parents from Kingston, Jamaica, who were Salvation Army missionaries. After returning to Jamaica while DaCosta was young, they emigrated to New York City, living in Harlem. While in High School, he was inspired by one of his teachers to work in an artistic field.
DaCosta completed his Bachelor's at Queens College in 1952 and his Master's in theory and composition at Columbia University in 1956, studying with Otto Luening and Jack Beeson. He studied with Luigi Dallapiccola in Florence, Italy under a Fulbright Fellowship, and shortly thereafter in 1961 took positions teaching at Hampton University and the City University of New York. In 1970 he accepted a position at Rutgers University, where he taught until 2001. He died the following year at the age of 72.
DaCosta was married to his wife Patricia, with whom he had a son and a daughter.
Musical career
DaCosta was also a co-founder of the Society of Black Composers. He was an accomplished violinist, playing his own works as well as both classical and jazz music; he played on albums by Les McCann, Roland Kirk, Bernard Purdie, Roberta Flack, McCoy Tyner, Donny Hathaway, Felix Cavaliere, Willis Jackson, Eddie Kendricks, and others. His first music set to poetry being Tambourines by Langston Hughes. He also worked with choral groups, becoming the director of the Triad Choral in 1974, and played with both Symphony of the New World and several orchestras on Broadway theatre productions.
DaCosta's works are marked by an infusion of elements of jazz, Caribbean music, and African music into the framework of Western classical music. The New York Times has described his music as "conservatively chromatic."
Works
Tops Down
Five Verses With Vamps: IV. -
Four Preludes For Trombone And Piano: I. Eighth-Note = 112
Four Preludes For Trombone And Piano : III. Bright, Eighth-Note = 192
Jes' Grew
Five Verses With Vamps: III. -
Four Preludes For Trombone And Piano: II. Quarter-Note = 72
Five Verses With Vamps: I. -
Five Verses With Vamps: II. -
References
Southern, Eileen (1982). Biographical Dictionary of Afro-American and African Musicians. Westpoint, Conn: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313213-397.
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