JOURNAL OF PERFORMING ARTS PUBLICATION OF THE SCHOOL OF PERFORMING ARTS UNIVERSITY OF GHANA AT LEGON Volume 4, 20009/2010 Number 1 ISBN NO. 0855-2606 ELECTRONIC VERSION 1 GENERAL INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS JOURNAL OF PERFORMING ARTS is the official organ of the school of Performing Arts, University of Ghana. This journal was established in the 1990‘s originally with an Editorial Board that consisted of Dr. Nissio Fiagbedzi, Professor Ofotsu Adinku, Dr. Mohammed Ben Abdallah, Professor Kofi Anyidoho and John K. Djisenu. After a period of dormancy the Journal has now been re-started by the new Acting Director of the School of Performing Arts, Dr. Awo Asiedu, and a new Editorial Board has been formed JOURNAL OF PERFORMING ARTS is hereby inviting for publication original articles in the field of the performing arts of music, dance, theatre and film as well as in such other fields that are related to the practice of the arts in Africa and the Diaspora. Contributions submitted for publication will be refereed, and views expressed in the articles accepted and published will not necessarily represent those of the School. Book, record and performance reviews, research reports and notices are also welcome. Please submit the article either of these two forms. In electronic form with the text in Microsoft Word format (New Times Roman Script size 12) with footnotes (not endnotes) and sent to the following email addresses. [email protected] & [email protected]. Or as hard copy - in which case three copies on A-4 sized paper with ample margins should be sent to The Editor, Journal of Performing Arts School of Performing Arts P. 0. Box 19 Legon - Ghana West Africa. Whether soft or hard version, a short abstract of 50-100 words should be supplied. References cited must first be included in the text and then listed alphabetically with full bibliographical details at the end of the article Footnotes are to be numbered consecutively throughout the article and then (for the hard copy only) typed on a separate sheet at the end of the text as end-notes, The SPA Journal editors will then convert these to footnotes. Musical examples, maps, tables, photographs etc. are to be included separately with their location within the main body of the article indicated. All contributions must be accompanied by a short biographical statement about the author. Manuscripts will be sent back to authors for re-reading after they have been copy-edited only if changes made on them are extensive with respect to content or style. Such manuscripts must be examined and returned to the Editor as quickly as possible. The journal comes out once a year. Contributions should normally reach the editor six months in advance. CORRESPONDENCE AND SUBSCRIPTIONS Business correspondence and subscription information should be addressed to: The Business Manager, Journal of Performing Arts. P.O. Box 19, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana - with copies to Professor John Collins Music Dept University of Ghana, Legon. Accra, Ghana. PRICE HARD COPIES Ghana 10 Ghana cedis. Other African Countries and Overseas - Individuals $15: Libraries and Institutions $20 2 JOURNAL OF PERFORMING ARTS Professor E. John Collins (Music Dept) EDITOR Mr. John K. Djisenu (Theatre Arts) Ms. Beatrice Ayie (Dance Dept.) ?? EDITORIAL BOARD EDITORIAL BOARD Rev. Dr. Elias K. Asiama (Theatre Arts) Rev. Fr. A. Yeboah Annan (Theatre Arts) EDITORIAL BOARD EDITORIAL BOARD Mr. Francis Gbormittah (Theatre Arts) BUSINESS MANAGER Hard copy Printed for the School of Performing Arts, Legon, Accra by the School of Communication Press, Legon, Accra 3 CONTENTS Compositional Techniques and Styles in Nigerian Gospel Music By Dr. Femi Adedeji……………………………………..5 Folktale Performance in Highlife songs: An Empirical Observation By Owusu Brempong…………………………………...16 The Biography of Col. J.A. Olubobokun a Foremost Nigerian Military Musician By Michael Olutayo Olatunji……………………………29 The Use of Traditional Musical Genre as a Pre-Compositional Resource in Ghanaian Contemporary Choral Art Music: Perspectives from Newlove Annan‘s ―Ewuradze‖, By Joshua A. Amoah,…………………………………...40 Cultural Nationalism: The ‗Nollywoodization‘ of Nigerian Cinema. By Taiwo Adeyemi…………………………………..…59 The Thematic Analysis of Avatime Women‘s Cradlesongs. By Bertha Adom………………………………………..70 Highlife and Nkrumah‘s Independence Ethos By John Collins…………………………………..……...82 The Ethnic Approach to Music Making: A Case for Music Education in Ghana. By Pius P.Y. Vordzorgbe………………………………..92 Technological Innovations and Realism in Cinema: The Case of Steadicam and André Bazin‘s Theory of Realism. By Francis Gbomittah ………………………….………99 The Growth and Development of Choral Music in Ghana: The Contributions and Aspects of the Choral Style of Ephraim Amu. By Timothy Esiam Andoh …………………….............111 Ghanaian Community Theatre in Promoting National Development. By Dr. Rev. Elias Asiama…………………….……….122 4 COMPOSITIONAL TECHNIQUES AND STYLES IN NIGERIAN GOSPEL MUSIC By Dr Femi Adedeji Department of Music, Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, Osun State,Nigeria ABSTRACT This paper describes and analyzes various compositional techniques and styles used in Nigerian gospel music. It also digs out different sources of the compositional works as a way of assessing the quality of the genre. By the findings in the paper, the distinctiveness of both Nigerian gospel music and African music in general, composition wise, can be deducted. The paper concludes on the need to guide the up-coming composers of gospel music with the existing principles of the art. INTRODUCTION The objective of this paper is to analyze various compositional techniques and styles used in Nigerian gospel music, with the purpose of enhancing a better understanding of the compositional techniques of contemporary African music. This study is significant in two ways. Firstly the challenge to African musicologists to compose more works rather than mere ‗talking‘ (Agawu, 2001) is dependent on a sound understanding of a working knowledge of African compositional techniques. Secondly and as argued by Nketia (2004), genres such as African traditional, popular, gospel music etc, serve as indispensable sources of African ‗art‘ musical composition. Understanding the compositional techniques and styles of Nigerian gospel music, for instance, is a good incentive towards a better development of African ‗art‘ musical composition. As observed by Cope (1977), 20th century compositional techniques include the use of chromaticism, pointillism, polytonality, interval exploration, cluster, microtones, indeterminacy, multimedia, ‗musique concrete‘, electronic, computer, minimalization and decategorization. Echezona (1966) identified Nigerian compositional techniques as repetition, limitation, systematic modification of rhythm, shifted accent, changing meters, non-accentual rhythm, asymmetric meter, asymmetric division, ostinati, transposition and sequence, dual modality, polytonality, pan-diatonicism, shifted tonality and polyphony. He however concluded that, the element of inspiration is indispensable in compositional processes. This fact was confirmed by Kofie (1994) when he argued that the state of mind or thinking habits of both the composer and the audience do determine the nature of composition or style. The above compositional techniques and other ones such as repetition, improvisation and dialogue, all of which could also be variously manipulated either as general or individual techniques are used in the Nigerian gospel music as found in this paper. 5 COMPOSITIONAL SOURCE As far as compositional sources are concerned, many of the songs used in Nigerian gospel music are original compositions of the artistes, though recycling of popular old compositions is also obvious. Most of the artistes interviewed claimed they ‗receive‘ their songs from divine inspiration (pathogenic source): through dreams, prayers and meditation on the Bible. Works composed by others are also used. For instance, there are cases where common Christian lyrics are used in „Oluwa ti Se‟ and ‗Halleluyah Eh‘, both of which are gospel-highlife songs rendered by Lere Olupayimo. The instrumental style of Kunle Ajayi also makes use of Yoruba popular tunes: ‗O seun o Baba‘ and ‗Olufe Okan mi‘, were both composed and expanded by different anonymous authors. The use of folk tunes is found in one of the gospel-reggae songs where an Akan folk tune ‗Se Me Hwe Nea Awurade Aye‘ is used. In some gospel-waka songs, Yoruba folk tunes are used. For instance, while one of the songs makes use of an adaptation of the Yoruba popular folk tune ‗Mo le jo lori agolo‘ (I can dance on a tin), the other one makes use of a popular ‗Aluta‘1 tune, the text of which goes: ‗We no go gree o, We no go gree, ‗double cheating‘2, We no go gree‘ Popular hymn-tunes are also commonly used in Nigerian gospel music as observed in the instrumental, ‗gos-pop‘ and ‗assorted‘ styles. In the instrumental style rendered by Kunle Ajayi‘s Blessed Assurance, one of the tracks makes use of a tune, which was originally composed by Phoebe Knapp in 1873 for a popular hymn whose lyrics were authored by Fanny Crosby the same year.3 Another track makes use of a common hymn tune ‗The Old Rugged Cross‘ composed by George Bennard in 1913.4 Song three of the record makes use of the tune of another popular hymn – ‗Heaven Came Down‘ composed by John Peterson in 1961.5 The tune used in song four was composed by Rich Founds around 1989. Also Faith Ajiboye in his ‗gos-pop‘ style adopted the first and second stanzas of the popular hymn written by Joseph Scriven in 18556. To these, he wrote a new refrain that serves as the chorus and the title of the piece. ‗My Soul Sings‘ is an example of the ‗assorted‘ style rendered by Timi Osukoya and is built on a hymn tune, which itself is adapted from a Swedish folk melody arranged by Stuart Hine in 1949 for Carl Boberg‘s hymn ‗How Great Thou Art‘ written in 1886.7 TECHNIQUES Repetition, which is very prominent in Nigerian gospel music especially the acappella style occurs in three different forms – direct, modified and sequential.