The Crab: Journal of Theatre and Media Arts (Number 9/June 2014, 1-20)

Compositional and Structural Paradigm: An Introductory Discourse on Creative Experience

Onyee N. Nwankpa.

Introduction A piece of musical work does not exist without: 1. Sonic arrangements (linear and/or vertical), and 2. Structural patternization that gives sonic arrangements form and identity.

Formal and informal crucibles of musical study account for the knowledge and experience, acquired and/or learned, which are utilized by a composer in his creative process and dispensation. And because the culture of creativity is dynamic, new tools, techniques and ways of expressions and realization of ideas emerge from time to time. Sometimes, the innovative ideas are exciting on their own; sometimes they need to lean on other ideas and structures (new or existing) to make and express the desired meaning and impact. Are there challenges in creating a piece of music? How does a piece of music so created exhibit composer‘s recognizable pattern of individuality or distinctiveness? Put differently, how does a composer show evidence of his or her artistic uniqueness or characteristics in a composition? Of course, there are challenges in creating a piece of music. These challenges can range from acquisition of technical competency through education, to experiences necessary for crafting a piece of music in any particular medium and genre. In this discussion we shall briefly consider choice of compositional and structural paradigms, personal concepts and schematic approach, and how these contribute to a composer‘s stylistic identity. As an attempt to engage scholars in the exchange of ideas, the two major concepts, composition and structural paradigm, are defined. This paper also discusses philosophical aesthetics, modern compositional tools and techniques, and structural approaches in creativity. Also, through empirical evidences artistic uniqueness domiciled in a composer‘s work is identified. This treatise, no doubt, generates some conversation relating to some works of some notable Western as well as African composers. Finally, this paper concludes that a composer‘s characteristic creative process stamps his or her artistic identity on a piece of music.

Defining Composition and Structural Paradigm In dealing with this aspect of our discussion, we shall, first, attempt to proffer some answers to some basic enquiries to gain preliminary understanding. What is a composition? In simple terms, a composition is an art of combining or arranging some things to form or make up a whole, for example composition of some people into a committee, composition of a letter, or composition of a poem. Musically, composition is a piece of music. It can also be defined as the art of writing a piece of music. With reference to the philosophical principles, goals and significance of music within the arts as a cohesive community (Plantinga, 1984:12), composition is a piece of artwork patterned in a special way with sonic elements to form a complete thought and expression. Examples of compositions, written or unwritten, range from single-voiced to many-voiced works, from monophonic texture, homophonic texture, to polyphonic texture. Composition can be conceived and/or written for voice(s) or other instrument(s), or a combination of voice(s) and other instrument(s). Cantata, oratorio, sonata, aria, , symphony, opera, folk and traditional pieces are all types of composition. What do we mean by Structural Paradigm? Structural paradigm refers to how a pattern or design is arranged. It is the way or blueprint whereby some things or parts are built, configured or organized to make a whole. In the case of music composition, it is that aspect which deals with the arrangements of Onyee N. Nwankpa sounds and other musical elements to create an identifiable form. Fundamentally, combinations of sounds produce the basic elements of music in terms of melody, harmony, , and rhythm; these elements are further arranged and combined to create musical textures, forms and styles. Therefore, structural paradigm or patternization exposes those items that constitute what we may refer to as building blocks. A form in music refers to the overall structure or organization of the musical flow in time. A musical form is identified by the presence of two essential factors. These are unity (for sameness, coherence and familiarity) and variety (for change, contrast and newness). Upon the formal structure is the element of style—―the methods of treating the elements of melody, harmony, rhythm, tone colour, tonality, form, and texture‖ (Hickok, 1989: 29) in creating distinguishable character or design from one composer to another, or even from one work compared with another of same composer. This gives rise to such style diversities as instrumental, vocal, keyboard, American, German, Italian, Nigerian, South African, or Western in contrast with African style. Two principal factors of unity and variety in music create and identify the form in music. For example, the Binary form consists of two contrasting musical statements or sections, A and B. Basically, each section is usually repeated, resulting in the pattern AABB. A simple illustration of the procedure suggests that the section A begins in the tonic key and modulates to the dominant and the section B begins from the dominant key and modulates back to the tonic. In this structure, elements of variety results from the melodic contrasts between sections A and B as well as the modulation to a new key. Consequently, unity is safeguarded and achieved by the return of the initial materials it started with as well as the key or tonality in which the music began (Hickok, 1989: 27). Similarly, the ternary form has three sections with the presentational design of a statement A, followed by a contrasting section B, and concludes with the return of the first statement or section A. This structure results in ABA form. Apart from the binary and ternary forms, there are other formal structures such as Rounded Binary form, Rondo form (with some variants), Arch form, , Sectional variations, Continuous variations, Canon, Prelude and Fugue, and the use of proportion in delineating a piece of music, otherwise known as the Golden Mean (or Golden Section). For example, Bela Bartok‘s Mikrokosmos provides an evidence of the use of proportion as a musical identity. In creating proportion as a musical structural design, one finds the use of Fibonacci theory or Fibonacci sequence in which .618 is used as a fraction of a whole. This process creates a set of numbers in which each number is the sum of the previous two (Kostka, 1999:150), as stated below with their corresponding ratios:

Integers: 1 2 3 58 13 21 34 etc

Ratios: .5 .67 .6 .625 .615 .619 .618

Diagrammatically, this proportional structure can be stated with segmentations as follows: X______X______X A B C

AB = BC

BC AC

Similarly, the diagrams below show structural crucibles of a piece of music. The textural design is at the instance of the composer who may wish to employ monophonic, homophonic or polyphonic texture. The composer may also wish to create a mixed texture, or arrange the layers of music crucibles as he pleases. i. Complete piece of work: A-Z (with or without accompaniment)

1. Compositional and Structural Paradigm: An Introductory Discourse on Creative Experience

A Z ______++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ii. Complete piece of work: Layers

A Z A______Foremost/Linear Crucibles ______++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ B______Middle/Internal Crucibles ______++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ C______Background/External Crucibles______++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Layer A: Foremost/Linear Crucibles (thematic/melodic elements) Layer B: Middle/Internal Crucibles (harmonies, key changes/, rhythms) Layer C: Background/External Crucibles (bass-line, harmonic rhythm and harmonic progression, overall tonal scheme)

What other musical elements assist in designing a structure? These include non-thematic delineators such as modulation, change of metric pattern, dynamics, tempo, texture and orchestration; others are , tonality/key, musical character, and chance procedures. The non-organic approaches include mood painting, and textual implications. Whether your stylistic approach is in terms of musical structure, or historical perspective (as in programme music), or even in terms of pedagogical implications and benefits, there are some aesthetic fundamentals that are required in the construction of a piece of music. These include clarity of thematic statement, repetition, imitation, balance, contrast, variation, dynamics, timbre, rhythmic placement (accented and unaccented), proportion, transition, connection (including chromatic and non-harmonic tones), and extension.

Philosophical Aesthetics The centrality of music in an exalted exposé of arts forces the composer to wrestle with such hard questions as composition for whom? Is the composer writing for himself and, perhaps, for some of his close friends and associates? Is he writing with the hope that posterity will view him kindly and accord him with respect and honour he deserves? Or, is the composer ―a kind of Promethean figure in society,… a fire-bringer from the gods to man‖[?] (Plantinga, 1984: 16). Standing on the existing platform of music being a combination of truth and beauty, expressing the fundamental nature of the universe, it is not difficult to associate composition with being an expression of humanity, culture and its relevance to the society. It is not also difficult to find that composer‘s uniqueness stems from his or her creative relevance or connotation to their culture and society. Certainly, there are innumerable examples to attest to this. The intellectual view of composers and compositions in the early nineteenth century, combined with the climate of secular religion especially in Germany, provided an access to a level of reality that transcended the accidents and restrictions of a person‘s ordinary existence. In total submission to the aesthetic climate of music, philosopher G.W.F. Hegel portrayed the arts as the embodiment of Geist… a primal entity that encompasses the mind of man and of the universe (Plantinga, 1984:13). And because of the uniqueness and potency of music, it is the only art which is capable of offering to us a glimpse of the most deep-seated nature of the universe, combining truth and beauty, incomprehensible in any other way. Hegel and his followers expressed even ―higher regard for music whose spiritual content was Onyee N. Nwankpa strengthened and clarified by an association with poetry‖ (407). In response to this aesthetic climate, Franz Liszt created The Faust Symphony (1857), a massive composition for orchestra and chorus through compositional technique of thematic transformation. Following the Faust were Liszt‘s Symphonic Poems—twelve orchestral works with extra-musical programmes. Let us have a on this philosophical perspective on musical creativity with two quotations by two eminent philosophers, Percy B. Shelley and E.T.A. Hoffmann. In his Hymn of (Hutchinson, 1960: 613) Shelley wrote as follows:

I am the eye with which the Universe Beholds itself and knows itself divine; All harmony of instrument or verse, All prophecy, all medicine is mine, All light of art or nature:—to my song Victory and praise in its own right belong.

Hoffmann had this to say in 1813:

Instrumental music is the most romantic of all the arts—one might almost say, the only genuinely romantic one—for its sole subject is the infinite. The lyre of opened the portals of Orcus—music discloses to man an unknown realm, a world that has nothing in common with the external sensual world that surrounds him, a world in which he leaves behind him all definite feelings to surrender himself to an inexpressible longing (Strunk, 1950: 775-76).

Modern Compositional Tools and Techniques Following the decline of tonality as a structural element in the Western compositional tradition in the twentieth-century, composers devised some other procedures to create structural control. The approaches to harmonic structures and progressions in the contemporary music creation include chromatic mediant relationship, cluster, mode of limited transposition, and neotonality—whether tertian, nontertian, or a mixture of the two. Other resources available to the composer are , pitch-class cell, planing, polychords, , polymeter, ametric perception (that is, a piece of music without perceivable metric patterns and metric organization), electro-acoustic music, and . The above elements provide an inventory of musical possibilities, which any composer is at liberty to explore in his or her work in the purview of styles, moods, idioms, functions and individuality. Let us look at the two major dimensional constituents in musical creativity: Linear and Vertical.

1. Linear dimension: Linear or horizontal dimension in musical construct involves a theme or melodic idea. Whether or not this thematic idea possesses the perfection and quality of higher art will be depended on a number of factors, including aesthetic and technical craftsmanship of the composer. Serialized rhythm, isorhythm and atonality are elements that featured in the twentieth-century compositions, for example in ‘s Wozzeck (1921).

2. Vertical dimension: Vertical dimension in musical construct involves chord structures. In the tonal system, chords and chord progressions obey the law of functional harmony in which chords would move towards a harmonic goal. However, towards the twilight of tonal music and the attendant innovative gestures of the twentieth–century music, chordal structures tended to defile common or known analytical crucibles. Thus, conventional symbolic tertian sonorities, tertian chords with added notes, quartal and quintal chords, secundal and mixed-interval chords, whole-tone and open 5th chords, polychords and clusters have become vertical structures whose conundrum sometimes merely represents painting of some musical landscape to attain some objective. (For example, in Wagner‘s Gotterdammerung composed in 1874, Act III, Scene 2, a plain of 3rds, open 5ths, parallel half-diminished-7th chords on pedal point on C, 1. Compositional and Structural Paradigm: An Introductory Discourse on Creative Experience

form a nonfunctional chord succession in what can be described as a ―goal-directed motion in the various voices, rather than an attempt to express some traditional harmonic progression‖ (Kostka, 1999: 8-9).

Wagner: Gotterdammerung (1874), Act III, Scene 2

Concept and Schematic Approach: Personal Creative Experience Before embarking on a composition exercise, there is a basic assumption that the composer must have acquired the technical proficiency necessary for such a task. The composer is expected to be groomed in Music Theory and Analysis, exploring the materials and techniques of music.

Concept The composer‘s journey in musical creation starts with concept, perception, thought or idea of what he intends to write on. Conscious disclosure of this thought prepares the composer unto his/her creative process. The composer needs to answer some basic questions concerning the medium and nature of the composition. For instance, the composer would determine whether he is writing for vocal or instrumental medium, standard ensembles (orchestra, chorus, string quartet, piano trio and so on), voice solo, other instrumental combinations, or a combination of voice and other instruments, as well as ascertaining the scale of the work. Areas of careful consideration are many. Text/lyrics needs to be thought of in songs, arias and choruses. Suffice it to say that it is commonplace nowadays to have divergent instrumentation and orchestration based on the composer‘s conception of how a piece of music should sound. An avid example of our time is (1882-1971) whose most important neoclassical compositions included The Rite of Spring (1913), Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920), Concerto for Piano and Wind Orchestra (1924), (1930), Symphony in C (1940), and Symphony in Three Movements (1945). Stravinsky‘s musical concept drew upon his environment, rich and large orchestra to depict the primitive ceremonies of his culture, and dramatic rhythmic complexities. For example, The Rite of Spring, subtitled Pictures of Pagan Russia, ―depicts the cruelty of the primitive Russian peasant‘s rites to celebrate the coming of spring, culminating in the sacrifice of a young virgin, who dances herself to death while the tribal elders watch‖ (Hickok, 1989: 352). Stravinsky‘s imagination is recorded as follows: ―I saw in imagination a solemn pagan rite: wise elders, seated in a circle, watching a young girl dance herself to death. They were sacrificing her to propitiate the god of spring‖ (ibid.). As to be expected, Stravinsky exploited orchestral gamut and resources to capture the unorthodox sounds that characterized the scenes and actions in this ballet. Beyond the realms of the traditional method of musical composition is the electronic music. The development of electronic music has stemmed from the technological innovations that rose rapidly following the end of the World War II. Concrete Music (or Musique Concrete) and Electronically Synthesized Sounds1 are two main sources of sound generation in Electronic Music. Using natural sounds

1 . Electronically synthesized sounds use four major sound generating categories in the studio such as Sound- Producing Equipment (White-noise generators and Oscillators: sine wave, sawtooth wave, square wave, triangle), Sound-Processing Equipment (mixers, filters, equalizers, ring modulators and reverberation units), Controllers (envelope generators, sequencers, keyboards), and Sound Storage Equipment (tape recorders). However, composers can combine both concrete and electronically generated sounds in their musical creation. Song of the Onyee N. Nwankpa as a sound source, Concrete Music manipulates the tape on which the sound is recorded through the processes of recording, rerecording and mixing. There are five different processes of manipulation to create concrete music. These are 1. Change of tape speed, 2. Change of tape direction, 3. Tape loops, 4. Cutting and Splicing, and 5. Tape delay. In this process, composers use natural sounds from surroundings or sounds generated electronically to create musical landscape. Wilderness Song by Carrie F. Alain provides an example of Stereo version soundbites demonstrating a soundscape composition exploring the voices of the Elk in the Ya-Ha-Tinda Valley.

Schematic Approach A rough sketch or diagram of the work based on the composer‘s initial concept is usually helpful. Often times, as soon as the composer births an idea, he pictures the entire work in his mind. It is, therefore, advisable for him/her to make a diagrammatic representation of the thought process. As soon as this is done, it puts the composer on a good direction to actualize the thought, with some adjustments here and there as may be necessary. A composer‘s creative process can assume different speed dimensions depending on the style (content, character and mood), medium, scale in terms of duration, as well as the melodic, harmonic and rhythmic factors. Considerations of these elements can and do impede the spontaneity of musical conception and ideational flow. Consequently, a composer‘s invention tends to flow depending on the level of challenges and restrictions as well as measure of artistic attainment. Areas of spadework may include sketching down of phrases, melodic/thematic ideas, harmonic basis, and rhythmic structures. The position of the phrase as a structural unit in music is very important. ―It is a kind of molecule consisting of a number of integrated musical events, possessing a certain completeness, and well adapted to combination with other similar units‖ (Schoenberg, 1967: 3). Of course, the mandate will be for melodic, thematic or phrasal intelligibility. Musical intelligibility in itself can metamorphose into divergent opinions and persuasive arguments. This paper does not intend to wade into that fight and controversy, as there may be here present scholars of, and people with, special interest in Ars Nova (the new art or new technique) and Ars Antiqua (the old art or old technique), or even in serious music and popular music. Nonetheless, immediate intelligibility will require, among other elements, some measure of repetition.

Philosophy and Style The identity and style in a composition are dependent largely on the way and manner the composer uses such factors as melody, rhythm and metric designs, harmony, language and instrumentation in that composition. Philosophically, the mood that is painted and the overall structure of the music are a reflection of the subject matter, the objective of the creation, the socio-cultural implications and the very many factors influencing the composer and his/her environment. Some composers may choose to lean, with good reasons, on the philosophy of creating music for music‘s sake, or under the dictum of art for art‘s sake. Certainly, the beauty, technique and educational implications of such creative endeavors as in Bach‘s The Well-tempered Clavier or ‘s Ludus tonalis are copious. Hindemith‘s Ludus, a cycle of twelve fugues for piano, provides a variety ―as great as in Bach‘s forty-eight‖ (Austin, 1966: 406). Preferentially, one may describe Hindemith‘s work as a composer‘s responsibility to the society in reflecting times and events. In his creative thinking, music is a functional commodity relevant to the society. Although his music is thought of being somewhat complex, his free use of tonality in polyphonic idiom of the Baroque concerto structure puts a spin in the appreciation of his music.

Composer’s Stylistic Identity In Okechukwu Ndubuisi‘s compositions (exemplified here with the opera, Symbol of a Miracle), Ndubuisi used the half-melodic, half-rhythmic (melrhythmic) structures which are common in Igbo

Youths (Gesang der Junglinge) of 1956 and Hymns (Hymnen) of 1967 by are examples that demonstrate this combination. 1. Compositional and Structural Paradigm: An Introductory Discourse on Creative Experience

traditional Igede music to invent a typical compositional bass technique, ―Igede-bell,‖ to create a peculiar bass pattern which has become identifiable with his own corpus of music. A central aspect in the design of this opera (as well as the opera, Vengeance of the Lizard) is the use of Igbo folk melodies and folk- inspired harmonies which essentially served the composer‘s desire to evoke sentiments of traditional Igbo religious and social contexts in the work. The opening of the Symbol of a miracle exemplifies this trend in which the composer depicts a bell- like passage meant to announce occurrence of a strange event in the village. He also combines this with a leitmotif that plays out as a call-and-response pattern between the bass line and the treble line in measures 3-8 of the overture. This leitmotif serves as the theme for the chorus of men with the words ―Please, find the symbol of a miracle.‖ The recurrence of these themes not only heightens the dramatic allusions of music but also creates the much-needed coherence in the work (Nwankpa & Nnamani, 2008). ‘s Rhapsody In Blue (1924) and Porgy and Bless (1935) demonstrate also a typical example of a composer stamping his identity on his music. Following the rise of nationalism in the late 19th century, which continued into the early 20th century, there was increased interest among composers of all nations and cultures to write music that reflected indigenous elements of their cultures. Many of us may be familiar with some composers who took interest in the folk songs and idioms of their countries and beyond. In Bela Bartok‘s Mikrokosmos2 (composed between 1926 and 1939), Volume 4-6, for instance, he used indigenous folk materials, images, tunes, rhythms, and instrumental colours in a style that encapsulated Hungarian and Bulgarian bagpipe, peasant dances, folk and folk-like melodies and rhythms. Composers like Zoltan Kodaly of Hungary, Isaac Albeniz and of Spain, and Czech composer Leos Janacek, to mention these few, explicitly used folk and folk-like materials of their native environment and merged them with artistic currents of change of the 20th century. Their contributions to artistic knowledge and advancement of education are by no means insignificant. Heitor Villa-Lobos of Brazil, and of Mexico held the forth in the ―New World‖. Similarly, in the United States Jazz forms and folk songs and rhythms of the Black Americans inspired such composers as , , Roy Harris, and of course George Gershwin, among others, to craft music that fused the European classical idioms with the stylistic elements which were inveterate in the American people‘s artistic culture. It was in the light of the forgoing, and following the end of the First World War, that Rhapsody in Blue was born. Rhapsody in Blue is a monumental orchestral work, a piano concerto, in a loosely defined form. It is an example of a classic music with obvious embodiment of folk and Jazz features, a piece of art which was to ―open up a new era in the evolution of American music‖ (in Christan Schmidt‘s ―Preface‖ to the orchestral transcription by Ferde Grofe). According to Schmidt, Rhapsody in Blue was hailed ―as the beginning of a national concept in music, one in which jazz, the foremost of modern America‘s forms of expression, was married on an equal footing with the musical tradition of Europe.‖ Technically, Rhapsody in Blue is a very challenging piece of music. And without any preexisting scheme, it seemed that Gershwin employed a creative process, an adventure, if you wish, of several themes or ideas (as many as eight). Does the word ―engaging‖ sound relevant to the amount of skill and hard work required to pull off such a piece? Yes. It is an engaging concerto for both the soloist and the orchestra. Gershwin‘s lyrical melodic writing combined with his rhythmic energy and drive and harmonic colours make Rhapsody in Blue as engaging to play as it is entertaining3. He combined American folk materials with jazz idioms, thus creating a highly rhythmic and dance-like orchestral work, first of its kind in American music history. ‘s ―modes of limited transposition‖, scales from six to ten notes that have fewer than twelve transpositions without duplication of pitch-class content (Kostka, 1999), is another stylistic contribution, not only towards the advancement of knowledge, but also in creating compositional identity.

2 Mikrokosmos, “Little World” in German, is Bartok’s collection of 153 piano pieces, with supplementary exercises, in six volumes arranged in order of difficulty. 3 Excerpt from “Rhapsody in Blue Goes to Prairie”, a Concert Note by Onyee Nwankpa, Conductor of Jubilation Wind Ensemble, Three Hills, Canada, November 4, 2002. Onyee N. Nwankpa

Among his widely used scales are the whole-tone and octatonic (diminished) scales. Of course we cannot forget Messiaen‘s two techniques: Added values (an addition of short duration in the form of a dot, a note, or a rest), and Nonretrogradable rhythms, a rhythmic pattern that sounds the same whether played forward or backward (Kostka, 1999: 125). (See Olivier Messiaen‘s The Technique of My Musical Language.) In advancing his idea on creating modern African art music composition through fusion of Western musical techniques with African folk melodic content, our pioneer composer of African Art Music, Professor Fela Sowande, once said that:

The African musician must be aware that though he alone can supply the emotional subjective side of his music, that music must have a framework on which to rest, and this framework is supplied only by the technical and theoretical side of music, the objective side (The Guardian, May 5, 2010).

Sowande used African melodies as themes in his musical creation. He would fuse Western musical techniques with African folk melodic contents for his organ, voice, and orchestral works as in his African Suite. He was known for parody, adding new text in English or Yoruba to an existing folkmelody and arranging the materials to suit the medium of his choice (example, Wedding Song of 1957 for Soprano I and II with organ accompaniment, text by E. Fielding Kirk). (See ―Fela Sowande… Deserving of the hall of fame award‖ in Africa, The Guardian May 5, 2010: 53) An African composer‘s stylistic identity must possess identifiable African music traits in his or her music. Even in the ―African Pianism‖, a term describing a composition or compositional process whereby the Western piano instrument is used to ―capture the stylistic features of traditional African music‖ (Omojola, 2003), an intercultural approach of fusing African and Western musical elements is inevitable. Here the piano assumes the percussive role as well as conveying melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic elements of African musical culture. (See Bode Omojola‘s Studies In African Pianism.) Let us have a brief look at Ememé: An African Christmas Summit (a musical celebration for wind ensemble, African percussion, chorus, chance dialogue, and solo voices). Ememé is a musically bilingual historia. It is a bi-musical product—a musical structure that blends significant elements from two cultures. A skillfully synchronized musical creation of African and Western music cultures, Ememé captures and portrays the essence of that moment in time, offering a refreshing perspective to the story of the birth of Christ. In Igbo language Ememé means celebration. Ememé Christmas, therefore, means ―Christmas Celebration‖. Highlighting chance dialogue and spontaneous dancing, this music is written for wind ensemble, African percussion and chorus. Of and by itself, bi-musicality (or duo-musicality) is a term referring to a musical process in which elements from two defineable or distinct cultures are present. A bi-musician or duo-musician, therefore, refers to an individual who creates music in which elements from two (or more) cultures are present. For example, an expert in both African and Western music cultures can be referred to as a bi-musician. This is the perspective in the creation of Ememé: An African Christmas Summit.

Musical Cues, Concepts, Chance Exchanges and Dialogues, Selected Phrases and Images in Ememé: The presentation of Ememé can, in fact, be dramatized. In this context the performers are given the permission—the ―chance‖—to create and dramatize their own celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, based on the following concepts, suggested phrases, images and musical cues:

What celebration? What Child? The prophesied coming of the Messiah? … the Messiah coming to dwell with us? When? Now?

1. Compositional and Structural Paradigm: An Introductory Discourse on Creative Experience

Angels joining in… Shepherds … peasants ... talking freely … ―Doubting Thomases‖ … mocked entrance… Doubts and questioning! … why the celebratory mood of the people?…

(The wonder of that first Christmas) Coming of Messiah—the special gift from above Lord and Savior Jesus Christ coming from heaven to dwell with us

Tuba and Euphonium confirming same statement, a bold re-statement with trumpets articulating the announcement ... ―Come, Come and Listen!‖ What‘s happening? (That motive comes back again to confirm ... ) The angel of the Lord is confirming it. Yes…it is the gift of His Son to us It is real! It is a gift! ―Yes! It‘s true ― ... excitement Echoes of the theme/message Celebration—Ememe ... celebration of Christ ... peasants dancing ... time for giving.

The trumpet brings the tune! Because the Son of God is come... a thing of rejoicing!

Dancing and rejoicing ... For God Himself from heaven has come to dwell among us ... a thing of great joy! ...

―Yes! Celebration! Yes, all celebrate … Christmas celebration … Ememé Christmas

The Thematic Metamorphosis: The opening fanfare with drum antiphony has motivic material that is reflective of the title, Ememé Christmas, both in contour and rhythm. Motivic metamorphosis is employed throughout the piece. For example, in the soprano and tenor solo phrases in ―Ememé Christmas,‖ the same motive is used, though in a different metric setting (in 6/8 3/4 combination). The motive itself reflects the tonal inflection and speech rhythm of the Igbo phrase (albeit with modified pitch ends): Ememé Christ-mas. In fact, this operating motive, introduced in the second measure of this piece, is characteristic of the entire piece. The excitement is articulated by the captivating rhythmic drive, with percussion, creating the ambience for celebration, dancing and rejoicing.

The Bleak Mid-Winter: The announcement of the fulfillment of the prophecy of the advent of the Christ child is reflected in the section of ―In the Bleak Mid-Winter.‖ Here, Winter is viewed both as a climate and a metaphor, a period that not only captures the season of a country, but also the birth of Jesus Christ and the hearts and hope of all mankind. In spite of the ―bleakness‖ in In the Bleak Mid-Winter section (measures 40-80), hope is sustained as it modulates from F to G (see measure 56). This section ends in Bb minor (measure 80), contrasting with the brighter and celebratory Bb major section that follows. Dynamic variations and long drawn-out sound Onyee N. Nwankpa images (tonal and rhythmic augmentation) combined with a ritardando, symbolize the space in time in ―l- -o--n--g ago.‖ Following In the Bleak Mid-Winter you would find (see measures 81-130) the angels breaking through this bleakness, revealing themselves to the peasants watching their flocks, and proclaiming the prophetic good news. You would also find the attendant exultation and joy of the peasants with a message concerning the coming of the Messiah—the unique human God. Here, the Woodwinds create an ambience of ethereal atmosphere, pregnant, ready to ‗push out‘ something. In some parts of the world, winter, snow, and harmattan seasons are identified with the end of a planting season and/or the beginning of the next. In this way, the birth of Jesus can be used to depict a new ―planting season,‖ a new beginning, or the beginning of new life—as in African cyclic cosmology. A solo voice depicts the announcement of the angel of God. This is echoed by angels‘ voices creating a sound tapestry, reverberating this majestic theme. In measures 123-130 there is a bold statement of the theme (Ememé) in accordance with the Igbo intonational morpheme. Both the ―mockery-doubt‖ statement (measures 131-132) and low brass counter confirmation (from measure 137) are a transformation (by extension, augmentation and variation), and a declamation based on the theme that announced the joy and rejoicing of the peasants. Another chance technique is reflected at measures 133-136, where the conductor is at liberty to repeat as needed. Measures 153-248 capture this spirit of celebration in a unique way. Rhythmic Polyphony and Metric Combinatoriality: The Reconciliation Symphony, for example, demonstrates a simultaneous presentation of different rhythmic lines as a major characteristic of the symphony. Also, a branding or rather, an identifying mark of ―Metric Combinatoriality‖ results in a simultaneous application of two or more aurally distinguishable time signatures in one piece of music. This technique, revealed in the shifting of accents, creates 5/8 metric effect in a 6/8 meter in the Third Movement, and a combination of 6/8 and 3/4 in the Fourth Movement of the symphony. Can you think of any emotive-driven motion in your creative experience? Beyond the initial general concept and programmatic underpinning in the creation of a piece of music, there are some other significant emotive-driven targets necessary in the actualization of the composer‘s overall mission and objective. Let us look at the following three brief examples (Cloud cluster sound imagery, Reconciliation, and Key symbolism): a) Cloud Cluster Sound Imagery: In Ememe: An African Christmas Summit (Nwankpa, 2004), measures 133-138 (mm. 133-136 repeated as needed), the composer uses a mixed media of chance, secundal chords, textual/verbal discussion, voice and wind ensemble instruments to create a cloud cluster of sound imagery, leading to a spurt of bright and joyous chorus in measures 153-248. Prior to this burst of joyous chorus is a section of verbal discussion, aleatory, chance, choice, indeterminacy, hemiola, anthropomorphism, personification, leitmotif (and motivic confirmation) and echoes in the Brass, Saxophone and Oboe in measures 137-152. Another example showing the creation of /clusters through the process of segmentation and simultaneity is derived from cell structure in The Reconciliation Symphony. Here, the cell which consists of Bb, D, Ab and Db is first introduced by the brass and wind instruments in its original and transposed forms in section C of the second movement. In mm. 102-109 this cell presented in the Flute I, Clarinet I, and Bassoon I is treated in simultaneities using triads formed from the segments. These cells, although structured in Western form, are harmonized in African style of thirds, sixths, octaves and unisons. The resulting chords and sonic effects are derived from the rhythmic coincidence of multiple lines of the choirs of instruments (Nwankpa, 1994: 37).

1. Compositional and Structural Paradigm: An Introductory Discourse on Creative Experience

Nwankpa: The Reconciliation Symphony, Second Movement (mm 102-103):

b) Reconciliation: Concept, theme, or prevalent emotive direction, as in The Reconciliation Symphony (Nwankpa, 1994), can influence one‘s creative experience and process. For example, structural polarity is achieved in the Third Movement of the Reconciliation Symphony in different characters and (F/Strings and G/Brass: mm 210-222), the combination of moments of joy and the background chain of human sorrow and misery in section F (mm 223-250), and the hope and dash of hope as demonstrated in the later part of the movement. c) Key Symbolism—An Axis of Symmetry: The concept of conciliation and reconciliation is achieved by bringing two opposing themes in G (Winds) and Db (Strings) into the tonality of Bb—forming an axis of symmetry. Note also the minor 3rd interval, which both themes had to sacrifice— give and take —to reach the point of reconciliation.

Conclusion Compositional and Structural Paradigm tries to highlight some of the fundamental features which give form and identity to a piece of music. Quality musical creativity does not take shape in the absence of formal and informal crucibles of music study. The study accounts for the knowledge (technical competency) and experience, acquired and/or learned, which are utilized by a composer in his creative process and dispensation. And because the culture of creativity is dynamic, new tools, techniques and ways of expressions and realization of ideas emerge from time to time. As demonstrated, sometimes these Onyee N. Nwankpa new innovative ideas are exciting on their own; sometimes they need to lean on other ideas and structures (new or old) to make the desired meaning and impact. This introductory discourse is, therefore, an attempt to engage scholars in a robust intellectual exchange of ideas on compositional and structural paradigm with a view to engaging in more research in African music theory and composition while studying the Western music tradition and compositional techniques. The intension is to generate some further conversation relating to some works of such notable composers as Igor Stravinsky, Paul Hindemith, George Gershwin, Fela Sowande, Ikoli Harcourt Whyte, Okechukwu Ndubuisi, and Adam Fiberesima. In looking at personal creative experience, we have identified some of the concepts and procedures employed in modern compositional techniques and how they are used in creative process. Finally, we have observed how a composer can stamp his identity and style on his creative works by his choice of musical styles, socio-cultural traits and uniqueness prevalent in his community and environment, as well as personalized compositional techniques.

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