Samuel Akpabot: The Odyssey of a Nigerian Composer-Ethnomusicologist

Samuel Akpabot

The Odyssey of a Nigerian Composer-Ethnomusicologist

Copyright © 2008 by Godwin Sadoh

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

iUniverse

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.iuniverse.com

1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any Web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

ISBN: 978-1-4401-0030-7 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-4401-0037-6 (ebk)

Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

Chapter 1

Introduction

Chapter 2

The Biography of Samuel Akpabot

Chapter 3

Samuel Akpabot’s Compositions

Chapter 4

Orchestral Works

Chapter 5

Vocal Works

Chapter 6

Masters of the Music

Chapter 7

Ibibio Music in Nigerian Culture

Chapter 8

Foundation of Nigerian Traditional Music

Chapter 9

Form, Function and Style in African Music

Chapter 10

Nigerian Music

Chapter 11

Football in Nigeria

Epilogue

Alabama Symphony Concert

Morris Brown College Concert 1

Morris Brown College Concert 2

Bibliography

Online Sources

Discography

Archival Centers

References on the Biography of Samuel Akpabot

Online Sources

Endnotes

Acknowledgments 

I am very grateful to several persons, institutions, and organizations that were helpful and/or provided materials as well as information to write this book—Jimi Olumuyiwa, Robert Austin Boudreau, Rental Library of C. F. Peters Corporation, National Museum of African Art—Smithsonian Institution, Northwestern University Library, University of Pennsylvania Libraries, Archives of Traditional Music—Indiana University, and Center for Black Music Research. And I extend my profound appreciation to Oxford University Press, New York, for granting me the permission to reprint the following scores of Samuel Akpabot in this book—Cynthia’s Lament (© 1967), Overture for a Nigerian Ballet (© 1967), Scenes from Nigeria (© 1967), Three Nigerian Dances (© 1977); used by permission. All rights reserved.

Every effort has been made to trace copyright owners and apologies are extended to any whose rights have inadvertently not been acknowledged. Any omissions or inaccuracies of copyright detail will be corrected in subsequent printings if brought to the attention of the author or publisher.

Preface 

Samuel Akpabot’s life tells a unique story of an incredible and fascinating journey encompassing over six decades. The odyssey reveals a motion through a tri-cultural milieu in Africa, England, and the United States. The fundamental seed sown into the young Akpabot at King’s College and the Cathedral Church of Christ Choir, Lagos, ultimately blossomed into full Professorship at the University of Uyo and international stardom. His creative experience attests to the squirm that the first and second generation of Nigerian composers had to contend with to create indigenous African art music. The major task before them was to subjugate the hegemony of Western musical idioms in their compositions and produce works that are much closer to the Nigerian cultural roots.

Similar to the challenges I was confronted with when collecting the data for the books on Fela Sowande, Ayo Bankole, and Joshua Uzoigwe; it was a daunting task for me to have access to Akpabot’s scores because most of them are unpublished. To my knowledge, it is only his Three Nigerian Dances that is presently in print. This paucity makes research on Nigerian composers very stressful and frustrating. In addition, all his published books are presently out-of-print. I had to rely mostly on the interlibrary loan services of various institutions in the United States to obtain the materials.

This book is divided into three main parts with an epilogue: (i) the biography of Samuel Akpabot—chapter 2; (ii) his compositions—chapters 3 to 5; and (iii) his contributions to knowledge—chapters 6 to 11. Since Akpabot’s books are presently out-of-print, chapters 6 to 9 and 11 present a brief summary of each book in order for everyone to have access to his contribution to African musicology and Nigerian football. Chapter 10 is a succinct summation of nine of his published articles on African music. Composers, performers, African musicologists, ethnomusicologists, intercultural musicologists, and church musicians, would be enthralled by this ethnography on tri-cultural musicality.

Chapter 1 

Introduction 

The musical landscape in Nigeria consists of a plethora of diverse and dynamic styles. Conversely, the various social strata are affixed to specific music genre. The discretion of musical style in each group is influenced by socio-economic and political factors. Hence, we have music popular in the circles of the rich, poor, elite, Christians, Muslims, as well as diverse ethnic groups. In the light of these dictums, all the musical genres in Nigeria today can be generally categorized into four major sects: traditional music, popular dance music, Church music, and art music. Modern art music in Nigeria is rooted in the emergence of the Christian faith and the established colonial schools dating back to the mid-nineteenth century. It was in these two puissant institutions that potential Nigerian musicians had their formative tutorship and foundation in Western classical music. Historically, talented Nigerian musicians were first introduced to European musical instruments such as piano, organ, violin, flute, guitar, and other orchestra instruments in these two ambiences. They received formal lessons in theory of music and musical instruments at the colonial schools and from organists and choirmasters in their local churches where they sang as choristers. Some of the talented Nigerians who came from upper-middle-class or affluent families received private lessons in their homes either from their school teachers, church organists, or British colonial administrators who have had some training in Western classical music.

European classical music was also filtered into the Nigerian cultural landscape through the music curriculum of institutions of higher learning such as departments of music in universities, colleges of education, teacher training colleges, and polytechnics (community college). In these institutions, Nigerian students were exposed to various aspects of Western classical music—history, theory, harmony, and performance on the foreign instruments. Concert activities in the restricted arenas comprised mostly of repertoire by Western classical composers, such as Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frederic Handel, Dietrich Buxtehude, Antonio Vivaldi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Ludwig Van Beethoven, and Benjamin Britten. From the 1970s, concert programs began to include compositions by modern Nigerian composers to the delight of the local audiences.

Other agents that facilitated the dissemination of Western classical music in Nigeria were the elite groups, military bands, as well as economic and political factors. The modern Nigerian elite and the military bands organized various types of classical concerts featuring both vocal and instrumental works at designated venues. The economic and political factors document the influx of foreign musical instruments into Nigeria through trade with the British Empire. Indeed, the economic policies of the colonial administration encouraged the sales of British goods, including musical instruments to Nigerian citizens. Since this style of music emanated from the Christian church, the performers and composers were predominantly Christians. Consequently, the patrons and audiences of art music in Nigeria comprised of selected segments of the Nigerian populace—affluent, upper-middle-class, educated citizens, students, expatriates, business tycoons, members of the diplomatic corps, intellectuals, as well as university and college professors.

The fledgling ‘Nigerian composition school’ became operational around 1902. As would be expected, the first generation of Nigerian composers (1900-1950) was mainly church organists and choirmasters. They concentrated on writing exclusively sacred music for worship in the newly-founded churches. Their compositions include church hymns, canticles (responsorial prayer songs for soloist and congregation), chants for singing Psalms, choral anthems, and cantatas. Therefore, their works represent the first attempts by indigenous Nigerian composers in writing Western classical music. Hence, most of the music is simple, short, and tonal. As regards tonality, the harmonization is severely functional following the baroque and classical conventions. There is a strong imprint of Western classical music in the works of the first generation of Nigerian composers. The music was written for Western musical instruments such as piano, harmonium or organ, while the form, harmony, and style are clearly European.

Nigerian traditional musical instruments were not incorporated into these compositions during this era because they were blatantly prohibited in worship by the pioneer foreign missionaries. In other words, the only instruments that early Nigerian composers could write for were European. Ironically, in spite of the embargo on traditional instruments, it was in this period that we began to witness musical synthesis of European and African idioms. The experimental process of conjoining Western elements with traditional Nigerian music actually began in the early church. This took the form of employing indigenous languages as texts of songs and the use of indigenous songs as melodic themes in the compositions. Notable composers from the first generation include Rev. Canon J. J. Ransome-Kuti, Rev. T. A. Olude, Akin George, Ikoli Harcourt-Whyte, Emmanuel Sowande (Fela Sowande’s father), and Thomas King Ekundayo Phillips (Organist and Master of the Music, Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos, from 1914-1962). T. K.E. Phillips was the second Nigerian to receive professional training in music in Great Britain.

The second era of music composition in Nigeria took place between 1950 and 1960. The period was represented by Nigeria’s most celebrated art musician, Fela Sowande (1905-1987). Sowande continued to compose sacred music for divine services in the church; however, he also introduced secular works for performances in public auditoriums, institutions of higher learning, and radio stations. To the Nigerian art music repertoire, he introduced solo art songs with piano or organ accompaniment, concert organ pieces, chamber music, and orchestra works. Although Thomas Ekundayo Phillips wrote three short pieces for organ solo, it was Sowande who composed several large works for organ employing traditional folk songs and indigenous church hymn tunes. No other Nigerian composer has written such a large body of solo pieces for organ as Sowande. Much of Ekundayo Phillips organ pieces were improvisations on indigenous themes.

Prior to this era, musical activities were confined to the church during festive occasions such as Christmas and Easter seasons. With the introduction of secular works, the venue of musical activities shifted from