ART MUSIC IN NIGERIA is the most comprehensive book on the works of modem Nigerian composers who have been influenced by European classical music. Relying on over 500 scores, archival materials and interviews with many Nigerian composers, the author traces the historical developments of this new idiom in Nigeria and provides a critical and detailed analysis of certain works. Written in a refreshing and lucid style and amply illustrated with music examples, the book represents a milestone in musicological research in Nigeria. Although written essentially for students and scholars of African music, this interesting book will also be enjoyed by the général reader.

Bode Omojola: Introduction: Perspectives on Music and Social Dynamics in Nigeria - Laz. E. N. Ekwueme: Music in Nigeria's Social Development: A Step Forward - Richard C. Okafor: The Emergence of Neo-Traditional Forms in Contemporary Church Music in Eastern Nigeria - Tunji Vidal: From Traditional Antiquity to Contemporary Modernism: A Multilateral Development of Music in Nigeria - Ademola Adegbite: Change and Continuity in Yoruba Socio-religious Music - Christian Onyeji: Playing Technique and Contemporary Compositions for the Oja (Wooden Flute) - J. O. Ofosu: Modernity and Ovwuvwe: A Sociocultural Process of the Abraka in Urhoboland - Taiye Adeola: Aesthetics in Yoruba Music: Case Study of the People of Igboho - Emeka T. Nwabuoku: Toward a Human Interest in Ethnomusicology: The Practice and Transformation of the Uyi Edo - Ngozi Mokwunyei: Igbo Social Music: Focus on a Nigerian Delta-Igbo Entertainment Dance Group - Oluyemi Olaniyan: Resource Avenues for the Creative Performance of Dundun Music - Sam Olu Amusan: Ègè of the È?gbá: Its Musical Essence - A. K. Achinivu - The Performer Is a Creative Artist and a Researcher: The Case of the Performer in Institutions of Higher Learning in Nigeria - Lucy V. Ekwueme: Music in the Secondary School Curriculum in Nigeria - Femi Faseun: Professional Requirements of Secondary School Music Teachers for the Implementation of the Music Curriculum in Nigeria - Ranti Adeogun: The Nature of and Approaches in Research in Music Education - Joshua Uzoigwe: The Process of Composing Talking Drums - Bode Omojola: Compositional Style and the Search for Identity in Nigerian Art Music - Oluwalomoloye Bateye: Fela Sowande and Posterity: Whither Nigerian Music? - C. E. Ugolo: Music in Nigerian Traditional Dance Performance - Segun Oyeleke Oyewo: Working Dynamics in Directing an Opera for Stage: Bode Omojola's Ode for a New Morning - Adolf Ahanotu: The Performing Arts: Music, Dance and Drama-Contributions to National Development - Ayo Akinwale: Music and the Nigerian Theatre: The New Social Dynamics - References - Contributors - Index

Drawing on extensive field research conducted over the course of two decades, Bode Omojola examines traditional and contemporary Yorùbá genres of music. From the primeval age of Ayànàgalú (the Yorùbá pioneer-drummer-turned-deity-of-drumming) to the modern era, Yorùbá musical traditions have been shaped by individual performers: drummers, dancers, singers, and chanters, wself-mediated visions of their social and cultural environment. Yorùbá Music in the Twentieth Century explores the role of the performer and the performing group in creating these traditions, contributing to the ongoing reorientation of scholarship on African music toward individual creativity within a larger social network. Drawing on extensive field research conducted over the course of two decades, Bode Omojola examines traditional Yorùbá genres such as bàtá and dùndún drumming as well as more contemporary genres such as Yorùbá popular music. The book also addresses a spectrum of social issues, ranging from gender inequality to the impactianity and Islam on Yorùbá musical practice. Throughout, Omojola emphasizes the interrelatedness of the different components of the Yorùbá musical landscape, as well as the role of specific individuals and groups of musicians, whohave continued to draw from indigenous Yorùbá musical resources to create new musical forms in the process of engaging the social dynamics of a rapidly changing environment. Awarded honorable mention in the 2014 Kwabena Nketia Book Competition of the African Music Section of the Society for Ethnomusicology. Bode Omojola is a Five College Associate Professor of Music at Mt. Holyoke College.

From ancient to contemporary times, music in the area known as Nigeria has passed through different stages of transmutation. Primarily transmitted through oral means has in the last century received significant scholarly attention. Areas like folksong documentation, ethno-organological studies, popular music studies and art music have continued to feature in scholarly discourse. Societal dynamism allows room for scholarly reassessment and evaluation of aspects of Nigerian music; thus, reflecting change and continuity in the area. It is within this cusp that this book looks at contemporary trajectories in Nigerian music.

This book provides an in-depth analysis of the unique structure of the Nigerian popular music industry. It explores the dissonance between copyright’s thematic support for creative autonomy and the practical ways in which the law allows singer-songwriters’ (performing authors') creative autonomy to be subverted in their contractual relationships with record labels. The book establishes the concept of creative autonomy for performing authors as a key criterion for sustainable economic development, and makes innovative legal and policy recommendations to help stakeholders preserve it.

Nigeria has been blessed with a few well-trained organist-composers since the arrival of Christianity in the most populous African country around the 1840s. The institutions established by European missionaries and the colonial administration had a great impact on the emergence of the 'Nigerian organ school'. The musicians had their formative periods at the mission schools, church choirs, and under organ playing apprenticeships. This book focuses on selected organ works by the most celebrated African art musician, Fela Sowande, a Nigerian organist-composer. Fela Sowande is the first African to popularize organ works by natives of Africa in Europe and the United States. He was one of the pioneer composers to incorporate indigenous African elements such as folksongs, rhythms and other types of traditional source materials in solo works for organ. He is considered the most prolific Nigerian composer for solo organ in Nigeria. The discussion of Sowande's music enunciates the relationship between traditional and contemporary musical processes in postcolonial Nigeria. A cultural and/or ethnomusicological analysis of Sowande's selected pieces for organ solo involves an examination of specific indigenous source materials such as rhythmic organization, melodic constructs/thematic materials (music communication), interrelations of music and dance, and elements of musical conception.

American Culture and the Nigerian Society by Innocent Emechete Visit the Order Page Description About the book: An experiential observation of behavioral problems in some American and Nigerian children by the author sparks off this inquiry. Thus "American Culture and the Nigerian Society", an investigation into whether America has influenced other countries like Nigeria and to what extent, is born. It starts by looking at the word culture which makes a people unique and the cultural ramifications within and outside America. The author researches into whether or not these American influences are for better or for worse in the recipient countries. Incidentally Nigeria and the United States have something in common: both were once British Colonies; Nigeria for two months shy of forty seven years (Jan.1, 1914 to Oct. 1, 1960) and America for one hundred and twenty four years (1651-1775). The author finds out that technological advancements have made it possible for American culture to take root in other countries like Nigeria. There are cultural exchanges in goods and services; the good, the bad, and the ugly are also exchanged: crime and drug culture, and sexual revolutions of the sixties are no exceptions. In Churches there are religious cultural exchanges too. Through televangelism American religious views spread through many countries like Nigeria. The sense of the sacred disappears within a few decades. The author discovers too that the Church loses its moral fiber and its moral high ground by the day and replaces them with money, the 'almighty' dollar. The congregation in the pews is desensitized by losing a big chunk of the sense of humanity and feeling. Killing innocent lives becomes a common place activity that does no longer raise eyebrows. Moral decadence sets in because there is nothing sacred and no more sanctity of life in the very young and the very old. The lawmakers, being part of the congregation in the pews across America, almost resoundingly say 'amen' to the foregoing. After all they make the laws, which the Presidents sign. The third branch of Government, the courts, register their consent through activist Judges. Then things completely fall apart. Who are the victims in all this? Our children! Since children do not stay passive, they become negatively active. We see it school shootings, students cutting school or classes, drug activities, bank robberies, and other deviant behaviors that land about two million of our children in prison. The author has some suggestions that can rescue our children from this downward trend if 'all hands are on deck'. As in America so it is in satellite countries associated with America. The author focuses on Nigeria in particular and makes some recommendations to help Nigerian children to fight with the giant and not be crushed unto death. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------