Music · Lesson 14

Nigerian art composers, highlife, juju, fuji, Afrobeat, blues, jazz, soul, reggae, nationalism

JAMBWAECNECO

What the syllabus asks

JAMB: JAMB Music Section C 4–5 (popular musicians and genres; Nigerian art musicians) and Section E (Black music in the diaspora; nationalism in Nigerian music). WAEC/NECO History and Literature B, C, E: popular musicians of Nigeria and Ghana; contemporary art musicians; Black music in the diaspora (spiritual, jazz, blues, rock, gospel, soul, calypso, reggae, Afrobeat).

WAEC: JAMB Music Section C 4–5 (popular musicians and genres; Nigerian art musicians) and Section E (Black music in the diaspora; nationalism in Nigerian music). WAEC/NECO History and Literature B, C, E: popular musicians of Nigeria and Ghana; contemporary art musicians; Black music in the diaspora (spiritual, jazz, blues, rock, gospel, soul, calypso, reggae, Afrobeat).

NECO: JAMB Music Section C 4–5 (popular musicians and genres; Nigerian art musicians) and Section E (Black music in the diaspora; nationalism in Nigerian music). WAEC/NECO History and Literature B, C, E: popular musicians of Nigeria and Ghana; contemporary art musicians; Black music in the diaspora (spiritual, jazz, blues, rock, gospel, soul, calypso, reggae, Afrobeat).

What you will learn

Define art, popular and traditional music.
Describe the lives and works of major Nigerian art composers.
Explain how Nigerian composers blend African and Western elements.
Describe highlife, juju, fuji and Afrobeat and their leading musicians.
Trace the main styles of Black music in the diaspora.
Write the 12-bar blues in any key.
Discuss nationalism in Nigerian music.

Key points

Art music grew from mission churches; Phillips was its teacher.
Sowande: African Suite; Folk Symphony (1960).
Harcourt-Whyte: Igbo hymns, “Atula Egwu”.
Bankole: Three Toccatas; Euba: African pianism; Uzoigwe: Talking Drums.
Composers use folk tunes, speech tone, drums, cross-rhythm.
Highlife began in Ghana; Benson, Olaiya, Rex Lawson.
Juju: Tunde King, I.K. Dairo (MBE 1963), Obey, Sunny Ade.
Fuji: Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, from were music.
Afrobeat: Fela Kuti; Femi Kuti continues it.
Diaspora: spirituals, blues, ragtime, jazz, soul, calypso, reggae.
12-bar blues: I I I I IV IV I I V IV I I.
Nationalism: Folk Symphony, FESTAC ’77, protest songs.

Start here: From church music to Nigerian art music

Art music (also called contemporary or modern African art music) is music composed and usually written down for concert or church performance, using Western notation and forms but drawing on African sources. In Nigeria it grew out of the 19th- and early 20th-century churches and mission schools. Missionaries brought hymns, organs and choirs; Nigerian Christians learnt Western harmony and notation and soon began composing their own anthems and hymns.

At first, African music was often discouraged in church as “pagan”. Gradually, Nigerian church musicians began to set local languages to music and to use local tunes and drums, a process sometimes called indigenisation or inculturation. This movement is the root of Nigerian art music.

Thomas King Ekundayo Phillips (1884–1969) is often called the father of Nigerian church music. He studied at Trinity College of Music, London (1911–1914), then served as organist and master of music at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos, for 48 years. He trained the next generation, including Fela Sowande, Ayo Bankole and Laz Ekwueme, and composed church music in Yoruba.

Worked example: Defining art music. “Distinguish between traditional music, popular music and art music.”
Answer. Traditional music is passed on orally and tied to community functions (rituals, work, festivals). Popular music is commercial music for mass audiences, spread through records, radio and live shows (highlife, juju, fuji, Afrobeat). Art music is composed, usually written in notation, for concert or church performance by trained performers (Sowande’s African Suite, Bankole’s Three Toccatas).

Why it matters. Without trained church musicians such as Phillips, there would have been no Nigerians able to read and write Western notation at a professional level, and so no art-music tradition. The Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos, the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, and later university music departments (Nsukka from the early 1960s, then Lagos, Ife, Ibadan and others) were the main training grounds.

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Practice questions

1. The basic 12-bar blues uses chord I for how many bars?

Show answer

A: 8
I 8, IV 3, V 1.

2. The ‘blue notes’ of the blues scale include the flattened

2nd, 4th and 6th
root and octave
4th only
3rd, 5th and 7th

Show answer

D: 3rd, 5th and 7th
E♭, G♭, B♭ in C.

3. King Sunny Adé is a leading musician of

fuji
Afrobeat
juju
highlife

Show answer

C: juju
Yoruba guitar-band style.

4. Afrobeat was pioneered by

Sikiru Ayinde Barrister
Fela Anikulapo-Kuti
Bobby Benson
Ebenezer Obey

Show answer

B: Fela Anikulapo-Kuti
Jazz, funk and highlife blended.

5. Fuji music is associated with

Sikiru Ayinde Barrister
Rex Lawson
Fela Sowande
Bob Marley

Show answer

A: Sikiru Ayinde Barrister
Developed from were (ajisari) music.

Key words

Art music: Composed, notated music for concert or church.
Syncretism: Blending of traditions.
Highlife: West African dance-band music from Ghana.
Juju: Yoruba guitar-and-talking-drum music.
Fuji: Yoruba percussion music from were.
Afrobeat: Fela Kuti’s fusion of highlife, jazz and funk.
Diaspora: People of African descent outside Africa.
Spiritual: Religious song of enslaved Africans in America.
Blues: Secular song style, often 12-bar, with blue notes.
Ragtime: Syncopated piano style (Joplin).
Calypso: Trinidadian topical song.
Nationalism: Expressing national identity through music.

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