Symposium of papers and presentations exploring the music of Dr. ephpraim amu, and notation-based composition in africa
Session No. 1: Friday morning, February 21, 2014
9:00 Welcome by the President of NEC: Tony Woodcock
9:10 Welcome by Felicia Sandler, NEC - Introduction of Ms. Misonu Amu
9:30 Olabode Omojola, Mount Holyoke College
Dr. Ephraim Amu and the West African Choral Tradition
This address will explore a selection of Dr. Ephraim Amu’s works within the context of a regional (West African) trend in the second half of the 20th century to develop a new choral tradition that responded to the social dynamics of European colonialism in its engagement of Western and African creative and performance practices. Linking compositional and theoretical strategies to the dynamics of cultural change will provide the perspective for discussing the works of Amu and selected Nigerian composers of both choral and instrumental works.
10:30 George Worlasi Kwasi Dor, University of Mississippi
Dr. Ephraim Amu’s Path-finding Agency and Legacy in the Development of Ghana’s Art Choral Music Genre: His Style and Songs
Dr. Ephraim Amu’s groundbreaking leadership as the father of Ghanaian art music may be explained as an outcome of inextricable intersections among multiple processes. He represents a composer who responded voluntarily to the various landscapes of his nation, and thought critically about the pre-compositional constructs he had to use creatively so that his compositions could speak meaningfully to the conscience of his nation with a preferred immediacy. It took him years of training, experimentation, and research to become equipped and empowered toward the fulfillment of his creative goals. This presentation focuses on (1) Amu’s treatment of language as a major generative force and determinant of style, especially in his mature choral works, and (2) his creative ingenuity in forging a synthesis between Western art music and traditional African music into Ghana’s intercultural art choral idiom. I explore Amu’s treatment of verbal text and melodic construction, and the extent to which his strict adherence to text-tune relationship has implications for versification and his style of multipart writing. I will examine ways in which Amu draws on metaphors, proverbs, other philosophical dicta, and Ghanaian--Akan/Twi and Ewe--communicative norms and strategies to enrich the poetic content of his songs as well as enhance cognition of his messages. I will recall his innovative drive in resolving seemingly incompatible procedures embedded in the bi-musical vocal/choral traditions, including synthesizing tonal and/or modal resources and procedures—rules pertaining to melodies and concurrent pitch sonorities, arguing that the interaction between the preceding elements anchor the semantic and sonic meanings of his songs. Although specific historical terrains inspired Amu’s choral works, and therefore they must be situated within Gold Coast and Ghana’s cultural, and socio-political landscapes, I will argue for the currency and salience of Amu’s songs to the present generation of Ghanaians—audiences and composers.
11:15 James Burns, Binghampton University
“Rhapsody on a Set of Ewe Songs” (2011) Composition for Ewe drums, string quartet, and dancers
This presentation is a performance/discussion of “Rhapsody on a Set of Ewe Songs” (2011) by the author, James Burns. It was composed according to the aims of Dr. Amu’s vision to combine African and Western musical systems, in this case a blending of the melodic and rhythmic vocabulary of Western art music with that of the Ewe people of Ghana and Togo, where the author has conducted many years of field research, study, and recording. Inspired by groups in Ghana that mix traditional and Western musical sensibilities, such as the Pan-African Orchestra and Hewale Sounds, Burns became enamored by the combination of lush, legato strings with the crisp, staccato sounds of the local drums and idiophones. The composition is inspired by a set of three Ewe traditional songs, which provides the melodic source material; and a genre of music known as atsia (dance styles), which provides the rhythmic source material and is used to choreograph the dance. Each song is first played by the strings, and then subjected to a series of variations in the viola and violins, occurring over the original melody, which is retained by the cello. The string variations are complimented by the drum language variations of the lead drum, atsimevu, and response drum, kidi. The drum language variations, in turn, call specific dance sequences, performed by the dancers. The piece presents a large-scale musical dialogue between strings, drums, and dancers similar to that of a typical Ewe performance piece, but as a fixed composition with strings. Between each song is a brief interlude, where strings, drums, and dancers again interact in an extended musical dialogue. There will be a brief introduction by the composer, and then a performance by the Binghamton University African Dance-Drumming Ensemble and a string quartet from the New England Conservatory.
Session No. 2: Friday afternoon, February 21, 2014
1:30 Kofi Agawu, Princeton University
Why is Ephraim Amu’s Music So Appealing?
Agawu explores Dr. Amu’s work through the lens of reception. In Ghana, Amu is regarded with tremendous esteem, as composer, Christian leader, nationalist, poet, teacher, father, and patriotic hero. His music is sung throughout the region, and celebrated on radio and at all events where national sentiment is sought. What makes his work so riveting? Agawu considers an answer, beginning with the acknowledgement that Amu composed for specific people in specific locations (towns, villages, schools), with each song having a simple (but never simplistic) message. He deployed the most direct and imaginative musical means to convey this message. His voice is directed at specific people in specific locations experiencing specific things. There are no universalist ambitions here, only the intensity of a meaningful and directed pose. Consideration of three features of Amu’s composition allow for a good beginning toward addressing reasons for Amu’s appeal: 1) his gift for poetry and with it a penchant for iconicity; 2) his melodic gift, which is closely wedded to both the phonological and semantic dimensions of language; and 3) the fertility of his rhythmic imagination, which is rooted in the rhythms of speech on the one hand and the polyrhythmic textures of traditional ensemble music on the other.
2:30 Robert Labaree, New England Conservatory
Halim El-Dabh in the Imaginary Museum: Africa, the Avant Garde and the Musical Work
This paper will explore the music of Egyptian composer Halim El-Dabh, who was one of the earliest adopters of electronic music in the 1940s, even before coming to the United States. El-Dabh was an early collaborator with Vladimir Ussachevsky and Otto Leuning at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in the late 1950s, a colleague of Varèse, the composer for some of Martha Graham's most celebrated pieces, a pianist and a drummer. He claims to compose all of his music—whether for orchestra or piano or synthesized sound—on the drum. El-Dabh spent many years as an ethnomusicologist recording and studying music throughout Africa and he taught African music and dance first at Howard University, and then for 30 years at Kent State. While on a five-year stay in Ethiopia in the 1960s, he founded Orchestra Ethiopia—a collective compositional ensemble composed of traditional musicians from many regions and ethnic groups. Though not a sub-Saharan African, El-Dabh’s compositions are full of the rituals and practices of that region. His dramatic music harnesses sub-Saharan traditions to tell Egyptian stories. He is an Egyptian Africanist, and a global avant-gardist. A number of examples of his musical output will provide the opportunity for a critical examination of the concepts of modernism and musical work from a global and pan-historical perspective.
3:15 Ndubuisi Emmanuel Nnamani, University of Cambridge, UK
Patterns, Particles and Partitions – Transformation, Experimentation and Stylistic Definition in the Works of Uzoigwe and Mereni
In the past five decades, several works of Nigerian Contemporary Art Music composers such as Sowande, Ekwueme, Akpabot, Euba, Uzoigwe and Mereni among others have been featured in various performances within and outside Nigeria. The materials which forms the essential ingredients of creative and aesthetic sensibility in such works are catalytic structural innovations in diverse compositional styles abound in contemporary African art music. Among these composers’ works, those of Joshua Uzoigwe and Anthony Mereni stand out distinctly in the use of indigenous-derived compositional logic and structures, shaped by focused experimental processing in defining the compositional process and product. However, these composers and their work have received little scholarly attention and as such, the transformative materials and theoretical processes embodied in their works are rarely known in our music theoretical and compositional stylistic discourses. This paper attempts to examine the conceptual basis of the melorhythmic - patterned and structural materials as well as the trado-modal transformations in selected works of Uzoigwe and Mereni with a view to showing their nature as compositional –theoretic resources. The paper draws inspiration from the analysis of “Egwu Amala,” “Okpo,” and Oluronbo by Uzoigwe as well as Mereni’s “Afroludi” Series and “Pantatonus” to show the transformation of the afore-mentioned structural ingredients in the creation of motivic patterns and thematic configurations as well as the structural-aesthetic processing in these composers’ works. From this discussion, we will see how what I refer to as “Igede-bell” patterns may be understood and utilized as a viable theoretic-structural material in the discourse of the creative processes in the works of composers of contemporary art music from Africa and beyond. The cross-cultural and counter-cultural significations and their transformative influences in these works are problematized in the discussions.
Poster Session - throughout the day, February 21, 2014 Stephen Spinner, PhD Candidate at the University of Colorado
Yɛŋ Ara Asasse Ni and the Emergence of Ephraim Amu as a National Composer (1929-1957)
Based on recent research at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation and interviews with Professor Kwabena Nketia, this poster session traces the social and musical history of one of Amu's best-known works from its origins on the occasion of Empire Day to its use as the signature tune of the radio program "Ghana Magazine" in the immediate aftermath of independence. This history intersects with Amu's emerging but reluctant role as a national figure. Excerpts from a 1957 broadcast recording scripted by Professor Nketia help to illustrate Amu's position in the national imagination at the time.
Panel Discussion: Friday Afternoon, February 21, 2014
4:30 - 5:30 A Conversation takes place after the Symposium presentations between the authors, some local scholars, and those gathered for the event, moderated by Felicia Sandler of the New England Conservatory
Discussants include:
Kofi Agawu from Princeton University
Misonu Amu, daughter of Dr. Ephraim Amu, from Ghana
James Burns from Binghampton University
George Dor from Ole Miss
Robert Labaree from the New England Conservatory
David Locke from Tufts University
Ndubuisi Emmanuel Nnamani from the University of Cambridge, UK
Olabode Omojola from Mount Holyoke College
9:00 Welcome by the President of NEC: Tony Woodcock
9:10 Welcome by Felicia Sandler, NEC - Introduction of Ms. Misonu Amu
9:30 Olabode Omojola, Mount Holyoke College
Dr. Ephraim Amu and the West African Choral Tradition
This address will explore a selection of Dr. Ephraim Amu’s works within the context of a regional (West African) trend in the second half of the 20th century to develop a new choral tradition that responded to the social dynamics of European colonialism in its engagement of Western and African creative and performance practices. Linking compositional and theoretical strategies to the dynamics of cultural change will provide the perspective for discussing the works of Amu and selected Nigerian composers of both choral and instrumental works.
10:30 George Worlasi Kwasi Dor, University of Mississippi
Dr. Ephraim Amu’s Path-finding Agency and Legacy in the Development of Ghana’s Art Choral Music Genre: His Style and Songs
Dr. Ephraim Amu’s groundbreaking leadership as the father of Ghanaian art music may be explained as an outcome of inextricable intersections among multiple processes. He represents a composer who responded voluntarily to the various landscapes of his nation, and thought critically about the pre-compositional constructs he had to use creatively so that his compositions could speak meaningfully to the conscience of his nation with a preferred immediacy. It took him years of training, experimentation, and research to become equipped and empowered toward the fulfillment of his creative goals. This presentation focuses on (1) Amu’s treatment of language as a major generative force and determinant of style, especially in his mature choral works, and (2) his creative ingenuity in forging a synthesis between Western art music and traditional African music into Ghana’s intercultural art choral idiom. I explore Amu’s treatment of verbal text and melodic construction, and the extent to which his strict adherence to text-tune relationship has implications for versification and his style of multipart writing. I will examine ways in which Amu draws on metaphors, proverbs, other philosophical dicta, and Ghanaian--Akan/Twi and Ewe--communicative norms and strategies to enrich the poetic content of his songs as well as enhance cognition of his messages. I will recall his innovative drive in resolving seemingly incompatible procedures embedded in the bi-musical vocal/choral traditions, including synthesizing tonal and/or modal resources and procedures—rules pertaining to melodies and concurrent pitch sonorities, arguing that the interaction between the preceding elements anchor the semantic and sonic meanings of his songs. Although specific historical terrains inspired Amu’s choral works, and therefore they must be situated within Gold Coast and Ghana’s cultural, and socio-political landscapes, I will argue for the currency and salience of Amu’s songs to the present generation of Ghanaians—audiences and composers.
11:15 James Burns, Binghampton University
“Rhapsody on a Set of Ewe Songs” (2011) Composition for Ewe drums, string quartet, and dancers
This presentation is a performance/discussion of “Rhapsody on a Set of Ewe Songs” (2011) by the author, James Burns. It was composed according to the aims of Dr. Amu’s vision to combine African and Western musical systems, in this case a blending of the melodic and rhythmic vocabulary of Western art music with that of the Ewe people of Ghana and Togo, where the author has conducted many years of field research, study, and recording. Inspired by groups in Ghana that mix traditional and Western musical sensibilities, such as the Pan-African Orchestra and Hewale Sounds, Burns became enamored by the combination of lush, legato strings with the crisp, staccato sounds of the local drums and idiophones. The composition is inspired by a set of three Ewe traditional songs, which provides the melodic source material; and a genre of music known as atsia (dance styles), which provides the rhythmic source material and is used to choreograph the dance. Each song is first played by the strings, and then subjected to a series of variations in the viola and violins, occurring over the original melody, which is retained by the cello. The string variations are complimented by the drum language variations of the lead drum, atsimevu, and response drum, kidi. The drum language variations, in turn, call specific dance sequences, performed by the dancers. The piece presents a large-scale musical dialogue between strings, drums, and dancers similar to that of a typical Ewe performance piece, but as a fixed composition with strings. Between each song is a brief interlude, where strings, drums, and dancers again interact in an extended musical dialogue. There will be a brief introduction by the composer, and then a performance by the Binghamton University African Dance-Drumming Ensemble and a string quartet from the New England Conservatory.
Session No. 2: Friday afternoon, February 21, 2014
1:30 Kofi Agawu, Princeton University
Why is Ephraim Amu’s Music So Appealing?
Agawu explores Dr. Amu’s work through the lens of reception. In Ghana, Amu is regarded with tremendous esteem, as composer, Christian leader, nationalist, poet, teacher, father, and patriotic hero. His music is sung throughout the region, and celebrated on radio and at all events where national sentiment is sought. What makes his work so riveting? Agawu considers an answer, beginning with the acknowledgement that Amu composed for specific people in specific locations (towns, villages, schools), with each song having a simple (but never simplistic) message. He deployed the most direct and imaginative musical means to convey this message. His voice is directed at specific people in specific locations experiencing specific things. There are no universalist ambitions here, only the intensity of a meaningful and directed pose. Consideration of three features of Amu’s composition allow for a good beginning toward addressing reasons for Amu’s appeal: 1) his gift for poetry and with it a penchant for iconicity; 2) his melodic gift, which is closely wedded to both the phonological and semantic dimensions of language; and 3) the fertility of his rhythmic imagination, which is rooted in the rhythms of speech on the one hand and the polyrhythmic textures of traditional ensemble music on the other.
2:30 Robert Labaree, New England Conservatory
Halim El-Dabh in the Imaginary Museum: Africa, the Avant Garde and the Musical Work
This paper will explore the music of Egyptian composer Halim El-Dabh, who was one of the earliest adopters of electronic music in the 1940s, even before coming to the United States. El-Dabh was an early collaborator with Vladimir Ussachevsky and Otto Leuning at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in the late 1950s, a colleague of Varèse, the composer for some of Martha Graham's most celebrated pieces, a pianist and a drummer. He claims to compose all of his music—whether for orchestra or piano or synthesized sound—on the drum. El-Dabh spent many years as an ethnomusicologist recording and studying music throughout Africa and he taught African music and dance first at Howard University, and then for 30 years at Kent State. While on a five-year stay in Ethiopia in the 1960s, he founded Orchestra Ethiopia—a collective compositional ensemble composed of traditional musicians from many regions and ethnic groups. Though not a sub-Saharan African, El-Dabh’s compositions are full of the rituals and practices of that region. His dramatic music harnesses sub-Saharan traditions to tell Egyptian stories. He is an Egyptian Africanist, and a global avant-gardist. A number of examples of his musical output will provide the opportunity for a critical examination of the concepts of modernism and musical work from a global and pan-historical perspective.
3:15 Ndubuisi Emmanuel Nnamani, University of Cambridge, UK
Patterns, Particles and Partitions – Transformation, Experimentation and Stylistic Definition in the Works of Uzoigwe and Mereni
In the past five decades, several works of Nigerian Contemporary Art Music composers such as Sowande, Ekwueme, Akpabot, Euba, Uzoigwe and Mereni among others have been featured in various performances within and outside Nigeria. The materials which forms the essential ingredients of creative and aesthetic sensibility in such works are catalytic structural innovations in diverse compositional styles abound in contemporary African art music. Among these composers’ works, those of Joshua Uzoigwe and Anthony Mereni stand out distinctly in the use of indigenous-derived compositional logic and structures, shaped by focused experimental processing in defining the compositional process and product. However, these composers and their work have received little scholarly attention and as such, the transformative materials and theoretical processes embodied in their works are rarely known in our music theoretical and compositional stylistic discourses. This paper attempts to examine the conceptual basis of the melorhythmic - patterned and structural materials as well as the trado-modal transformations in selected works of Uzoigwe and Mereni with a view to showing their nature as compositional –theoretic resources. The paper draws inspiration from the analysis of “Egwu Amala,” “Okpo,” and Oluronbo by Uzoigwe as well as Mereni’s “Afroludi” Series and “Pantatonus” to show the transformation of the afore-mentioned structural ingredients in the creation of motivic patterns and thematic configurations as well as the structural-aesthetic processing in these composers’ works. From this discussion, we will see how what I refer to as “Igede-bell” patterns may be understood and utilized as a viable theoretic-structural material in the discourse of the creative processes in the works of composers of contemporary art music from Africa and beyond. The cross-cultural and counter-cultural significations and their transformative influences in these works are problematized in the discussions.
Poster Session - throughout the day, February 21, 2014 Stephen Spinner, PhD Candidate at the University of Colorado
Yɛŋ Ara Asasse Ni and the Emergence of Ephraim Amu as a National Composer (1929-1957)
Based on recent research at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation and interviews with Professor Kwabena Nketia, this poster session traces the social and musical history of one of Amu's best-known works from its origins on the occasion of Empire Day to its use as the signature tune of the radio program "Ghana Magazine" in the immediate aftermath of independence. This history intersects with Amu's emerging but reluctant role as a national figure. Excerpts from a 1957 broadcast recording scripted by Professor Nketia help to illustrate Amu's position in the national imagination at the time.
Panel Discussion: Friday Afternoon, February 21, 2014
4:30 - 5:30 A Conversation takes place after the Symposium presentations between the authors, some local scholars, and those gathered for the event, moderated by Felicia Sandler of the New England Conservatory
Discussants include:
Kofi Agawu from Princeton University
Misonu Amu, daughter of Dr. Ephraim Amu, from Ghana
James Burns from Binghampton University
George Dor from Ole Miss
Robert Labaree from the New England Conservatory
David Locke from Tufts University
Ndubuisi Emmanuel Nnamani from the University of Cambridge, UK
Olabode Omojola from Mount Holyoke College