A Profile of Nigerian Organist-Composers

Godwin Sadoh

The history of church choirs in Nigeria is interwoven with the arrival of Christianity in Nigeria, which dates back to the mid-nineteenth century. The early missionaries from the United States and Europe settled mainly in the southwest (Yoruba) and southeast (Igbo) regions of Nigeria. The conversions of the local indigenes encouraged the missionaries to build several churches for worship and to continue the propagation of the Gospel in Nigeria. It was in these churches that the converts were first exposed to English hymns in four-part harmony.

Worship at the Cathedral Church
The Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos, was founded in 1867 by a group of Christian worshipers from St. Peter’s Anglican Church, Faji, Lagos, where services were conducted only in Yoruba language. These worshipers were Sierra Leonians who spoke mainly English and wanted to have services in English. Hence, it was agreed that services at the Cathedral Church would be conducted exclusively in English. Consequently, the congregation at the Cathedral Church strictly committed to having all worship in English, including the sermons, hymns, announcements, and all special musical renditions by the Cathedral Choir. Another reason for embracing worship in English was that the church was designed to cater to the musical and spiritual needs of the cosmopolitan Lagos society as well as visitors from outside the country, foreign diplomats, and the various ethnic groups in Nigeria who communicated fluently in English. In other words, the congregation at the Cathedral Church comprised the elite, the well-educated, intellectuals, upper-middle-class, the affluent and apparently the cream of the Lagos society. I remember my days at the Cathedral Church as a chorister between 1980 and 1994: almost everyone communicated in English during choir rehearsals and services. Occasionally, one might hear people communicate in Yoruba, but it was always some few sentences and they would quickly switch to English.
While the Cathedral Church of Christ has received criticism for adopting a complete English service within a Yoruba state and in one of the most populous African countries, one could argue that this decision was worthy, considering the pluralistic nature of the indigenous languages in Nigeria. Linguistically, Nigeria is widely diversified, with three major ethnic groups—Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa. In addition, there are multiple subdivisions of the major languages, known as local dialects that include hundreds of tongues. With such extensive linguistic diversification, the government had to adopt English as the official language of the country after independence from Great Britain in 1960 in order to unify the diverse ethnic groups. To elevate one of the local languages over another would have caused internal dissatisfaction and deep division.
Interestingly, the Cathedral Church of Christ was one of the few pan-ethnic and pan-African congregations in Nigeria. Membership in most other churches was made up of one major ethnic group; hence, services were conducted there in the indigenous language of the group. But at the Cathedral Church of Christ, there are Yoruba, Igbo, Edo, as well as descendants of Sierra Leone, Ghana, Togo, and other West African countries who migrated to Nigeria in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As the mother church of the Anglican diocese in Lagos, the Cathedral Church of Christ is always busy with services and other benevolent activities throughout the week:
Sunday Worship
7:15 am—Holy Eucharist (Communion service without choir)
9:15 am—Choral Mattins (Cathedral Choir sings)
9:15 am—Contemporary Praise and Worship (Every fourth Sunday)
9:15 am—Cornerstone Fellowship (Youth/college students)
9:15 am—Children’s Church (Sunday school)
11:15 am—Holy Eucharist (Communion with or without the Cathedral Choir)

Sunday Evening Worship
5 pm—Evensong with the Cathedral Choir (first and second Sunday)
5 pm—Community Hymn Singing (third Sunday)
5 pm—Time of Refreshing (fourth Sunday)
5 pm—Psalmody (Whenever there is a fifth Sunday)

Weekday Worship
6 am—Mattins
6:45 am—Holy Eucharist

Saturday Worship
7:15 am—Mattins
11:15 am—Holy Eucharist

Cathedral Choir and Masters of the Music
The Cathedral Church of Christ Choir is the oldest choir in Nigeria, with an average membership of about fifty male voices, half of whom are boys who sing the treble part. However, that number has recently exploded to over eighty strong and dedicated voices—treble (37), alto (18), tenor (13) and bass (15). The first choir was organized by Robert Coker in 1895, comprising young men and women. Coker was acknowledged to be the first indigenous organist and choirmaster in Nigeria, and apparently the first to occupy this lofty position at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos. Prior to his appointment as organist at the church, he was sponsored by the Cathedral Church to travel to England to study music in order to form a good choir suitable for Christ Church, which was later elevated to a cathedral status in 1923. Coker was regarded as a musical genius of his time. He was the first indigenous musician to attempt the performances of Western classical music in Nigeria, notably Handel’s Messiah. Coker died on February 9, 1920.
The choir was later reorganized during the tenure of N. T. Hamlyn, a British musician and pastor of the church. Hamlyn replaced the women of the choir with boys and young men, following the tradition of most British cathedrals. The choir made tremendous progress that established it as a model for other church choirs. Hamlyn provided the choir with surplices and erected choir stalls at the east end of the church. A strict disciplinarian, Hamlyn was always keen on regular and punctual attendance, and was thus able to set a high standard that has been maintained to this day. After the era of Hamlyn, there was a brief period of short appointments of organists such as that of D. J. Williams, J. G. Kuye in 1904, and later Frank Lacton, a Sierra Leonian who served until the appointment of Thomas Ekundayo Phillips in 1914.
Thomas King Ekundayo Phillips (1884–1969) was appointed Organist and Master of the Music after completing his musical training at Trinity College of Music, London (1911–14). Prior to his appointment at the Cathedral Church, he was organist at St. John’s Anglican Church, Aroloya, and St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Breadfruit, Lagos. Phillips’s tenure was a remarkable turning point in the history of church music in Lagos and Nigeria as a whole. He built a solid foundation on which the present choir stands firmly today as one of the best cathedral choirs in Africa. He retired in 1962 after serving in the music ministry at the Cathedral Church for forty-eight years (Trinity Sunday 1914 to Trinity Sunday 1962).
Thomas Ekundayo Phillips was succeeded by his son, Charles Oluwole Obayomi Phillips (1919–2007), as the Organist and Master of the Music; he faithfully served the church for exactly three decades (Trinity Sunday 1962 to Trinity Sunday 1992). Charles Obayomi Phillips was born on September 28, 1919, in Lagos. After attending C. M. S. Grammar School, Lagos, he proceeded to Durham University, England, receiving a bachelor’s degree in commerce with distinction in June 1946. Phillips started taking private lessons on piano when he was only four years old with Nigeria’s most celebrated international musician, Fela Sowande, and as a choir boy at the Cathedral Church received organ lessons under the tutelage of his father. At age fourteen, Phillips had already started assuming leadership roles in music; first, he rose to the enviable position of school pianist at C. M. S. Grammar School and was later appointed by his father as the assistant organist of the Cathedral Church in 1933.
Charles Obayomi Phillips studied organ with J. A. Westrup at Durham University, and with Christopher Idonill in 1976 at the Royal School of Church Music, London. During his tenure as Organist and Master of the Music at the Cathedral Church, Phillips maintained the tradition of the Cathedral Choir and developed new ideas that made the choir soar in standard. In spite of the tremendous economic upheavals in the political, social and religious life of Nigeria since independence in 1960, music at the Cathedral Church continues to be the center of inspiration and worship.
In addition to his strenuous tasks at the Cathedral Church, Charles Obayomi Phillips served as president of the Union of Organists and Choirmasters in Lagos, an organization that oversees the maintenance of high standards of music in all Anglican churches in the Lagos diocese. He was the Emeritus Organist at the Cathedral Church of Christ until his death in May 2007. After Phillips’s retirement in 1992, Yinka Sowande, Fela Sowande’s younger brother who had been Substantive Organist under Phillips for several years, was temporarily appointed as interim Master of the Music; he retired on December 31, 1992.
History was made on January 1, 1993, with the appointment of Tolu Obajimi as the first female Organist and Master of the Music of the Cathedral Church of Christ. She is the first woman to be appointed to the position of organist and music director in any Nigerian church. Obajimi is also the first Nigerian female organist to play recitals on the pipe organ. In addition to playing organ and piano recitals all over Lagos, she had accompanied several standard choral works such as Messiah, Elijah, St. Paul, Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day, and Thomas Ekundayo Phillips’s Samuel.
Tolu Obajimi certainly deserves special recognition and commendation for daring to step into the very shoes that even men found to be extremely challenging. Since 1993, she has expanded the music ministry of the Cathedral Church to the delight and with the support of the choir, clergy and the entire congregation. One of her most remarkable accomplishments was the creation of the Cathedral Church of Christ Choir Orchestra, which was launched at the 80th anniversary of the choir on November 22, 1998. The other two significant programs added to the Cathedral Church ministries under her leadership are Community Hymn Singing and Psalmody: Chanting the Psalms of David.
Tolu Obajimi’s successful activities at the Cathedral Church are not surprising to those who knew her before she began at the Cathedral Church. She brought into the church’s ministry several years of experience as a professionally trained musician. Obajimi studied music at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, in the 1960s; on her return to Nigeria, she taught music at Queen’s College, Lagos, for several years, and she also founded and taught at her own Tolu Obajimi Conservatory of Music, Lagos. Obajimi is presently assisted by Richard Bucknor as Choirmaster, Sina Ojemuyiwa (the best and most famous Cathedral Choir tenor) as Assistant Choirmaster, Jimi Olumuyiwa (former Cathedral Choir Librarian) as Assisting Choirmaster, and Tunde Sosan as Substantive Organist.
It is important to mention that the Cathedral Church of Christ has a rich and rigid tradition of appointing someone from within the choir to the leadership position of Organist and Master of the Music. Charles Obayomi Phillips received organ lessons from his father, Thomas Ekundayo Phillips, and gave Tolu Obajimi her first lessons in organ and trained her to the proficient level necessary for appointment as the Cathedral Organist. Even though Obajimi was never a member of the Cathedral Choir, she had been a member of the church for several years and she began by playing piano for the 7:15 am Holy Eucharist during Charles Obayomi Phillips’s tenure. She was later called upon to accompany the choir at rehearsals during the week, and she participated in several concerts such as Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Handel’s Messiah in the late 1980s.
Tunde Sosan started off as a choir boy, and he was trained on the organ by Tolu Obajimi before he went to study at the Trinity College of Music, London. Other notable musicians who have served as honorary organists, substitute organists and/or recitalists at the Cathedral Church include Fela Sowande (musicologist and organist-composer), Ayo Bankole (musicologist and organist-composer), Modupe Phillips (a son of Thomas Ekundayo Phillips, he played the organ at the age of twelve), Samuel Akpabot (musicologist and composer), Kayode Oni (concert organist and choir director), Godwin Sadoh (organist-composer, choral conductor and ethnomusicologist), Kweku Acquah-Harrison (Ghanaian organist and music educator), Albert Schweitzer (German musicologist and organist), and Ian Hare of King’s College, Cambridge, England.

Choir Training
The outstanding musical standards of the Cathedral Choir today can be traced back to the hard work and foundation laid by Thomas Ekundayo Phillips. Phillips emphasized strict discipline, regular and punctual attendance at choir practices, correct interpretation of notes, voice balance, articulation, attack, comportment, reverence in worship, and utmost sense of good musicianship. His expectations were very high and certainly demanding, but the choir always rose to his standards. During choir practices, as the conductor, Phillips was very sensitive to intonation. He would detect and correct any faulty notes emanating from any section of the choir. He would also call to order any chorister who did not hold his music book correctly, such as covering the face with it or placing it on the lap while seated. The present arrangement where choristers placed their books on the raised desk did not exist then.
Thomas Ekundayo Phillips was known to be very meticulous and thorough in everything he did—whether he was dealing with twelve probationers or with his augmented choir of over one hundred voices. One of the criteria to join the Cathedral Choir or his augmented choir was the ability to sight-read music. Furthermore, the singer must have had a very good voice to be able to sing under Phillips’s direction. Consequently, his choir learned anthems, hymns, chants, and other standard choral works in a very short time. One of the ways he tested his choir to see if they had mastered a work was with the accompaniment. Often, at the last rehearsal of an anthem before Sunday worship, he would start the choir off with the organ, and then suddenly stop playing right in the middle of the piece; if the choir faltered and stopped, he would ask, “suppose the organ broke down during the performance on Sunday, are you going to stop singing?” His choir did not know an anthem, as far as he was concerned, until they could sing it convincingly and confidently without any accompaniment and without dropping in pitch. Honorable Justice Yinka Faji, who began as a choir boy under Charles Obayomi Phillips and now sings alto, recounts the benefits of the discipline instilled in him as a Cathedral chorister:

Membership in the choir disciplined me. To me discipline is synonymous with the choir. It is now a personal taboo for me to miss Sunday services—Mattins and Evensong. Choir practice at 6 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays as a choir boy and now as a choir man, no side talks during rehearsals, team work, orderliness, and mutual respect; these and more have been and still are the norms of the choir. The choir made me bold. I remember one Holy Eucharist Sunday service that I was to sing a solo. It was the Agnus Dei. When it was time to sing, I stood up and opened my mouth. As soon as I started singing, everyone in the congregation looked up and my heart started beating fast. I then said to myself, “Yinka, they are looking at you, will you fail?” I almost stopped singing; one way or the other, I completed the solo and sat down. Since then, I have become very bold to address a large crowd; in fact, I can address the entire nation. Other good virtues I picked up include comportment during worship, improved speech control and good manners generally.
Before a choir boy or man can be admitted into the choir to sing in Sunday worship, he must first go through the rigorous probationary period that normally last several months. The probationary period of choir boys is eight months, while that of adults is around three months. I remember my probationary period in 1980 while I was still in high school. I attended the choir practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but on Sundays I would sit in the congregation for worship and was never allowed to sing with the choir until I completed my three months of probation. It felt so good in those days to put on my beautiful cassock and surplice and sing tenor in the most famous Anglican Church choir in Nigeria.
Whenever the boys completed their probation, they would be formally admitted into the Cathedral Choir at a special service in which their parents would assist them to put on the white surplice over the black cassock. This was always a moment of joy and pride for the parents. Each week, the choir comes into the church at least four times with a total time of about eight hours. The Organist and Master of the Music usually devotes thirty minutes to the junior boys or those on probation from 6 to 6:30 pm before the main choir practice begins. He/she trains them in sight reading of music notation, vocal exercises, and theory of music. All this training ultimately leads to the boys taking the external examinations of the Trinity College of Music, London. Successful candidates would receive certificates if they passed the exams.
The older members of the Cathedral Choir were never left out of continuous training. Some prominent senior members of the choir were occasionally sponsored by the Cathedral Choir to the Royal School of Church Music, London, refresher course training as the funds were available. This normally took place during summer when the choir was away on vacation in June or July. On return, the choir member would give a report of all he learned, paying particular attention to the new innovations in church music as practiced in England—in the form of new anthems, hymns or hymnals, latest techniques of chanting the Psalms or singing regular church hymns and sacred concerts.

Choir Ministry
The role of the choir in the ministry of the Cathedral Church of Christ is immense. The choir leads the congregation every Sunday in hymn singing, versicles and responses (antiphonal prayers set to music), special settings of liturgical music such as Venite, Benedictus, Te Deum, Nunc Dimittis, Magnificat and the Ordinary of the Mass. The Master of the Music uses the choir to teach the congregation new music.
The Master of the Music is always attentive to how the congregation sings church hymns. In order to boost the standard of congregational singing, Tolu Obajimi introduced a Community Hymn Singing service slated for the third Sunday of each month. This was designed to encourage members of the Cathedral Church to attend Sunday evening worship. Apart from the roster for church societies and individuals, families are also encouraged to sponsor the service. In this service, the Master of the Music writes out the background information or history of the hymns to be sung in the program. There is no sermon; however, one or two Bible lessons are inserted into the program as epilogue. The service opens and closes with prayer. The format of the service is simply an alternation of readings with hymn singing. The historical background of the hymns is read by individual members of the congregation, while the choir and congregation sing the hymns. Before the last hymn is sung, the sponsors and committee members of the service are usually acknowledged.
Whenever there is a fifth Sunday in a month, the Cathedral Choir presents special evening music entitled “Psalmody: Chanting the Psalms of David.” This was also one of the creative innovations of Tolu Obajimi. Similar to the Community Hymn Singing, Psalmody is simply the alternation of readings, in this case the Psalms of David, by members of the congregation, with the chanting of the actual Psalms done by the congregation and/or the Cathedral Choir. The reader presents an historical background of the Psalm—who wrote it, the occasion, why, when and where the Psalm was likely written. This approach helps the congregation to have a better understanding of the theological underpinning of the Psalm, which inevitably would enable them to sing with understanding and energy. Through this medium, the Master of the Music and the Cathedral Choir teach the congregation the latest techniques of chanting the Psalms of David, thereby helping them to correct some performance errors during rendition.
Interestingly, some Yoruba Psalms set to music as anthems by Thomas Ekundayo Phillips are always included in the service. Presently, this is one of the few avenues in which Yoruba songs are performed in worship at the Cathedral Church of Christ. According to the Master of the Music, the use of Yoruba versions of the Psalms in this program showcases works of talented Nigerian composers in sacred music and Psalmody/hymnody in particular. Special settings of the Psalms were normally performed by the Cathedral Choir only, while the congregation listened with dignified attention. Examples of works in this category include Thomas Ekundayo Phillips’s Emi O Gbe Oju Mi S’Oke Wonni (I Will Lift Up My Eyes Unto the Hills–Psalm 121) and Nigbati Oluwa Mu Ikolo Sioni Pada (When the Lord Turned Again the Captivity of Zion–Psalm 126). Interestingly, during the tenure of Thomas Ekundayo Phillips, the evening services on the last Sunday of each month were always in Yoruba. The Cathedral Choir would dress in their red cassocks and surplices, augmented by the voices of the Choral Society with the ladies dressed in white buba and alari costumes (traditional gowns). The two choirs would perform Phillips’s Yoruba compositions in these services.
The Cathedral Church of Christ truly proves itself to be a unique culturally blended congregation in terms of hymnals used for worship. The church exemplifies the nature of an interdenominational faith-based organization with the use of hymn books from diverse churches. The hymnals used for worship include Ancient and Modern, Ancient and Modern Revised, Songs of Praise, Methodist Hymn Book, Hymnal Companion, Baptist Hymnal, Saint Paul’s Cathedral Psalter, Church Hymnal, Alternative Service Book, New English Hymnal, Redemption Hymnal, Broadman Hymnal, Sacred Songs and Solos, More Hymns for Today, and indigenous hymns written by Thomas Ekundayo Phillips as well as other members of the choir.

Concert Performances
The Cathedral Church of Christ Choir is well known throughout the southern regions of Nigeria for its seasonal concert performances. The choir sets the tone and standard of music through its exceptional renditions of standard classical works. Thus, the extremely rigorous schedule of the Master of the Music is further laden with concert activities. Apart from the weekly routine of choir practices in preparation for Sunday worship, the Master of the Music must prepare the choir for concerts, which include sacred masterworks, instrumental pieces, and organ recitals. The concert performances are in the form of an Annual Choir Festival, Advent Carol Service, Festival of Lessons and Carols, Easter Cantata, and other types of variety concerts throughout the year.
Thomas Ekundayo Phillips inaugurated the Annual Choir Festival at the Cathedral Church of Christ in November 1918, to celebrate the musical accomplishments of his lovely choir and to showcase the expertise of the group. The festival is traditionally scheduled for the Sunday nearest to St. Cecilia’s Day (November 22), and takes place in the two main morning services (Choral Mattins and Choral Eucharist) and Evensong. The choir sings hymns, versicles and responses, Psalms, and beautiful anthems. The evening festival opens with a short organ recital or a variety concert of solo and chamber music that lasts twenty-five minutes, and it usually closes with an organ voluntary (postlude). The organ recital is played by one of the Cathedral organists or by a guest organist such as Kayode Oni and Kweku-Acquah Harrison.
It is noteworthy that on the occasion of the eighty-first Choir Festival in 1999, the Cathedral Choir marked the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Thomas Ekundayo Phillips with the publication of some of his compositions in book form, Sacred Choral Works: English and Yoruba. The book contains several anthems, hymns, descants for hymns, versicles and responses, settings for canticles and Psalms, and chants for canticles and Psalms.
The Cathedral Church of Christ is British in every aspect of its worship, ranging from the use of the English language to the order of service and the music selections. In fact, all the organists have been directly or indirectly trained in the schools of music in London. Hence, there is a tremendous influence of the British worship system at the Cathedral Church. Furthermore, most of the composers of the music used for worship are British—John Ireland, William Byrd, John Stainer, Bernard Rose, David Willcocks, John Rutter, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Samuel Wesley, Thomas Attwood, and Charles Stanley. However, in fairness to the Organists and Masters of the Music, compositions from other European nationalities are occasionally used. These include the works of Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, and Schubert.
To augment the works of foreign composers, the Cathedral Organist and Master of the Music uses the music of selected indigenous Nigerian composers, notably past and present choir members and organists. The Master of the Music has always been very careful not to promote and glorify the compositions of indigenous musicians who have no direct connection with the Cathedral Church Choir. Among the famous Nigerian musicians or choir members whose works were often performed include the father of the choir himself, Thomas Ekundayo Phillips, Charles Obayomi Phillips, Fela Sowande, Yinka Sowande, Lazarus Ekwueme, Tolu Obajimi, Sina Ojemuyiwa, and Tunde Sosan. I am looking forward to the day when my own compositions would be included in the music repertoire at the Cathedral Church.
The choral and organ compositions of Fela Sowande provided a musical and cultural link with the United States because some of Sowande’s pieces are based on African-American spirituals. The texts of the spirituals share a common theme with the Nigerian songs of liberation written in the 1940s through the 1960s during the era of the nationalist movement that fought for the independence of Nigeria from the British colonialists. The Cathedral Choir could see the spiritual connection between African-American slavery and the colonial experience in Nigeria, which lasted over a century (1840s–1960). The pain, suffering, anguish, and the hope for liberation from the imperialists are some of the commonalities in the themes of the songs. Even though Nigeria obtained her independence from the British government in 1960, the influence of British culture is still very strong today. It permeates every aspect of Nigerian existence, from cultural life to politics, social life, education, and Christian worship as observed at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos.
Following the choir festival is the Advent Carol Service in December. The choir performs selected and tuneful carols and hymns with themes that talk about the coming of Christ. The carols and hymns are interspersed with the reading of six Bible lessons that tell the story of the promises of the coming Messiah. The lessons are mostly taken from the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament, with two short ones from the New Testament.
The Festival of Lessons and Carols has always been the climax of the Cathedral Choir musical performances for the year. Therefore, the choir is always at its best, singing with clarity, tenacity and excellence. The festival takes place on the last Sunday in December of every year even if it were after Christmas Day. This allows other parish churches to have their own Christmas services earlier, so that choirs from all over Lagos could converge on the last Sunday of December to hear the Cathedral Choir.
The Easter season is another high point in the musical activities of the Cathedral Choir. The Cathedral Church of Christ Choir is popularly known for its annual evening concert on Easter Sunday. This can take the form of the performance of an Easter cantata or the performance of a major choral work such as Handel’s Messiah as performed on Easter Sunday, April 19, 1981, and on March 31, 2002. The Cathedral Choir traditionally performed the entire three parts of Messiah once every three years during the tenure of Charles Obayomi Phillips; but the choir performed only parts two and three in 2002. Another Easter cantata took place on Sunday, April 7, 1996, with the performance of the entire three parts of Thomas Ekundayo Phillips’s Samuel. There were some few instances when the choir staged a concert on Good Friday, such as John Stainer’s The Crucifixion under the direction of Thomas Ekundayo Phillips in 1916. According to the Cathedral historians, this was the first Good Friday cantata concert in Nigeria.
There are other times in the year that the Cathedral Choir performs concerts in and outside of the church. Notable oratorios, cantatas, and orchestral works have been performed by the choir, such as Mendelssohn’s Elijah (performed in 1989), Hymn of Praise, and St. Paul; Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (performed in 1953); Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast; Handel’s Ode to Joy, Judas Maccabaeus, and Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day (performed in 1998); Haydn’s The Creation; Stainer’s The Daughter of Jairus and The Crucifixion (performed in 1916); Walford Davies’ The Temple; and Edward Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance performed by the Cathedral Church of Christ Choir Orchestra at the 80th anniversary of the choir on November 22, 1998.
These concerts featured solos, choral and instrumental music. The concerts often attract dignitaries, professional musicians, and students from far and near to the Cathedral Church. The venues of the concerts were either the Cathedral Church, Glover Memorial Hall, or other concert halls in Lagos. The hall was always packed to capacity. Many visitors to the Cathedral Church have commended the outstanding singing of the choir and even remarked that it could favorably compare with the cathedral choirs in England in terms of quality. Gerald Knight, former Director of the Royal School of Church Music, London, once remarked that the Cathedral Church of Christ Choir, Lagos, is second to none in the whole of West Africa.
Some of these concerts were specifically organized to raise funds for either the Cathedral Church or to buy a new organ. For example, Thomas Ekundayo Phillips presented several concerts with the Cathedral Choir in various parts of Lagos to raise funds for the building of a new pipe organ. He later embarked on a concert tour with his choir to Abeokuta on August 24, 1930, and later to Ibadan, to raise funds to build a new pipe organ for the Cathedral Church. In these concerts, the Cathedral Choir performed mostly Thomas Ekundayo Phillips’s Yoruba songs to the delight of the natives of southwest Nigeria. The concerts were a huge success because the choir alone was able to raise more than half the cost of the organ. In fact, in 1927, Phillips went as far as England to appeal to British citizens for money to build the pipe organ. He was able to raise a substantial amount of money through the successful rendition of some of his Yoruba compositions by the St. George’s Church Choir on Sunday, October 23, 1927. The Yoruba songs were recorded by H. N. V. Gramophone Company in London, and the royalties from the sales of the recording were all credited to the Cathedral Church of Christ’s account in Lagos, towards the purchase of the 1932 organ.
The 1932 organ, which was later refurbished in 1966, is now in a very sorry state. In spite of regular servicing and replacement of deteriorated parts since 1966, the organ has reached a stage whereby no amount of repairs could restore it to its greatest glory. In 2005, in order to let everyone in the church realize the deplorable condition of the organ, the Master of the Music refused to send for the repairer when some faults developed. The situation got so bad that they had to stop playing the organ, using piano instead, much to the dissatisfaction of the congregation, including the provost (senior pastor of the Cathedral Church). The provost had to issue a directive that the faults be attended to immediately. The idea to build a new modern pipe organ for the church was originally conceived by the Women’s Guild Auxiliary of the Cathedral Church, and a committee was later set up to achieve that purpose. The Women’s Guild Auxiliary was able to raise some money. However, the funds could only cover the first installments for the purchase of the organ.
In view of the magnitude of the amount required and the importance of the new organ project to the history and development of the Cathedral Church, the Standing Committee decided to step in, and an organ fundraising sub-committee was inaugurated in 2006 to raise the proposed amount of 164 million Naira ($1,640,000 USD). Members of the Cathedral Church, societies, families, individuals, the choir, and corporate bodies were enjoined to participate in the organ project in order to maintain and preserve the tradition of musical excellence that the Cathedral Choir is noted for. Since 2006, the Cathedral Church of Christ Choir has embarked on several campaigns and concerts to raise money to build a new four-manual organ with 64 stops and 3,658 pipes. On Sunday, January 20, 2008, the provost of the Cathedral, Very Rev. Yinka Omololu, announced to the entire congregation with great joy, that they had realized the proposed amount. This feat was made possible through the generous donations of the Cathedral congregation and non-members from all over the country and around the world.
The Cathedral Choir has performed before renowned dignitaries. The choir performed before the British Royal Family, first in April 1921 at the foundation laying ceremony of the Cathedral Church of Christ by His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales. In January 1956, the choir performed before Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip when they worshiped at the Cathedral Church, and finally, on October 2, 1960, at the Independence Day service of Nigeria, attended by Her Royal Highness, Princess Alexandra. On Advent Sunday, 1972, the Cathedral Choir performed with the King’s College Cambridge Choir, during their visit to Nigeria. The first broadcast by the Cathedral Choir on the British Broadcasting Corporation was aired on December 12, 1951.

Recordings
The Cathedral Choir’s musical activities have never been restricted to only live performances at services and concerts. The choir has been involved in recording some of their favorite repertoire. During the tenure of Thomas Ekundayo Phillips, the choir recorded two of his songs—Emi O Gbe Oju Mi S’Oke Wonni (I Will Lift Up My Eyes to the Hills–Psalm 121) and Ise Oluwa (The Work of the Lord) for the BBC series “Church Music from the Commonwealth.” In 2006, under the leadership of Tolu Obajimi, the present choir released its first recording in the twenty-first century, Choral Music: Volumes I & II. The two CDs contain a selection of the most famous hymns, anthems, Psalms, Te Deum, and Jubilate that the Cathedral Choir have been performing over the years. Composers of the selected works as usual are mostly British with the exception of the Cathedral Choir musicians, in particular, Thomas Ekundayo Phillips.

Choir Picnics
As the saying goes, “all work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy;” and in keeping with this, the Cathedral Church of Christ Choir does not only engage in rigorous rehearsals and performances throughout the year, but also have their moments of relaxation, partying and enjoyment. These are called the “choir picnics” or “choir treats.” These are annual events organized for the choir by the older members of the choir, choir patrons and/or patronesses or other affluent members of the congregation. It is a way for all those who enjoy and appreciate the outstanding work of the choir to express their gratitude. Choir treats have always been social gatherings held in a very relaxed and congenial atmosphere, mostly in the homes of the sponsors. There would be plenty of food, salad, desserts, and drinks. And for the younger choir boys, there are always indoor and outdoor games to play. A typical picnic day was and still is an occasion to display the football (soccer) prowess between the ‘Dec side’ (right side of choir stall) and the ‘Can side’ (left side of the choir stall) boys.
Some selected members from other parish churches are always invited to celebrate with the Cathedral Choir. This is not the only occasion in which choirs from other churches, even outside of the Anglican church, are invited to the Cathedral Choir program. There is a combined choir concert that takes place once a year. For this program, two to three members from various denominational churches would be invited to join the Cathedral Choir to form what is known as the Augmented Choir. The Augmented Choir, which normally comprised both male and female in the size of one hundred voices or more, would rehearse once a week and finally close this glorious event with a big concert at either the Cathedral Church or one of the churches in Lagos.
Another avenue of collaborative work with other churches occurs when the Cathedral Choir goes on their compulsory new year holidays in January or the summer vacation in June. Some of the church choirs in Lagos come in to sing for four weeks at the Cathedral Church. These collaborative endeavors date back to the era of Thomas Ekundayo Phillips, and subsequent Organists and Masters of the Music have kept up the tradition.

Ex-Choristers
In the ninety years of its existence (1918–2008), the Cathedral Church of Christ Choir has produced some of the most brilliant, outstanding and famous Nigerian musicologists, pianists, organists and composers. Historically, the choir has become a ‘school of music’ in which budding composers have had their formative years. Many of the talented musicians belonging to the Cathedral Choir family moved to successful musical careers, some at the international level. The products of the choir have brought immense pride and esteem to the pioneer choir in Nigeria. All these musicians, including myself, give the credit to Thomas Ekundayo Phillips’s work as the founding Organist and Master of the Music. The musical training, performances, discipline, and exposure to a variety of standard choral and instrumental works had a great impact in shaping the musical taste and career of the ex-choristers. Indeed, the Cathedral Choir is a breeding ground for future generations of talented Nigerian musicians. I cannot close this essay without highlighting the profiles of some of the musical giants produced by the Cathedral Choir.
Fela Sowande (1905–1987) came under the leadership of Thomas Ekundayo Phillips in the early 1900s as a choir boy. Under the mentorship of Phillips, Sowande was exposed to European sacred music and indigenous Nigerian church music. He received private lessons in organ from Phillips while singing in the choir. Sowande claimed that Phillips’s organ playing, the choir training, and the organ lessons he received had a major impact on his becoming an organist-composer. It was Thomas Ekundayo Phillips who exposed Sowande to the organ works of European composers such as Bach, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Guilmant, and Dubois. Sowande went on to study music in England, where he became the first African to receive the prestigious Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO) in 1943 with distinction. He was a broadcaster, musicologist, organist-composer, and music educator. Sowande taught as a professor of music at several institutions in Nigeria and the United States, including the University of Ibadan, Howard University, University of Pittsburgh, and Kent State University. He composed several choral and solo songs, orchestra works, but he is most famous for his sixteen wonderful pieces for solo organ.
Christopher Oyesiku (1925–) had his earliest musical training as a choir boy at the Cathedral Church of Christ Choir under the tutelage of Thomas Ekundayo Phillips, who gave the young Oyesiku his first lessons in the theory of music, musicianship, and voice. Phillips also prepared Oyesiku for the external examinations of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, London. During his days as a chorister at the Cathedral Church, Oyesiku rose to become one of the leading trebles and later became the best bass in the choir. In the late 1940s, he was the leading bass soloist in some of Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic operas such as Trial by Jury, H. M. S. Pinafore, and The Mikado. Oyesiku later went on to study music at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, from 1955 to 1960. Oyesiku returned to Nigeria in 1960, and in 1962 was appointed to the position of Assistant Director of Programs at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, Lagos (now Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria). He served in this capacity until 1981. Oyesiku taught music and directed choirs at the Oyo State College of Education, Ilesha, from 1981 to 1987, and the Department of Theater Arts, University of Ibadan, from 1987 to 1994. He was well known in Nigeria, West Africa, and Great Britain as an extraordinary bass singer. He is popularly referred to as “Tarzan” at the Cathedral Church Choir for his deep and beautiful bass voice. Oyesiku performed the bass solo in several cantatas, oratorios, and variety concerts. One of the high points of his career was the opportunity given him to perform before several dignitaries in Nigeria and the Royal Family in England. He was also an outstanding choral conductor as well as music educator. He is presently retired from active music career and now lives with his wife in London, England.
Samuel Akpabot (1932–2000) was a choir boy at the Cathedral Church under Thomas Ekundayo Phillips in the early 1940s. Akpabot received a most significant introduction to European classical music as a chorister at the Cathedral Church. Akpabot sang many standard choral works such as Messiah and Elijah at the Cathedral Church before going to England to study music. He did advanced studies in music at the Royal College of Music, London, Trinity College of Music, London, the University of Chicago, and Michigan State University, where he received his Ph.D. in ethnomusicology. He was a composer, ethnomusicologist, organist, pianist, trumpeter, and music educator. Akpabot was the author of five books and several scholarly articles on Nigerian music. He taught at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, the University of Ibadan, and the University of Uyo, where he retired as a professor of music and eventually died there. He served as organist and choir director in several churches in Lagos, including St. Savior’s Anglican Church. Akpabot composed choral and vocal solo songs, and orchestral works.
Ayo Bankole (1935–1976) was a choir boy at the Cathedral Church of Christ in the early 1940s. It was Bankole’s father who encouraged him to join the renowned Cathedral Choir. Bankole became a private organ pupil of Thomas Ekundayo Phillips, and also studied organ with Phillips’s protégé, Fela Sowande. Bankole rose to the position of school’s organist at Baptist Academy (one of the famous high schools in Lagos) at the age of thirteen, in 1948. In the late 1950s, Bankole went on to study music at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, University of Cambridge, London, and the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1963, Bankole became the second Nigerian to receive the Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO) diploma. He was an organist-composer, ethnomusicologist, pianist, and music educator. Bankole was a lecturer of music at the University of Lagos, and organist/choir director in several churches as well as several high schools in Lagos. Bankole composed mostly sacred music for choir, solo voice, organ, and orchestra.
Lazarus Ekwueme (1936–) is a Nigerian musicologist, composer, choral conductor, singer, and actor. He is one of the pioneer lecturers of music in Nigeria. As a scholar, he has authored several articles and books on African music and the diaspora. Ekwueme was a chorister at the Cathedral Church under Thomas Ekundayo Phillips in the 1940s. He studied music at the Royal College of Music, London, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, and Yale University, where he obtained the Ph.D. degree in music theory. In the area of composition, he is well known for his tuneful choral works based on Igbo idioms and African-American spirituals. As a music educator, Ekwueme taught at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and the University of Lagos. Ekwueme retired as a professor of music from the University of Lagos in the early 2000s; he is presently a traditional ruler in his home town in the southeast region of Nigeria.
Godwin Sadoh (1965–) joined the Cathedral Choir as an adult to sing tenor in 1980 under Charles Obayomi Phillips, and he was a chorister until 1994. In 1982, Phillips appointed Sadoh as an Assisting Organist, gave Sadoh private lessons in piano, organ and general musicianship, and prepared Sadoh for all the piano and general musicianship external examinations of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, London. Sadoh became the Organist and Choirmaster of Eko Boys’ High School, Lagos, at the age of sixteen in 1981. He occupied this position until he graduated from high school in 1982. Sadoh later studied music at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, where he became the first African to earn the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in organ performance in 2004. He studied organ and composition at Louisiana State University. Sadoh taught at the first three institutions mentioned above and also at Golden West College, California, Thiel College, Pennsylvania, Baton Rouge College, Louisiana, and LeMoyne-Owen College, Memphis, Tennessee. He was appointed professor of music at Talladega College, Alabama State, in 2007. Sadoh is the author of several books and articles on modern Nigerian music, church music, ethnomusicology, and intercultural musicology. He is one of the leading authorities on Nigerian church music and African art music. In the area of composition, he has composed for every genre—vocal solo and choral works, piano, organ, electronic media, and orchestra. Sadoh’s compositions have been performed all over the United States, Europe and Nigeria; some of his works have been recorded on CDs. He has been a recipient of the ASCAPLUS Award in recognition of the performances and publications of his music since 2003 to the present. Sadoh has served as organist and choir director in several churches in Nigeria and the United States.
Recently, the Cathedral Choir has proudly given two more graduates to the professional world of music. Jimi Olumuyiwa, who now sings bass, joined as a choir boy in the early 1970s. Olumuyiwa was the librarian of the Cathedral Choir for many years, and he has participated in several grand concerts including singing the bass solo in Messiah. In addition to his strenuous schedule at school and the Cathedral Church, he directs the Golden Bells Chorale Group, in Lagos, a choir founded by Godwin Sadoh in the 1980s. Olumuyiwa was a former Choir Director of Eko Boys’ High School, Lagos, from 1982 to 1983. Olumuyiwa recently received the Bachelor of Arts degree in music from the University of Lagos, and he rose to the position of Assisting Choirmaster at the Cathedral Church. Tunde Sosan joined the Cathedral Choir as a choir boy under the leadership of Charles Obayomi Phillips in the late 1980s. He continued singing with the choir after Tolu Obajimi took over the baton in 1993. In addition to singing and accompanying the choir, Sosan received private lessons in organ from Obajimi. Sosan’s faithfulness to rehearsals, services and concerts by providing piano and organ accompaniment when there was no one else to do so has earned him favor with Obajimi, who has blessed him with several promotions: from Assisting Organist to Assistant Organist and presently Sub-Organist. Sosan will be completing his studies at Trinity College of Music, London.

Conclusion
As the premiere choir in Nigeria, the accomplishments of the Cathedral Church of Christ Choir are immense, and it has played a major role in shaping the direction and development of church music in Nigeria, especially in the Anglican Church. The choir continues to play a leading and model role in Lagos and in Nigeria as a whole. The magnitude of musical excellence filtered into the ears and minds of the Lagos congregations is felt not only in the Anglican church, but in other denominations as well. The annual choir festivals, Advent carol services, festival of lessons and carols, variety concerts and the choir picnics continue to attract choristers and music enthusiasts from the Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Reformed, African, Evangelical, and non-denominational churches from different parts of the southwest regions of Nigeria to the Cathedral Church of Christ. The choir rightly connects the American culture with Nigeria through the use of spirituals in the compositions of its ex-choristers and their musical training in American universities. As they celebrate their ninetieth anniversary in November 2008, they can certainly look forward to many more years of outstanding and meritorious accomplishments in the Nigerian church music ministry.

The author is grateful to his very good friend, Jimi Olumuyiwa, for providing most of the documents used in writing this essay.

Photos are used with kind permission of Christopher Oyesiku.

 

Godwin Sadoh

<p>Godwin Sadoh is a Nigerian church musician, composer,
pianist, organist/choral conductor and ethnomusicologist. He received his
Doctor of Musical Arts degree in organ performance and composition from
Louisiana State University in May 2004, making him the first African to earn
the DMA degree in organ performance from any institution. His extensive
research on Nigerian church music, organ building, composers, African art
music, and intercultural musicology is published in The Diapason, The Hymn, The
Organ, Composer-USA, Living Music, Africa, Organ Encyclopedia, and Contemporary
Africa Database. His organ and choral works, as well as hymn book, E Korin
S'Oluwa: Fifty Indigenous Church Hymns from Nigeria, are published by Wayne
Leupold Editions. Sadoh's book, The Organ Works of Fela Sowande: Cultural
Perspectives (New York: Zimbel Press, 2005), will be in print in spring 2006.</p>

 

Fela Sowande's (1905-1987) centenary is being celebrated all around the
world with various types of music festivals in 2005. He was born one hundred
years ago into a musical family in Lagos, Nigeria. Although Sowande belongs to
the second generation of Nigerian composers, he can be regarded as the father
of modern African art music. The first generation of Nigerian composers comprised
mainly church musicians who wrote mostly hymns and choral pieces for worship.
It was Sowande who expanded Nigerian art music from the church arena to public
concert auditorium. He introduced art songs for voice and piano, sacred and
secular choral pieces as well as orchestra works to the repertoire of Nigerian
modern art music.

Sowande is also the father of the 'Nigerian organ school' because he
propelled the musical genre to an unprecedented height through his extensive
compositions and publications for the organ. There has never been any Nigerian
composer who has written such a significant body of organ works as Sowande. His
compositions for organ outnumbered his works for other genres. Today, Sowande
is the most celebrated Nigerian musician of international repute with his
career covering areas of music education, composition, performance, research,
broadcasting, as well as traditional religious practices.

Compositions

Fela Sowande composed for almost all the music media: voices and piano/organ
accompaniment, organ, and orchestra. He wrote three major works for orchestra:
Four Sketches for full orchestra (1953), African
Suite for string orchestra (1955), and the Folk
Symphony for full orchestra (1960). The
three works utilize Western conventional harmony, tonality, form, and
instrumentation. Elements of African traditional music in these pieces are
limited to the use of indigenous folksongs, ostinati, and selected Yoruba
rhythmic patterns. The Folk Symphony
is based on Yoruba melodies from Nigeria, while the African Suite is based on
melodies from both Nigeria and Ghana.

Sowande wrote several choral pieces of which the most popular in Nigeria are
Oh Render Thanks for SATB and organ,
Roll De Ol’ Chariot for SATBB and piano, Wheel,
Oh Wheel 
style='font-style:normal'>for SATB, and The Wedding Song
style='font-style:normal'> for SSA and piano. Oh Render Thanks
style='font-style:normal'>is a hymn anthem whose texts are derived from hymns
552 and 554 of the British Hymnal Companion. Sowande composed an original
melody for the combined five verses, which are clearly separated with organ
interludes. The first and the last verses are in full unison, while the second
and fourth verses are in four-part harmony. Verse three is a duet for double
tenor and double bass voices. Roll De Ol’ Chariot
style='font-style:normal'>and Wheel, Oh Wheel
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  are
both based on African-American spirituals. Wheel, Oh Wheel
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  is
a cappella and characterized by highly syncopated rhythms. The Wedding Song is
written for two sopranos, alto and piano accompaniment. The melody is borrowed
from a popular Yoruba wedding song with syncopated rhythms. The piano part
supplies a dance rhythm accompaniment to the vocal line. Structurally, the song
is divided into two parts. The opening section is a solo by the bride bragging
about the good qualities of the man of her dream. The second section is a
chorus for three vocal parts (SSA) in which the friends of the bride sing a
song of joy, adoration, and encouragement on her wedding day. Sowande's choral
works are generally characterized by vibrant lively tempos.

Sowande composed seventeen major works for organ. These pieces may be
broadly divided into three main categories for functional purposes in the
church: liturgical pieces, preludes and postludes, and concert pieces. Some of
these works could be placed in more than one group due to their stylistic
characteristics. Fantasia in D, Festival March, Plainsong
style='font-style:normal'>, and Choral Preludes on Yoruba Sacred
Melodies are not included in this
classification because the scores were not available to me at the time of
writing this essay.

Liturgical Pieces

There are nine organ works that are suitable for divine services, either for
the offertory, communion or any meditative aspect of worship. The contemplative
elements in these pieces include slow tempo, short duration, and simplicity.
The thematic materials of these works are mainly borrowed indigenous hymn tunes
from Nigeria and African-American spirituals; this aspect makes them more
appropriate for playing within worship.

The pieces are:

1. K'a Mura. London: Chappell, 1945.

2. Pastourelle. London: Chappell, 1952.

3. Yoruba Lament. London: Chappell, 1955.

4. Kyrie. London: Chappell, 1955.

5. K'a Mo Rokoso (unpublished score).

6. Supplication (unpublished score from Sacred Idioms of the Negro
style='font-style:normal'>).

7. Via Dolorosa (unpublished score from Sacred Idioms of the Negro
style='font-style:normal'>).

8. Bury Me Eas' or Wes' (unpublished score from Sacred Idioms of the
Negro).

9. Vesper (unpublished score from Sacred Idioms of the Negro
style='font-style:normal'>).

Preludes and Postludes

Six pieces fall within this category and are generally characterized by
moderate or lively tempos, and are of moderate difficulty. These pieces are
loud, moderate in length, sectional, and are mostly based on sacred themes from
the Yoruba church hymns and folksongs, as well as African-American spirituals.
They include:

1. Yoruba Lament. London: Chappell, 1955.

2. Joshua Fit De Battle of Jericho. London: Chappell, 1955.

3. Obangiji. London: Chappell, 1955.

4. Prayer (Oba A Ba Ke). New York: Ricordi, 1958.

5. Supplication (unpublished score from Sacred Idioms of the Negro
style='font-style:normal'>).

6. Jubilate (unpublished score from Sacred Idioms of the Negro
style='font-style:normal'>).

Concert Pieces

Sowande wrote most of his organ works for concert performances. Ten pieces
are in this category. These pieces are vividly distinct from others because of
the high level of difficulty, and they are virtuosic, showing the technical
ability of the performer. These are large multi-sectional works, loud and
lively. The thematic materials are derived from Nigerian folksongs,
African-American spirituals and also hymn tunes composed by local organists and
choirmasters. Some compositional forms include fugue, three-part form, and
theme and variations. The titles are listed below:

1. Jesu Olugbala. London: Novello, 1955.

2. Kyrie. London: Chappell, 1955.

3. Joshua Fit De Battle of Jericho. London: Chappell, 1955.

4. Obangiji. London: Chappell, 1955.

5. Go Down Moses. London: Chappell, 1955.

6. Oyigiyigi: Introduction, Theme and Variations. New York: Ricordi, 1958.

7. Gloria. New York: Ricordi, 1958.

8. Prayer (Oba A Ba Ke). New York: Ricordi, 1958.

9. Laudamus Te (unpublished score from Sacred Idioms of the Negro
style='font-style:normal'>).

10. Jubilate (unpublished score from Sacred Idioms of the Negro
style='font-style:normal'>). 

Yoruba Culture

Fela Sowande belongs to the Yoruba ethnic group of southwest Nigeria;
therefore, it should not be surprising to see elements of Yoruba music permeate
his compositions. Most of Sowande's works are based on melodies borrowed either
from Yoruba indigenous Christian songs or Yoruba folksongs. Some of the songs
are quoted verbatim, while others are slightly modified or varied. In any case,
his Yoruba audience in Nigeria has always been able to identify and relate to
the borrowed songs during concert performances. Indigenous rhythms featured in
Sowande's music are either ostinati or selected Yoruba rhythmic patterns such
as the popular konkonkolo rhythm (also
known as the West African time line) as exemplified in Laudamus Te
style='font-style:normal'> (from Sacred Idioms of the Negro
style='font-style:normal'> for organ). Most of the melodies employed in
Sowande's music are based on the five-note pentatonic scale commonly found in
Yoruba traditional songs.

The titles given to Sowande's compositions express symbolic and imaginary
ideas. The titles of his music have been influenced by the titles of the Yoruba
folksongs and indigenous hymn tunes employed in creating the music. His
experience in Yoruba folklore and mythology enhanced the shaping of the form
and character of the pieces. For instance, Obangiji, the title of one of his
organ works, is festive music meant to praise God the Almighty. Both the title
of the organ work and the original melody convey the same message--singing the
praise of God. Hence, the title informed the nature and character of the music.
In Via Dolorosa, from Sacred Idioms of the Negro, the composer paints the picture of the suffering and death of Christ
on Good Friday. The piece is based on a Yoruba Christian hymn normally sung on
Good Friday services at Yoruba churches in Nigeria. Sowande captures the
painful death of Christ with the expression mark at the beginning of the piece,
Lento con dolore, and the use of excessive chromatic passages on the manuals
and pedals.

Interculturalism

Three cultural groups played a major role in the life and music of Fela
Sowande: [1] the African/Yoruba cultural heritage from Nigeria, [2] European,
and [3] African-American cultures. Sowande was nurtured and brought up in these
cultures. He began his musical training in Nigeria as a choir boy and organist
apprentice at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos, under the tutelage of
Thomas Ekundayo Phillips, and later went on to Great Britain to study music. He
was more of a university professor, performer and researcher in the United
States of America, where he spent the last thirty years of his life. Moreover,
Sowande was raised in a bicultural environment in Nigeria, where the Yoruba
traditional culture and English cultural values coexisted. Therefore, it should
not be surprising to witness the influence of indigenous African and foreign
cultures on Sowande's music.

It is interesting to observe that Sowande gives bilingual titles to some of
his compositions in English and Yoruba languages. For instance, Prayer (Oba
A Ba Ke) and Oyigiyigi:
Introduction, Theme and Variations on a Yoruba Folk Theme
style='font-style:normal'> for organ are representative of works in this
category. For those pieces based on Yoruba songs, Sowande often writes out the
Yoruba text of the song with its English translation in the composer's notes to
the music. In these compositions, we see the interactions of two major
languages. Another source of interculturalism in Sowande's music is the idea of
borrowing preexisting melodies from Yoruba culture in Nigeria, from Ghanaian
music, and from African-American spirituals. Melodies from Nigeria are present
in all his compositional genres, while a Ghanaian song is incorporated into his
African Suite. African-American
spirituals are employed mainly in his solo art songs, choral pieces and organ
works. Elements of Western classical music are vividly manifest in his choice
of tonality, 19th-century chromaticism, form, and instrumentation.

Nationalism

The wave of nationalism or cultural renaissance in Nigeria began in the mid
1940s and lasted until the independence of the nation from colonial governance
in 1960. This was a period in which the Nigerian elite united to revive the
traditional values and culture of Nigeria over the European imperialism that
was prevalent at the time. Indigenous playwrights, poets, dramatists, theater
artists, sculptors, fine artists, as well as musicians all embarked on a
massive campaign and incorporation of materials from their indigenous culture
into their works.

Hubert Ogunde, popularly known as the father of Nigerian 'Contemporary
Yoruba Theatre' wrote several operas and plays based on Nigerian legends,
myths, politics, socio/cultural life, dances, rituals, festivals, and
traditional musical styles. It is of interest to note that Fela Sowande started
composing major musical works around this period even though he did not return
to Nigeria until the early 1950s. Sowande's contribution to the Nationalist
Movement could be observed in his use of Yoruba traditional songs (either
sacred or secular), rhythms, and the titles given to his music. He was
commissioned by the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation to compose the Folk
Symphony for the 1960 Independence Day
Anniversary, although it was not accepted for performance. The work was later
premiered by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in 1962. This
was also the period in which Sowande embarked on intensive research on Nigerian
traditional music as well as Yoruba folklore for the purpose of dissemination
through the radio system, documentation in books and archives for further use,
and as source materials for his compositions. He used the resulting materials
from his field research to enlighten the Nigerian populace about their own
culture that was being aggressively eroded by Western traditions and values.

Music Scholarship

Fela Sowande contributed immensely to the field of music scholarship through
several documented presentations at international conferences and academic
institutions about Yoruba folklore, Odu Ifa (Ifa divination), the theory and
practice of African music in general, music education in Nigeria, modern
African art music and its composers, as well as the Africanization of Black
Studies in the United States of America. For instance, Sowande presented a
paper, "Nigerian Traditional Music," at the University of Ibadan in
1962. In 1963, he presented a lecture titled, "The Teaching of Music in
Nigerian Schools," at the meeting of the Association of Church Musicians
at Methodist Boys' High School, Lagos. On May 5, 1965, Sowande delivered
another lecture, "The Development of a National Tradition of Music,"
at a seminar under the auspices of the Department of Music, University of
Nigeria, Nsukka. Five years after his erudite presentation at Nsukka, Sowande
read a paper titled, "The Role of Music in Traditional African
Society," at an international conference sponsored by UNESCO in Yaounde,
Cameroon, in February 1970. Sowande wrote and published short essays in
Composer, Africa, World of Music, and African American Affairs. Some of his
unpublished manuscripts include Oruko A Mu T'Orun Wa, The Yoruba Talking
Drum, Children of the Gods among the Yorubas, The Mind of a Nation: The Yoruba
Child, Aspects of Nigerian Music, The African Child in Nigeria,
style='font-style:normal'>and Black Folklore
style='font-style:normal'>.

Fela Sowande is highly respected by the entire caucus of art musicians in
Nigeria. Hardly any professionally trained musician from Nigeria can write or
talk about art music from that part of the world without giving due credit and
respect to Sowande, either by quoting from his literary writings or his
compositions. He laid a solid foundation for modern African art music upon
which subsequent generations are now building. Although in the third
generation, Ayo Bankole (1935-1976) deviated from the traditional conventions
and nationalistic campaign of Sowande, he certainly relied on Sowande's works
as a guide to set him on the right track. Bankole uses mostly 20th-century compositional
devices and tonalities such as 12-tone method and atonality in his organ
works. 

In the fourth generation, I came onto the scene of the 'Nigerian organ
school' to turn the clock back to Sowande's model. Before I started composing
for solo organ, I invested a considerable amount of time studying Fela
Sowande's organ works in order to develop my own personal style. All my
published compositions for organ (Wayne Leupold Editions unless noted
otherwise)--Nigerian Suite No. 1 for Organ Solo, Nigerian Suite No. 2 for
Organ Solo, Impressions from an African Moonlight, Twenty-Five Preludes on
Yoruba Church Hymns--as well as
The Misfortune of a Wise Tortoise for Organ and Narrator
style='font-style:normal'>and Jesu Oba for Trumpet and Organ
style='font-style:normal'> (Florida: Wehr's Music House, 2005), were all
influenced by Sowande's organ works.

Sowande's centenary is widely celebrated all around the world, in the United
States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Nigeria. The Grand
Festival took place in June 2005, in Lagos, Nigeria, where Fela Sowande was
born one hundred years ago. The festival featured presentations of scholarly
papers on the life, contributions, and music of the foremost Nigerian composer
as well as performances of his compositions.

Godwin Sadoh

Godwin Sadoh is a Nigerian organist-composer, pianist, choral conductor, African ethnomusicologist, and scholar. He is presently professor of music and LEADS Scholar at the National Universities Commission, Abuja, Nigeria.

The arrival of the Christian faith in Nigeria in the mid-nineteenth century dramatically changed the musical landscape in the West African nation through the exploits of the missionaries from Europe and southern United States, as well as the imperial colonial administration from England. The church teachings, curriculum of the mission schools, and the colonial policies exposed the new Nigerian converts to Western classical music repertoire and musical instruments such as the harmonium, piano, and organ. In this thriving musical culture and environment, Nigerian composers began writing compositions of their own from around 1910. Many of their compositions at this time were fashioned after the European baroque and classical styles. However, from the 1960s, Nigerian composers began experimenting with new techniques in their works, such as atonality and twelve-tone rows. The then young composers, fired up by the new twentieth-century compositional devices they had acquired at schools of music in London and the United States, partially abandoned the tonal system of the preceding era. This essay is specially written to commemorate the eightieth birthday of one of Nigeria’s most prolific organist-composers, Ayo Bankole. 

 

A short biography

Ayo Bankole was born on May 17, 1935, at Jos, in Plateau State of Nigeria. Bankole spent the first five years of his life with his father, the late Theophilus Abiodun Bankole, who was the organist and choirmaster at St. Luke’s Anglican Church, Jos, at the time. His mother was also an active musician. She was a music instructor for several years at Queen’s School, Ede, Osun State, a Federal Government high school. Bankole’s father noticed the gift of music in his son at an early age; hence, in 1941 he moved the young Bankole to live with his grandfather, Akinje George, in Lagos; George was then organist and choirmaster at the First Baptist Church, Lagos. Bankole received his first lessons in piano and harmonium from his grandfather, who introduced him to various types of musical styles, and, from the time the boy was seven, would often ask Bankole to play for his friends, thereby showing off the innate genius of his grandson.

While in Lagos, Bankole’s father encouraged his son to join the renowned Cathedral Church of Christ Choir, Lagos, as a boy soprano and private organ pupil of Thomas Ekundayo Phillips (1884–1969), who was then organist and master of the music at the cathedral. At this time, Ayo Bankole’s father had moved from Jos to Lagos, and was now organist and choirmaster at St. Peter’s Anglican Church, Faji, Lagos, a walking distance from the cathedral church. It is not surprising that his father enrolled the young Bankole at the Cathedral Choir and not at the church where he worked. The Cathedral Church of Christ Choir was a model for all churches in Nigeria, and it was the most prestigious church choir at the time. The Cathedral Choir boys were highly talented children who came from musical, upper-middle-class homes and affluent families that were the cream of the Nigerian high-class society. Ekundayo Phillips was the most advanced and the only professionally trained organist and church musician at the time in Nigeria. The Cathedral Choir was the best environment for a talent such as Ayo Bankole to have the right exposure to nurture and develop his musical gifts.

At the age of ten in 1945, Bankole enrolled at the Baptist Academy, Lagos, which was one of the leading high schools in the state. He became more active as a musician at his high school by becoming the pianist and organist of the school. It was at this school that Bankole began to show interest in choral conducting by organizing small groups to perform at special events. Within the span of five years at the Baptist Academy, Bankole participated in several music competitions and concerts organized by the Nigerian Festival of the Arts. This festival was unique because it was one of the few avenues for budding talents in music to earn national recognition. Most of the professionally trained Nigerian musicians participated in this festival at some point during their formative years.

After graduating from the Baptist Academy, Bankole was appointed as a clerical officer at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation in 1954. During this period, he came in contact with notable musicians such as Christopher Oyesiku, who became a colleague and close friend to whom Bankole dedicated several solo songs; Thomas Ekundayo Phillips; Tom Chalmers, the first Director General of the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation; Arthur Langford; Leslie Perron, Controller of Music at N. B. C.; and Fela Sowande. Bankole had great admiration for Sowande and was able to receive advanced lessons in organ playing from him. Between 1954 and 1957, Bankole was already very active as organist in Lagos churches. For instance, he was assistant organist at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos, under the leadership of Ekundayo Phillips. It was about 1957 that Bankole began composing his first major works, Ya Orule and Nigerian Suite, both for piano solo.

In August 1957, Bankole left Lagos on a Federal Government scholarship to study music at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. On his arrival at Guildhall, he was appointed to the position of organist and choirmaster at St. James-the-Less. Bankole remained in this position until his graduation in 1961. At Guildhall, he studied piano, composition, organ, harmony, and counterpoint. Some of his teachers included Alan Brown (organ), Harold Dexter (organ), and Guy Eldridge (composition). During his time at Guildhall School of Music, Bankole was exposed to a variety of musical styles from diverse European epochs. His works from this period show the influence of the various contemporary European composers he was studying at the time. He experimented with twentieth-century compositional devices as exemplified in his Three Yoruba Songs for voice and piano (1959) and the Toccata and Fugue for organ (1960). This period marked the genesis of Bankole’s creative career that was to lead to a very personal style of intercultural composition—the synthesis of Nigerian and Western idioms. The works in this period include Sonata No. 1 (Christmas) for piano; Cantata No. 1 (Baba Se Wa Lomo Rere [Father, Make Us Good Children]) (1959); several part songs for female chorus; Sonata No. 2—The Passion, for piano (1959); and Variations, op. 10, no. 1 (1959), based on a Yoruba Christian tune, Ohun a f’Owo Se (also known as Ise Oluwa).

In spite of the hectic program at Guildhall, Bankole found time to sit for external examinations and obtained a series of professional diplomas and certifications such as Associate of the Royal College of Music (piano), Licentiate of the Trinity College of Music (piano), Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music (Teacher’s Diploma), Associate of the Royal College of Organists, and Graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (GGSM). After four years of study at Guildhall School of Music, Bankole proceeded to Clare College, University of Cambridge, London, where he obtained his first degree, the Bachelor of Arts in Music, in 1964. As was the practice at Cambridge, a Bachelor of Arts degree (Cantab) automatically becomes a Master of Arts (Cantab) three years after graduation. On July 15, 1964, while at Cambridge as an organ scholar, Bankole sat for the external examination and obtained the prestigious Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO), thus becoming the second and the last Nigerian to receive the British highest diploma in organ playing. Fela Sowande was the first Nigerian and indeed, the first African to earn the FRCO diploma in 1943. During Bankole’s stay in England, he wrote music that he himself could perform. A tremendous amount of music was composed for piano and organ since he was a pianist and organist himself. He also wrote some choral and orchestral works that are technically oriented towards European audiences and performers. The works from this period include Sonata No. 4 (English Winter Birds) for piano, Variations Liturgical (Theme and Nine Variations) for piano, Three Toccatas for organ, Fugal Dance for piano, Organ Symphonia No. 2 for organ, drums, trumpet, and trombone, and a number of choral works such as Art Thou Come (1964), Little Jesus (1964), Canon for Christmas (1964), and Four Yoruba Songs (1964).

After the completion of his bachelor’s degree at Cambridge in 1964, Bankole received a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship to study ethnomusicology at the University of California, Los Angeles. At UCLA, Bankole’s composition teacher was Roy Travis, who was then America’s foremost composer experimenting with African music resources in his creative works. Bankole developed a keen interest in the music from other cultures. His training at UCLA enabled him to evolve a personal style that was founded on African traditional music principles. He went further by composing intercultural works that use non-African resources, such as his Ethnophony. This work is a summation of Bankole’s experience in ethnomusicology and an archetype of the conjoining of creative principles with ethnomusicological procedures.

Ayo Bankole returned to Nigeria in 1966 and was appointed to the position of Senior Producer in Music at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (now Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria), Lagos. He remained in this position until 1969, when he accepted the position of lecturer in music at the Department of Music, University of Lagos, where he continued his research into Nigerian indigenous music. While at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Bankole pioneered what would later become a common trend among Nigerian professional musicians, that is, the art of embracing all arms of music discipline. Consequently, at UNILAG, Bankole was a music educator, composer, performer, and ethnomusicologist. He was constantly involved in training and encouraged budding serious musicians by giving them private lessons in singing and piano playing. It was also during this time that Bankole intensified his interest in organizing and training independent choral groups. He wrote extensively for these groups and also exposed them to European classical music. Prominent among the choral groups he founded were the Choir of Angels, comprising students from three major high schools in Lagos (Reagan Memorial, Lagos Anglican Girls Grammar School, and the Methodist Girls High School); the Lagos University Musical Society; the Nigerian National Musico-Cultural Society; and the Chapel of the Healing Cross Choir, all situated in Lagos. 

Although Bankole contributed immensely to the development of modern music in Nigeria, he was not able to live long enough to witness and reap the fruit of his labor. In the early hours of November 6, 1976, at the tender age of forty-one, Ayo Bankole and his wife, Toro Bankole, were both brutally murdered by his half brother while sleeping in their own home. Although Bankole is no longer alive, he is still greatly admired by Nigerian musicians for his outstanding contributions to the study of modern Nigerian music as a composer, music educator, ethnomusicologist, organist, pianist, and choral conductor. Bankole was an extremely gifted man who was not able to develop his gifts to full potential.

Wherever modern Nigerian art music is mentioned, verbally or in writing, the name of Ayo Bankole always stands out prominently. Scholarly articles, theses, and books have been written and published about him. His compositions are neatly catalogued in several archival centers around the world, including Iwalewa-Haus, University of Bayreuth, Germany; Center for Intercultural Music Arts (CIMA), London; and the Center for Black Music Research, Chicago, Illinois. To immortalize his name at home in Nigeria, his son, Ayo Bankole, Jr., built a world-class arena in his honor, the Ayo Bankole Music Center for Arts and Cultural Expression (ABC), in Lagos. The center was established primarily as an arts center with the aim of promoting music in particular and the arts in general and to be a vehicle for influencing youths and society positively. The ABC accordingly aims to promote the various aspects of musical endeavor that the late Ayo Bankole excelled in during his lifetime. It is a multi-purpose hall with the necessary infrastructure to make it suitable for a range of performances, workshops, and exhibitions. The ABC runs a mid-week jazz event on Wednesdays. Every Friday the ABC stages a cabaret gig that involves singing different genres of music. Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays are karaoke days. The last Sunday of each month, the ABC hosts a concert termed “Jazz and Old School with Ayo Bankole and Friends,” where several bands and solo acts (singers, comedians, etc.) are featured. The ABC intends in the near future to introduce a highlife night and also a monthly dramatic production.

 

Three Toccatas

We cannot close an essay about this organist-composer without discussing one of his most mature works for the King of all Western instruments. The Three Toccatas for organ were composed between 1962 and 1964 while Bankole was at the University of Cambridge—a period that marked the second phase of his experimental stage, with works influenced by early twentieth-century compositional procedures as exemplified in these toccatas. These three pieces are infused with various twentieth-century devices that the composer was exposed to while studying in England. It is quite apparent that he was writing these pieces particularly for European virtuoso organists and audiences, but definitely not for African performers. In the 1960s, the only Nigerian organist who would have been able to tackle Bankole’s toccatas was Fela Sowande. Incidentally, Sowande had already immigrated to the United States by the late 1960s, and he was more focused on research, teaching, and musicology at this stage of his career. To date, the author is aware of only two American organists—the late Eugene Wilson Hancock (1929–1994) and Mickey Thomas Terry—who have played through or performed Toccata III in the United States. In fact, Hancock recorded Toccata III on a special audio cassette, captioned A Sampling of Organ Music by Black Composers, produced by the Committee on Educational Resources of the American Guild of Organists in 1992. 

Toccata I is a tonal work in G major and is in three-part form. The first section (measures 1–26) is characterized by fast-moving eighth notes in the right hand, while the left hand and pedal supply the harmonic framework. (See Example 1.) The piece is based on a theme by Bankole’s father and it is in the right hand of the first section (measures 15–18). The homophonic middle section (measures 27–39) comprises a continuous tremolo highlighting open thirds and fourths in the right hand with chordal accompaniment in the left hand. The final section (measures 39–72) is a restatement of the first section with rapid eighth notes, the theme harmonized in the right hand, and pedal ostinato. The piece is generally characterized by chromatic passages, ostinato on the manual and pedal, repetition, and bitonality. 

The second toccata is not as exciting as the first. It is more pianistic and may work better on piano than on organ. (See Example 2.) The most prominent pianistic features in the piece are the excessive use of Alberti bass and arpeggios that pervade the entire piece on the manuals. The second toccata is also based on an original theme by Bankole’s father. It is a sectional work in which the first two phrases of the principal theme are in the pedal (measures 2–17). The concluding two phrases of the theme are placed in the left hand on the manual (measures 32–35). Following this is a brief section in which the composer plays with the third phrase of the theme in both the right hand and the left hand (measures 40–53). A fairly long homophonic section (measures 54–86) on the manuals precedes the final section (measures 87–105), where the pedal returns triumphantly playing a tuneful, mostly pentatonic melody. The piece closes with this melody in the pedal and polytonal chords on the manuals. 

Toccata III is slightly longer than the second. It is interesting to note the increase in length among these three pieces: Toccata I is 72 measures long, Toccata II is 105 measures, and Toccata III is 135 measures. Bankole elongates each toccata by about thirty measures as he writes them. Toccata III is the only one conceived in pure atonality even though it closes with a B chord in the last two measures. Structurally, it is in three-part form with a short fanfare and Adagio as introduction (measures 1–18). The first A section is atonal but closes with a fairly long chromatic chord passage (measures 19–48). The middle B section (measures 49–112) is characterized by frequent meter changes that eventually culminate in rapidly moving arpeggios and scale passages (measures 99–110). The piece finally finds repose with the return of the opening A section from measures 116 to 135. It closes with a bravura section of massive chromatic chords in the manuals (see Example 3). Other interesting features in Toccata I–III are the pedal points and the ostinato patterns.

 

Conclusion

Ayo Bankole’s musical odyssey exemplifies typical experiences of modern Nigerian-trained musicians defined by three cultural phenomena: Nigerian/African, European, and American. His musical language and style are vividly influenced by the incorporation of resources from the triune cultures, a co-existence of the old and the new in one pot. Bankole’s religious background and convictions in the Christian faith significantly influenced his creative output. Many of his instrumental and vocal compositions are sacred. 

As a prolific composer, Ayo Bankole contributed extensively to modern art music in Nigeria through his vocal and instrumental works. He represents the forerunners of avant-garde composition in the country through the use of diverse twentieth-century tonal schemes and creative techniques. Bankole is also well respected among Nigerian musicologists as a scholar for his research and documentation of Nigerian music. Even though he departed this world almost four decades ago, his music lives on after his death as a doyen of modern Nigerian art music.

 

Ayo Bankole’s compositions

Most of Bankole’s works are unpublished, since in his day, there was not a single publishing firm in Nigeria to put his works into print, and black composers had serious problems at that time publishing their compositions in Europe and the United States. (Most of the works of other composers of Bankole’s generation—such as Akin Euba, Samuel Akpabot, Lazarus Ekwueme, Meki Nzewi, and Joshua Uzoigwe—are also unpublished.)

All works listed here are unpublished except as noted.

 

Organ Works

Organ Symphonia Nos. 1 and 2, for organ, drums, trumpet, and trombone (1961–64)

Fantasia for organ (1961–64) 

Three Toccatas for organ (1962–64) 

Fugue for organ (1967) 

Toccata and Fugue for Organ (Ile-Ife: University of Ife Press, 1978)

 

Solo Art Songs

The Lord is My Shepherd, for female voice and organ (1959) 

Ten Yoruba Songs, for voice and piano (1959–66) 

Adura fun Alafia (Prayer for Peace), for voice and piano (1969) 

Three Songs for Diana, for voice and piano (1971–72) 

Three Yoruba Songs for Baritone and Piano (Ile-Ife: University of Ife Press, 1977).

 

Christmas Works

Kristi, Ma Wole (Christ, We Greet You), for voice and piano (1958) 

Christmas Comes But Once a Year (1959)

Ni Owuro Ojo Keresimesi (Christmas Day) for voice and piano (1959) 

Keresimesi Odun De (Christmas is Here), for voice and piano (1960)

And Art Thou Come, for voice and piano (1964) 

Little Jesus, Gentle Jesus, for voice and piano (1964) 

Canon for Christmas, Eyo, Eyo, Odun De O (Rejoice, Rejoice, Christmas is Here), for chorus and piano (1964) 

Salzburg Carol, for eight-part chorus and piano (1964) 

 

Choral Works

Cantata No. 1 in Yoruba, Baba Se Wa l’Omo Rere (Father Make Us Good Children), for female chorus and chamber orchestra (1958) 

Requiem, for chorus and organ (1961) 

The Children of the Sun (1961) 

Choral Fugue (1962) 

Cantata No. 3 in Yoruba, Jona, for soprano solo, speaker in English, drum, piano, tambura, and orchestra
(1964) 

Eru O B’Omo Aje (A Child of a Witch is Fearless) 1964 

Be Prepared, for female chorus (Girl Guide’s Jubilee Song), 1966 

Ore-Ofe Jesu Kristi (The Grace of Jesus Christ), for unaccompanied chorus (1967)

Salve Christe (1968)

Opera: Night of Miracles, for chorus, soloists, and orchestra, including Nigerian traditional instruments (1969)

Cantata: Ona Ara, for full chorus, soloists, organ, and Yoruba musical instruments (1970) 

Fun Mi N’Ibeji Part I and II, for unaccompanied chorus (1970) 

Death Be No More: A Dramatic Cantata on a Poem by Cosmo Pieterse, for soprano soloist, chorus, and ethnophonic instruments (1972) 

Love Everlasting (1972) 

Mighty Africa Games (1973) 

Cantata No. 4: FESTAC, for soloists, chorus and orchestra of Western and traditional Nigerian instruments (1974) 

Lullaby (1966)

God Rest You Merry (1966) 

Angels from the Realms (1966) 

Keresimesi Tun Ma De O (Christmas Is Here Again), for chorus and piano (1968) 

Christus Natus, for chorus and piano (1968) 

Grand Little One (Words by Meki Nzewi) 

Three-Part Songs for Female Choir (Ile-Ife: University of Ife Press, 1975)

Gbogbo Aiye, Eyo, E Ho (Let All the World, Rejoice and Shout) 

 

References

Alaja-Browne, Afolabi. “Ayo Bankole: His Life and Work.” M.A. thesis, University of Pittsburgh, 1981, pp. 15–28.

__________. “A History of Intercultural Music in Nigeria.” In Intercultural Music vol. 1, eds. Cynthia Tse Kimberlin and Akin Euba. Bayreuth African Studies Series, No. 29, 1995.

Floyd, Jr., Samuel. International Dictionary of Black Composers. Chicago, Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1999.

Nketia, Kwabena. “Developing Contemporary Idioms Out of Traditional Music.” Studia Musicologica Hungaricae 24 (1982): 81–96.

Omibiyi-Obidike, Mosunmola. “The Process of Education and the Search for Identity in Contemporary African Music.” In African Musicology: Current Trends, vol. 2, eds. Jacqueline Codgell DjeDje and William Carter. Atlanta, GA: Crossroads Press, 1989.

Sadoh, Godwin. “A Profile of Nigerian Organist-Composers.” The Diapason Vol. 94, No. 8 (August 2003): 20–23.

__________. “Hybrid Composition: An Introduction to the Age of Atonality in Nigeria.” The Diapason Vol. 97, No. 11 (November 2006): 22–25.

__________. “Twentieth Century Nigerian Composers.” Choral Journal 47, No. 10 (April 2007): 33–39.

__________. Intercultural Dimensions in Ayo Bankole’s Music. New York: iUniverse, 2007.

__________. “Ayo Bankole’s FESTAC Cantata: A Paradigm for Intercultural Composition.” The Diapason, Vol. 102, No. 7 (July 2011): 25–27.

Southern, Eileen. Biographical Dictionary of Afro-American and African Musicians. London: Greenwood Press, 1982.

Uzoigwe, Joshua. “Nigerian Composers and Their Works.” Daily Times, August 25 and September 1, 1990.

 

Other articles of interest:

 

A history of organs of the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos, Nigeria

 

The centennial of the Cathedral Church of Christ Choir, Lagos, Nigeria

 

Ayo Bankole

 

Godwin Sadoh

Godwin Sadoh is a Nigerian organist-composer, pianist, choral conductor, and ethnomusicologist. His latest book, Intercultural Dimensions in Ayo Bankole’s Music, will be published by Wayne Leupold Editions. Sadoh is presently Assistant Professor of Music and Coordinator of the Sacred Music program at LeMoyne-Owen College, Memphis, Tennessee.

Musical practice in 21st-century Nigeria can be broadly divided into four major genres: 1) traditional music, 2) popular dance music, 3) church music, and 4) modern African art music. Traditional music can be traced back to the historical roots of the society. It is the music that defines and identifies the people of Nigeria and their culture. The whole gamut of Nigerian culture is embedded in the traditional music, be it cultural, social, political, or religious, historiography, as well as world-view. The music permeates every aspect of Nigerian life. However, the middle of the 19th century witnessed events that transformed the entire cultural landscape of Nigeria. These events were manifested in the form of political governance through the British colonial administration, and through the efforts of Christian missionaries from America and England.
These two domineering forces introduced Western classical music to the main stream of Nigerian socio/cultural life around 1840s.1 Through the colonial and mission schools, as well as churches established by the missionaries, talented Nigerians were introduced to Western music notation, European songs, and musical instruments. It was at these institutions that Nigerians first learned to sing Western songs such as nursery rhymes, folk songs and selected excerpts from major classical works such as Handel’s Messiah and Mendelssohn’s Elijah. In addition, talented Nigerians received private lessons in piano, harmonium, and organ at these schools and churches. All these endeavors consequently led to the emergence of art music composers in Nigeria.

The Golden Age of Church Music (1900–1950)

The first generation of Nigerian composers comprised mainly church organists and choirmasters. They concentrated on writing sacred music for worship in the newly founded churches. Compositions include church hymns, canticles (responsorial prayer songs for soloist and congregation),2 chants for singing Psalms, choral anthems, and cantatas. Their works represent the first attempts by indigenous Nigerians in writing Western classical music. Hence, most of these compositions are very simple, short, and tonal. The harmonization is severely functional following baroque and classical conventions. The music was written for Western musical instruments such as piano, harmonium or organ, and the form, harmony, and style follow European standards.
Nigerian traditional musical instruments were not incorporated into these compositions during this era because they were blatantly prohibited from being used for worship by the early foreign missionaries. In other words, the only instruments that early Nigerian composers could write for were European. However, 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 experiment of conjoining Western elements with traditional African music actually began in the early church. This took the form of employing indigenous languages for texts and using indigenous songs as melodic themes for 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), Okechukwu Ndubuisi, and Thomas Ekundayo Phillips (Organist and Master of the Music, Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos, 1914–1962). Thomas Ekundayo Phillips was the first Nigerian to receive professional training in music at Trinity College of Music, London, from 1911 to 1914.

The Age of Concert Music (1950–1960)

This era was represented by the most celebrated Nigerian musician, Fela Sowande (1905–1987). Sowande continued to compose sacred music for divine services in the church, yet he transformed art music in Nigeria from a sacred entity and elevated it to the concert platform in public auditoriums, institutions of higher learning, and radio stations. He introduced solo art songs with piano or organ accompaniment, organ solo pieces, chamber music, and orchestral works to the Nigerian art music repertoire. Although Thomas Ekundayo Phillips wrote two 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.
Prior to this era, musical activities were confined to the churches during festive occasions such as Christmas and Easter seasons. With the introduction of vocal solos, chamber music and orchestral works, the venue of musical activities shifted from the church to public auditoriums where secular works could be performed without any inhibitions. In terms of tonality, Sowande introduced chromaticism into the musical vocabulary of Nigerian compositions. He refused to align himself with the atonal school of composers, then in vogue in Europe and America. He chose to move his Nigerian audience gradually from the tonal convention of the baroque/classical era to romantic chromaticism. Sowande must have felt that jumping from the traditional tonal system to atonality would have been too wide a leap and too radical for the Nigerian audience to appreciate. Although chromatic passages are prevalent in his organ works, Sowande left the idea of atonality for the next generation of Nigerian composers.
The second generation of Nigerian musical experience also ushered in a new form of musical integration known as pan-Africanism. Sowande, unlike his predecessors, went beyond employing Nigerian folk songs in his works; rather, he included popular tunes from other African countries into his compositions. Hence, one would hear indigenous songs from Nigeria and other African societies in his works. For instance, he borrowed a Ghanaian folk song in his African Suite for String Orchestra.3 In addition, this era introduced the concept of global interculturalism into Nigerian music language. We must give credit to Sowande for being the first Nigerian composer to go so far as to borrow spiritual tunes from the African-American culture. He uses spirituals in his solo art songs and choral anthems, as well as organ pieces.

The Age of Atonality (1960 to present)

The third generation of modern Nigerian composers consists of highly talented musicians, both composers and scholars, who received intensive training in the European tradition in several British Royal Schools of Music, as well as training in ethnomusicology in American universities. Thus, it would be correct to refer to these musicians as composer-ethnomusicologists. From the 1960s, foreign-trained Nigerian composers embarked on intensive research into the traditional music of their society to enhance a better understanding of its component materials, structure, stylistic principles, tonality, function and meaning in the society, the instrumental resources, organization of ensembles, rhythmic basis of instrumental music, organization and techniques of vocal music, melody and polyphony in vocal as well as instrumental ensemble, speech and melody, theoretical framework, and interrelatedness of music and dance. The focal point has been cultural renaissance and the search for nationalistic identity, that is, how to combine the new art music with the African roots.
It is from this period that we witness for the first time compositions involving both traditional African and Western musical instruments. Prior to this era, music notation specified only Western instruments. African instruments were not included in the scores of the early composers but rather used for supportive purposes and to create spontaneous improvised rhythmic background for vocal songs. Such instrumental rhythmic patterns were never notated until the era of the composer-ethnomusicologists. In fact, there are works from this period composed exclusively for traditional instruments such as Akin Euba’s Abiku No. 1 for Nigerian Instruments (1965). This work was composed for a dance drama, Iya Abiku, choreographed by Segun Olusola and videotaped by the Nigerian Television Authority for presentation at the International Music Center Congress on “Dance, Ballet and Pantomime in Film and Television,” in Salzburg, Austria, 1965.4 The third generation composers aim to make the music more appealing to their local audience. In other words, the Africanisms in the music are meant to captivate and draw the larger society to the works.
In terms of tonal organization, this group of Nigerian composers was tutored in the theoretical principles of the early 20th century such as the twelve-tone system, atonality, and octatonic scales. Pioneers of atonal compositions in Nigeria employed these methods in two ways. First, some of the compositions are written strictly in Western idiom following the styles of Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, and Anton Webern. Works in this category are practically European without any interjection of African traditional music. Their form, texture, instrumentation, rhythmic organization, and tonality are Western. The second category of 20th-century compositions in Nigeria incorporated some Africanisms. These compositions are partly Western and partly African. They are best described as syncretic or intercultural compositions—the amalgamation of European and African musical resources. Prominent composers of atonal music in Nigeria are Akin Euba (1935–), Ayo Bankole (1935–1976), Joshua Uzoigwe (1946–2005), and Godwin Sadoh (1965–).

Akin Euba

Akin Euba is a Yoruba composer. He studied piano performance and composition at the Trinity College of Music, London, in the 1950s. In 1966, he received a master’s degree in ethnomusicology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the University of Ghana in 1974. Most of his piano compositions were written in the 1960s. Interestingly, these piano pieces are all based on Western atonality and twelve-tone row. Examples of these works include Impressions from an Akwete Cloth (1964), Saturday Night at Caban Bamboo (1964), Tortoise and the Speaking Cloth (1964), Four Pieces from Oyo Calabashes (1964), and Scenes from Traditional Life (1970).5
Euba’s compositional technique in his piano pieces is on two levels: 1) He first creates traditional rhythmic patterns on the score, and then 2) assigns melodies, which are atonal or twelve-tone, over the rhythms. In this way, the clashing dissonances are not easily perceived by Nigerian audiences. The listeners are more immersed in the irresistible rhythms emanating from the pieces, which move them to dance and easily eradicate the contemplative aspect of the musical performance. In terms of rhythmic drive, Euba’s piano works imitate dundun drum music, one of the most popular traditional ensembles among the Yoruba of southwest Nigeria.6 Another way that Euba deploys atonality in his compositions is through the use of ostinati. His approach directly imitates the traditional African technique in which the ostinato accompaniment harmonically is not in consonance with the melodic line, but rather, the ostinato is merely supplying a melo-rhythmic accompaniment. Euba uses the atonal texture to create dissonant percussive sounds as found in traditional drumming among the Yoruba. The dissonant lines help to simulate and reinforce the indigenous sonority in the music and make the piano sound like African traditional drums.

Joshua Uzoigwe

Joshua Uzoigwe belongs to the Igbo ethnic group in Eastern Nigeria. He studied piano and composition at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London, from 1973 to 1977. He later studied ethnomusicology under John Blacking at Queen’s University, Belfast, Ireland, from 1977, and subsequently received the Ph.D. degree in 1981. Uzoigwe uses various types of pitch collections in his compositions, ranging from tetratonic, pentatonic, hexatonic, heptatonic, octatonic, diatonic scales, atonality, and the twelve-tone method. He uses these scale systems to evoke melodic and harmonic nuances of Igbo music7 in his compositions. For instance, he uses the twelve-tone row in Oja for wind quartet. Uzoigwe began to use dodecaphony while studying at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Often, he breaks the row into minute ‘cells’ and then shuffles them around to create a very interesting work. The pitch collections are organized into basic sets to create musical form through permutation, repetition, variation, and improvisation. In addition, Uzoigwe uses twelve-tone technique and atonality in a unique way by combining melo-rhythmic patterns drawn from Nigerian musical culture with specific tone colors. Meki Nzewi defines melo-rhythm, his own term, as “a rhythmic organization that is melodically conceived and melodically born.”8
Uzoigwe’s conception of the twelve-tone method differs from Arnold Schoenberg’s. Uzoigwe defines a tone row as an “ordered set of tones which is derived from an ordered set of drums and musically deployed in certain specific procedures and its basic root is in Igbo musical system.”9 Indeed, tonal organization in Uzoigwe’s music is deeply embedded in his traditional musical practice, and his works are based on its theoretical framework. This ‘cultural-tone row’10 method is exemplified in his Ritual Procession for European and African orchestra and the Talking Drum for piano. One of the movements of the Talking Drum is based on a row of ten tones, which is associated with ukom music.11

Ayo Bankole

Ayo Bankole was born on May 17, 1935, at Jos, in Plateau State of Nigeria. He belongs to the Yoruba ethnic group. In August 1957, Bankole left Nigeria on a Federal Government Scholarship to study music at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London. He concentrated on piano, composition, organ, harmony, and counterpoint studies. While at Guildhall, Bankole experimented12 with simple works and compositions based on 20th-century tonality. After four years of intense studies at Guildhall, Bankole proceeded to Claire College, University of Cambridge, London, where he obtained his first degree, the Bachelor of Arts in Music, 1964. While at Cambridge as an Organ Scholar (1961–64), Bankole earned the prestigious Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO), making him the second and last Nigerian to receive the highest diploma in organ playing given in Great Britain. At the end of his studies at Cambridge University in 1964, Bankole received a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship to study ethnomusicology at the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1969, he was appointed Lecturer in Music at the University of Lagos, Nigeria, where he embarked on an in-depth research on Nigerian traditional music and presented scholarly papers at conferences. At the University of Lagos, he combined the role of music educator, composer, performer, and musicologist.13 In addition to his academic pursuits, Bankole founded several choral groups in Lagos and was very active as an organist in several churches, including the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos (the headquarters of the Anglican Communion Nigeria, and the seat of the Anglican Archbishop) and St. Peter’s Anglican Church, Lagos.

Bankole: Toccata and Fugue

Nigerian composers began experimenting with new tonal resources in their works from the 1960s. This era can be regarded as radical and avant-garde in the history of musical composition in the country. The then young composers, fired up by the new 20th-century compositional devices they were exposed to at the schools of music in London, partially abandoned the tonal system of the preceding era. I am very careful to choose the word ‘partially’ because some of the compositions in this period are also tonal. In 1960, Bankole wrote his first composition for organ entitled Toccata and Fugue.14 In his notes to the music, Bankole informs us that this work represents one of his first attempts in the world of atonality. Being his first product in this musical language, the work is more of a blending of several musical styles of the European epochs. At this early stage, while trying to break away from the ‘old order’ of tonality, the Toccata and Fugue is more of a transitional musical work between the 19th and 20th centuries. The young composer had not yet arrived in the world of atonal writing. According to him, this piece maintains structural allegiance to the king of baroque, J. S. Bach. However, while the overall structure and the process of thematic development are in strict accord with the baroque tradition, the melodic style is not. This is because, although there is no serial line to dictate melodic progression, freedom of tonality has been achieved through the preponderant use of severe neo-impressionistic chromaticism. Apart from these points, the music belongs to several ages of musical experience, absorbing Beethoven’s surprise build-up and “power-cut,” Brahms’ dark orchestration, Bach’s virtuosity (especially his powerful cadenzas) and chord clusters suggesting certain moments of Max Reger.
The composer emphatically states that, “no conscious effort is made to inject African traditional styles (or for that matter any of the styles mentioned above) into the work, and if these are felt, their roles should not be exaggerated.”15 Hence, a discussion of this piece will strictly be in Western theoretical style.
The Toccata is built on several short chromatic figures, which are later employed as themes for the Fugue. Generally, the chromatic figures consist of ascending and descending melodic cells as well as ‘jumping’ intervals. The melodic cells appear in various forms: simple eighth notes, rapid-moving sixteenth notes, and triplets. Structurally, the toccata is in three-part form. The A section introduces the main melodic cells in the manuals and the pedal. Following the introduction are various manipulations of the thematic materials (measures 1 to 35). Example 1 shows the A section of the toccata. The B section commences from measure 36 and ends in measure 47. Here the left and right hands are filled with massive chords, while the pedal is occupied with descending sequential passages. The pedal part comprises virtuosic fast-moving intervals of 4ths, 5ths, diminished 5ths, and inversion of wide leap intervals from the A section. The A section returns in measures 48 to 69. In the final section, the pedal is occupied with sequential repetition of the descending chromatic figure. Example 2 shows the B section of the Toccata.
Bankole’s choice of chords in this toccata includes open 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, octaves, diminished 5ths, minor 7ths, and tone clusters. He deliberately avoids functional harmony and conventional cadential resolutions. Some of his cadential resolution techniques include 1) octave descent in the pedal (mm. 16–17); 2) ostinato in the pedal to distillate tonal resolution; 3) sequential repetition in pedal; and 4) pedal point. With these four methods, Bankole was able to confine this composition within a contemporary milieu. Although it is not easy to pinpoint the exact key of the toccata, the piece opens with a pedal point on E and it closes with the third inversion of F-sharp chord resolving finally on E (mm. 68–69).
The Fugue has two main themes; hence, it is a double fugue. The fugal themes are derived from the ascending and descending chromatic figures (m. 9 R.H. and mm. 11–12 L.H.) as well as “jumping” intervals (m. 9 in the pedal) from the Toccata. It opens with the first theme in the left hand (mm. 1–4) and a real answer in the right hand (mm. 5–8). Following is an introduction of the second theme group in m. 11. The first and second theme groups are supported by counter subjects. The exposition closes with a reappearance of the first theme group in the pedal while the manual accompanies with the counter subject. Example 3 shows the two theme groups in the exposition.
The episode (mm. 17–75) presents the two ideas in diverse varied forms: diminution (m. 32 R.H.), augmentation (mm. 33–40 pedal), short fragments (mm. 26–27 L.H.), pedal sequence (mm. 45–49), and an alternation of modified versions of first theme and second theme groups in the pedal, while the manual accompanies with thick chords, diminished 5ths, and tone clusters (mm. 64–75). The final entry of the first and second themes appear in the pedal from measures 76 to 87. Example 4 shows an episode of the Fugue. Bankole closes the fugue with a virtuosic pedal cadenza derived from the two theme groups (mm. 88 to the end). This wonderful piece ends with an unusual dominant seventh chord resolving on C in m. 97. Bankole did his best to avoid functional harmony in this masterpiece; however, he found it very difficult to evade the sonorous nuance of dominant seventh resolution.16 Example 5 shows the pedal cadenza in the finale of the fugue.

Conclusion

Modern Nigerian composers have produced a large repertoire of art music from their introduction to European classical music in their home country and abroad. A critical study of these compositions reveals dynamic growth of musical language from the established tonality of the baroque/classical era and the romanticism of the 19th century, to the early 20th-century atonality and twelve-tone method. Indeed, the musical language of contemporary composition in Nigeria has been dynamic. At this point, it is important to stress that the third generation of Nigerian composers did not rely exclusively on atonal writing; some of their solo songs, choral anthems, piano and organ pieces, chamber music, and orchestra works are based on other types of pitch collections such as diatonic, octatonic, and pentatonic scales. Nigerian audiences appreciate the interjection of well-known songs in classical pieces, and these songs are mostly in tetratonic and pentatonic modes. Furthermore, Ayo Bankole’s Toccata and Fugue (for Organ) is one of the few exceptions in terms of thematic usages. Pan-Africanism and global interculturalism became more pronounced in the works of the third generation of Nigerian composers. Popular folk tunes, traditional songs, indigenous Christian hymn tunes, and dance band themes from different ethnic groups within Nigeria and other parts of the African continent are incorporated into art music compositions. Some of the composers even went as far as the Middle East, India, and America to incorporate musical resources into their works. Prominent features of African-American music in Nigerian art compositions include spirituals, gospel, and jazz idiom. Musical creativity in Nigeria today is nationalistic, Pan-African, and globally intercultural.

Godwin Sadoh

Godwin Sadoh is a Nigerian organist, composer, pianist, choral conductor, ethnomusicologist, and author of 12 books.  His compositions have been performed around the world. Sadoh has taught at the University of Pittsburgh, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. He is presently professor of music and LEADS Scholar at the National Universities Commission in Abuja, Nigeria.

Experts in the field of intercultural musicology have propounded various definitions of interculturalism. Akin Euba describes music in which elements from two or more cultures interact as intercultural music,¹ as when materials from diverse cultures are combined into a single contemporary composition. J. H. Kwabena Nketia defines interculturalism as the “process of identifying with or sharing in the heritage of other cultures with a view to broadening one’s cultural horizon or one’s capacity to understand and appreciate differences in modes of expression.”² Nketia’s explanation examines the possibilities and challenges associated with modern African compositions. Afolabi Alaja-Browne expounds on the concept from a Nigerian point of view. He stresses that “art” and “intercultural” are synonymous. Modern Nigerian composers look to written and orally transmitted music for creative ideas, sources of sounds, and themes, as well as procedures to expand their modes of artistic expression. Alaja-Browne upholds the view that assimilation of foreign idioms constitutes a good source of inspiration.³ Joy Nwosu Lo-Bamijoko, a Nigerian operatic singer and ethnomusicologist, approaches the intercultural phenomenon in terms of social change in the Igbo community, one of the six geo-political groups in Nigeria. She addresses the dilemma of Nigerian societies torn between new cultural expressions of cosmopolitan cities and traditional values of the villages.⁴ This writer defines intercultural music as the interplay of diverse cultural idioms in a creative work.

Fela Sowande, as a composer and a performer, is rooted in three major continents: Africa (Nigeria), Europe (London), and North America (African-American). Sowande lived, studied, and worked in this tripartite cultural milieu. He was raised in a bicultural topography in Nigeria where the Yoruba traditional culture and English cultural values co-existed. This was a true reflection of post-colonial Nigeria—the fusion of two diverse worlds. The British colonization and Christian missions introduced Western cultural systems, including the English language, to Nigeria from the mid-nineteenth century. Consequently, Nigerians are raised bicultural from childhood to adulthood. Today, multiculturalism permeates every aspect of Nigerian society: dress, food, education, language, architecture, religion, art, music, sports, broadcasting, business, politics, and socio-cultural life. 

Through several years of musical studies and concert performances in Great Britain, Sowande was thoroughly grounded in European classical music. He arrived in the United States in the 1960s, at the peak of civil rights activities, black consciousness, Afro-centric idealism, and black renaissance. Sowande’s contribution to the prevailing ideologies at the time was two-fold: (1) he borrowed several African-American spirituals and incorporated them into his music compositions, as a sign of alignment with the black race in America; (2) he was very instrumental in pioneering the establishment of African Studies programs at various institutions in the United States. Sowande wrote and presented several scholarly papers on the Africanization of Black Studies in the United States. Such papers were read at Howard University, Oberlin College, and Kent State University. Therefore, Sowande could not refrain from the influence of these three major cultures in his organ compositions. This essay is specifically written to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Fela Sowande, March 13, 1987, at a nursing home in Ravenna, Ohio.

 

Short biography

Fela Sowande was born in Abeokuta, Ogun State, in southwest Nigeria, on May 29, 1905. He represents the second generation of Nigerian composers. He grew up in a musical home; his father, Emmanuel Sowande, was both an Anglican priest and church musician. Sowande received his early musical training from his father and Thomas Ekundayo Phillips (1884–1969). He served as a choirboy and assistant organist under Ekundayo Phillips for several years at the renowned Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos. At age 27, Sowande decided to become a civil engineer and travelled to England in 1935 to pursue his dream. Six months into the program, he changed his mind and decided to study music because he could not afford to pay the tuition for civil engineering.⁵ At this point, his only means of livelihood was playing jazz at London nightclubs. Sowande later enrolled as an external candidate at the University of London and received private lessons in organ playing from George Oldroyd and George Cunningham. On January 3, 1943, he received the prestigious Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO), the highest British diploma awarded for organ playing. This feat distinguished him as the first African to earn the coveted lofty diploma.⁶ Sowande briefly returned to Nigeria in the 1950s to work at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (now Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria), the University of Ibadan, and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.⁷ Sowande was appointed professor of musicology at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, serving from 1965 to 1968.⁸

Sowande immigrated to the United States in the 1960s, where he spent the last two decades of his life as an African musicologist teaching at such institutions as Northwestern University, Howard University, the University of Pittsburgh, and Kent State University, Ohio, his last place of work as tenured professor. Sowande composed for almost the entire spectrum of musical genres—vocal solo, choral, piano, organ, and orchestra. His most well-known works include African Suite for String Orchestra, Folk Symphony for Orchestra, Roll De Ol’ Chariot for SATBB choir, and Wheel, Oh Wheel for SATB choir. Sowande is best known for his well-written organ compositions—Jesu Olugbala, Go Down Moses, Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho, Oyigiyigi, Gloria, Kyrie, Obangiji, Prayer, Yoruba Lament, K’a Mura, and Sacred Idioms of the Negro. It was during Sowande’s era that concert music was introduced to the Nigerian classical music circle. His chamber, orchestra, piano, and vocal songs are mostly secular, intended for performance at concert halls and auditoriums in Nigerian colleges and universities. Prior to his time, his music compositions were sacred, and their performance was restricted to the church. 

 

Multicultural themes

The organ works of Fela Sowande are based on thematic materials from the Yoruba ethnic group of Nigeria and the African-American musical repertory, particularly spirituals. Most of his compositions for organ use indigenous Yoruba church hymn tunes and Yoruba folk songs. This creative procedure enhances the Nigerian flavor in the music and compartmentalizes the pieces within the framework of modern Nigerian art music. 

In three organ pieces, Sowande employed African-American spirituals as principal themes. Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho is based on a spiritual. The work is a lively piece characterized by syncopated rhythms as found in many African-American spirituals. The melody bounces between the right and left hands and the pedal. Go Down Moses is another piece built on an African-American spiritual. The sustained moderate tempo of this piece lends it to the depiction of the commanding voice of God to Moses in Egypt. The piece fluctuates among diverse tempo markings showcasing the various stages of Moses’ mission before Pharaoh the king and the children of Israel. The brilliant fortissimo closure of the piece and the final introduction of the Picardy third in the last five measures signify the victorious exodus of the Israelites from Egypt into the Promised Land.

Bury Me Eas’ or Wes’ (from Sacred Idioms of the Negro) is the third and last organ work derived from a black spiritual. It is a short piece characterized by homophonic texture and chromatic passages. It opens very quietly and gradually adds stops and more notes to build intensity. It finally climaxes to fff in the last three measures. The title of the entire collection, Sacred Idioms of the Negro, even has an affinity with the African-American culture and the acceptable lingual parlance of the era. The title reflects the spirituality of the Black race in America where the church became a place of worship, refuge, solace, hope, and socialization for people of color. Bury Me Eas’ or Wes’ can be regarded as an “organ requiem.” The character, mood, tempo, and overall framework of the piece make it suitable for a funeral ambiance. This author strongly believes that Sowande specifically wrote the piece for his own burial, since he particularly requested for it to be played at his funeral service. The title connotes a global dogma that rightly sums up Sowande as a multicultural, multilingual, and multimusical man. He was making a universal statement with this music. In other words, whether you bury him in the East (Africa) or in the West (Europe and America), he is comfortably at home, having spent most of his treacherous life on the three continents. Therefore, Bury Me Eas’ or Wes’ symbolizes musical and cultural unanimity.

 

Bilingualism

Some of the titles of Sowande’s organ compositions are bilingual. The titles are in English and Yoruba language. Prayer (Oba A Ba Ke), Oyigiyigi: Introduction, Theme, and Variations on a Yoruba Folk Theme, and Yoruba Lament are representative of works in this category. Sowande often provides the translation of the Yoruba titles on the cover page of the music or in the composer’s notes. In the case of Prayer, the subtitle in parentheses is actually the title of the Yoruba melody used in the composition. Oyigi-yigi is also the title of the Yoruba Christian hymn tune employed in the work. The title of Yoruba Lament is symbolic in two ways: (1) the first part consists of Yoruba, the Nigerian language, while the second half, the Lament, is in English; (2) the texture, tempo, mood, as well as nuances of the piece are influenced and dictated by the title “lament.” 

Yoruba Lament was composed in the 1950s at the very peak of the nationalist movement in Nigeria; this movement advocated for the country’s emancipation from colonial hegemony. The struggle for the nation’s autonomy as well as its cultural renaissance began in the mid 1940s and lasted until the independence of Nigeria in 1960. It was the period in which Nigerian elite united to revive the traditional values and culture of the nation from the European imperialism that was prevalent at the time. Nigerian playwrights, poets, sculptors, fine artists, dramatists, theater artists, and musicians all embarked on a massive campaign for the revival and incorporation of materials from their indigenous culture into their works. It was during this period that Hubert Ogunde, popularly known as “the father of Nigerian contemporary Yoruba theater,” wrote several folk operas and plays based on Nigerian legends, myths, politics, socio-cultural life, traditional dances, rituals, festivals, and traditional musical styles. Ogunde captioned one of his Yoruba operas at this crucial time, Yoruba Ronu (Yoruba, Think). In this play, he urged the Nigerian populace to think about their sorry state of external domination by the British and urged them to fight for the revival of their cultural heritage.⁹

One of Sowande’s contributions to the independence of Nigeria in the 1950s was his organ composition Yoruba Lament. It is indeed imperative to note how Ogunde uses his theatrical talent to speak to Nigerians and how Sowande uses his musical compositions to address the same issue. Furthermore, it is of interest to observe titles given to Sowande’s organ works created on Nigerian themes in Yoruba and English languages, while titles given to works derived from African-American melodies are simply in English. The combination of Yoruba and English in the Nigerian-themed pieces reflects the bilingual nature of Nigerian society, while the use of only English in the works based on African-American spirituals could be thought of as an extension of the monolithic language prevalent in America. Therefore, the idea of bilingualism in Sowande’s organ works is a vivid reflection of post-colonial Nigeria.

 

European traits

Other forms of interculturalism in the music of Fela Sowande are the use of Western harmonic systems and the pipe organ, a European instrument. The organ works of Sowande are strictly based on Western functional harmony, tonal centers with specific keys, and nineteenth-century chromatic harmony. There is evidence of tonal shifting from one key to another in most of his pieces. Modulation is not found in Nigerian traditional music, so it is a Western imprint on his music. However, Sowande did not employ any of the early twentieth-century pitch collections, such as twelve-tone method, octatonic scale, and atonality in his organ compositions. Such contemporary techniques are to be found in the organ works of Ayo Bankole (1935–1976), a generation after Sowande’s era. Although Sowande uses mainly a European style of tonality in his works, he borrowed specific Yoruba rhythms and incorporated them into his music.

At this point, we may then ask, why did Sowande write solo pieces for organ? He was brought up in a Christian home and sang in the best Protestant church choir in Nigeria, which of course had the best pipe organ in the entire country. Sowande received organ lessons from a very tender age at the Cathedral Church of Christ in Lagos. In addition, Sowande observed Thomas Ekundayo Phillips accompanying the cathedral choir and congregation, and saw him playing organ recitals at various churches in Lagos. Apparently, all these exposures to the organ enthralled Sowande and served as a source of inspiration and creative imagination for him. The organ became his most beloved instrument and the best medium for him to express himself as a creative artist.

 

Performances in many nations

Fela Sowande was the most celebrated composer from the continent of Africa in the 20th century. Most of his compositions—ranging from vocal solos, duets, choral songs, arrangements of spirituals, piano pieces, organ pieces, chamber music, and symphonic works—have been performed and recorded all over the world. Recordings of his music are neatly stacked on the shelves of university libraries and archival centers globally. The organ, being his first musical instrument, compelled him to compose a substantial number of works for that instrument. Those masterworks have attracted the attention of organists around the world, who play them during services and at concerts. Hence, we can affirm that his organ compositions are the most popular of all his creative output.

Ronald Mackay played Sowande’s Pastourelle a number of times in the United States in the 1960s. The New Zealand and Australian Broadcasting Corporation used to play Sowande’s Pastourelle for morning devotion on a daily basis. John Craven, a British citizen currently residing in Nice, France, is an organist at the Reformed Church Cathedral, Saint Pierre d’Arène. He played Obangiji, Go Down Moses, and Yoruba Lament from 1964 onwards. He played all three pieces again in June 2010 and Go Down Moses in November 2010, as well as in April 2015. He also played Obangiji and Kyrie in June 2015. Craven has been playing Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho in the past five years. Ronald George Baltimore has been playing Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho since the 1970s from his student days in a recital, at Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey. Marvin Hills, a native of Philadelphia, played Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho, first in 1976, at Tindley Temple United Methodist Church, Philadelphia. He has also played Obangiji and Yoruba Lament at various places from the 1990s to present time. H. L. Smith, from New York, with roots in Manchester, United Kingdom, has often played Obangiji. He teaches organ and piano at Community College of Philadelphia. 

Nigerian organist Akin-Ajayi Oluwaseun Collins played Jesu Olugbala Mo F’Ori Fun, Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho, and Prayer at Bishop Odutola Memorial Anglican Church, Olubadan Housing Estate, Ibadan, southwest, Nigeria. On May 3, 1987, at the memorial service of Fela Sowande that took place at St. James Episcopal Church, New York, his personal friend Eugene Hancock played Bury Me Eas’ or Wes’ as Sowande had requested. Godwin Sadoh played Jubilate from the Sacred Idioms of the Negro at his second master’s organ recital at Kimball Recital Hall, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, on April 27, 2000. Monty Bennett played Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho in a special concert tagged “Around the World in 80 Minutes,” at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, Charlotte, North Carolina, on October 17, 2010. He replayed the piece at an organ dedication concert of White Rock Baptist Church, Fayetteville, North Carolina, on October 22, 2015. To round up his recital series in 2016, Bennett played Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho again at Resurrection Parish Church, Santa Rosa, California, on October 30, 2016. 

Monty Bennett performed the Middle Eastern premiere of Fela Sowande’s Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho on February 24, 2017, during the Israel International Organ Festival at the Hecht Museum Auditorium, Haifa University, Israel.

Perhaps the most ambitious and elaborate performance project of Fela Sowande’s organ compositions took place between April 3 and September 18, 2016, programmed by Italian concert organist Luca Massaglia. He performed Sowande’s Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho in 12 European concerts. Sowande’s music sounded across Russia, from Western Russia to Eastern Siberia, passing from Tatarstan Republic. The concerts took place in three European nations, Russia, Sweden, and France, as shown in the schedule below:

1. April 3: Kursk (Russia) Roman Catholic Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God. 

2. April 10: Moscow (Russia) Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Holy Virgin Mary. 

3. April 12: Saratov (Russia) Concert Hall of the “Leonid Sobinov” State Conservatory. 

4. April 13: Penza (Russia) Organ Hall of the Philharmonic Society. 

5. April 14: Dubna (Russia) Concert Hall of the Choir School. 

6. April 18: Naberezhnye Chelny (Russia) Organ Hall. 

7. April 19: Kazan (Russia) Concert Hall of the “Nazib Zhiganov” State Conservatory. 

8. April 22: Tomsk (Russia) Concert Hall of the Philharmonic Society. 

9. April 23: Krasnoyarsk (Russia) Organ Hall of the Philharmonic Society, 1st concert. 

10. April 24: Krasnoyarsk (Russia) Organ Hall of the Philharmonic Society, 2nd concert. 

11. July 4: Cathedral Lund (Sweden). 

12. September 18: Eglise Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet Paris (France). Lund Cathedral hosts the largest organ of Sweden. 

 

Conclusion

Intercultural elements in the organ compositions of Fela Sowande elucidate the impact of colonization, the Christian church and education, as well as the composer’s experiences in three major cultures where he lived, studied, worked, composed, and performed. Suffice it to say that composers tend to be influenced and informed creatively by their socio-musical milieu.¹⁰ The selected works of Sowande in this essay are derivations of indigenous source materials from Nigeria and African-American spirituals. The themes of the former are taken from Nigerian folksongs and indigenous hymn tunes composed by local organists and choirmasters. Works such as Oyigiyigi, Obangiji, K’a Mura, Jesu Olugbala, and Prayer are all infused with Nigerian melodies. Sowande’s concept of derivative materials is much broader than some of the younger generations of Nigerian composers, in that his themes reflect both African and African-American idiomatic expressions as demonstrated in his arrangements of black spirituals in Bury Me Eas’ or Wes,’ Go Down Moses, and Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho. 

Fela Sowande, like most modern Nigerian composers such as Thomas Ekundayo Phillips, Ayo Bankole, Samuel Akpabot, Adam Fiberesima, Antony Mereni, Meki Nzewi, Joshua Uzoigwe, Godwin Sadoh, Seun Owoaje, Alaba Ilesanmi, Kayode Morohunfola, Vincent Obi, Abel Adeleke, Tunji Dada, Taiye Adeola, Wole Aro, Christian Onyenji, Chijioke Ngobili, Jude Osy Nwankwo, Babatunde Sosan, and Ebenezer Omole, is a modern interculturalist. Sowande’s commingling of Nigerian musical elements, African-American themes, and Western classical theories justifies his organ compositions as intercultural. In this regard, intercultural phenomena could be conceptualized from two perspectives: (1) the composer, a Nigerian, writing in Western classical style, and (2) the intermixture of three cultural expressions—Nigerian, African-American, and European. ν

 

Fela Sowande’s compositions for organ

K’a Mura. London: Chappell, 1945.

Pastourelle. London: Chappell, 1952.

Obangiji. London: Chappell, 1955.

Kyrie. London: Chappell, 1955.

Yoruba Lament. London: Chappell, 1955.

Jesu Olugbala. London: Novello, 1955.

Choral Preludes on Yoruba Sacred Melodies. London: Novello, n.d..

Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho. London: Chappell, 1955.

Go Down Moses. London: Chappell, 1955.

Plainsong. London: Chappell, n.d.

Fantasia in D. London: Chappell, n.d.

Festival March. London: Chappell, n.d.

Oyigiyigi: Introduction, Theme and Variations. New York: Ricordi, 1958.

Gloria. New York: Ricordi, 1958.

Prayer (Oba a Ba Ke). New York: Ricordi, 1958.

K’a Mo Rokoso (unpublished manuscript).

Sacred Idioms of the Negro (unpublished manuscript).

 

Discography of organ works

Jubilate, Eugene W. Hancock. American Guild of Organists 0-51, audio cassette (1992).

Prayer, James Kibbie. Organ Historical Society OHS-95 CD. Collection title: Historic Organs of Michigan (1995).

Obangiji, David Hurd. Minnesota Public Radio MPR CD-1003 (2000). Collection title: Pipedreams Premieres: A Collection of Music for the King of Instruments, vol. 2 (2000).

Fantasy in D Major, Festival March, Gloria, Go Down Moses, Nancy Cooper. Richard L. Bond Op. 27, Holy Spirit Episcopal Church, Missoula, Montana. Pro Organo CD 7139 (2000).

Yoruba Lament, Lucius Weathersby. Albany TROY440, CD. Collection title: Spiritual Fantasy (2001).

Go Down Moses, Nancy Cooper. Pro Organo CD 7139 (2001), CD. Collection title: The Road Less Traveled (2002).

Obangiji, Brent Weaver. Pipedreams Premiere, Volume 2. Minnesota Public Radio, 2003.

Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho, Lucius Weathersby. Great Torrington Parish Church, Father Willis organ; CD IX/27. International Society—African to American Music (2003). 

Oyígìyigi: Introduction, Theme and Variations on a Yorùbá Folk Theme, Pastourelle, Lucius Weathersby. Great Torrington Parish Church, Father Willis organ; CD IX/27. International Society—African to American Music (2003).

Jubilate, Laudamus Te, K’a mó Rókósó, Kyrie, Òbángíjì, Eugene Hancock. n.p. CD.

K’a Mura, Michael Stewart. New Zealand, n.p., CD.

Plainsong, Prayer: Oba a ba ke, Two Preludes on Yorùbá Sacred Melodies (1. K’a múra. 2. Jésù Olugbàlà), Sacred Idioms of the Negro (1. Bury me eas’ or wes’; 2. Laudamus te; 3. Vesper; 4. Supplication; 5. Via dolorosa; Jubilate), Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho, Kyrie, Yorùbá lament, Obángíji, Hans Uwe Hielscher. 1863–1982 Walker/Sauer/Oberlinger 4-116, Wiesbaden, Merktkirche; EL CD-016.

 

Notes

1. Akin Euba, Essays on Music in Africa 2: Intercultural Perspectives (Bayreuth: Bayreuth African Studies Series, 1989), 116.

2. Cynthia Tse Kimberlin and Akin Euba (eds.), Intercultural Music Volume 1 (Bayreuth: Eckhard Breitinger, 1995), 6.

3. Afolabi Alaja-Browne, quoted in Kimberlin and Euba, 6.

4. Kimberlin and Euba, 9.

5. A little over two decades after Fela Sowande changed his mind from civil engineering to study music, another fellow Nigerian, bearing similar first name, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, repeated history. Fela Kuti, born on October 15, 1938, was sent to England in 1958 by his middle-class Christian family to study medicine. Upon arrival, Fela changed his mind and went on to enroll at Trinity College of Music, London. Coincidentally, the two Felas were born in the same town, Abeokuta, Ogun State, and their fathers were both Anglican priests.

  6. Godwin Sadoh, The Organ Works of Fela Sowande: Cultural Perspectives (Bloomington, Indiana: iUniverse Publishing, 2007), 25–26.

  7. The Department of Music at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, was named after Fela Sowande for his extraordinary contributions to Nigerian music.

8. Sadoh, 47.

9. Ebun Clark, Hubert Ogunde: The Making of a Nigerian Theater (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979), 61-62.

10. For further reading on Fela Sowande’s life and music, see Sadoh.

Godwin Sadoh

Godwin Sadoh is a Nigerian organist-composer, pianist, choral conductor, and ethnomusicologist with degrees in piano and organ performance, composition, and ethnomusicology. He is the first African to receive a doctoral degree in organ performance from any institution in the world. Sadoh is the author of six books and his scholarly essays on Nigerian music appear in various journals and magazines, including Africa, Composer-USA, Living Music, Choral Journal, Organ Encyclopedia, Percussive Notes, MLA Notes, The Organ, The Diapason, Organists’ Review, Organ Club Journal, Royal College of Organists Journal, The Hymn, NTAMA, Musical Times, Vox Humana, and the Contemporary African Database. Sadoh’s compositions have been published, recorded, and widely performed all over the United States, Canada, Europe, and Africa. He has taught at numerous institutions such as the Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Sadoh is presently a Professor of Music at Talladega College.

Choral music in Nigeria can be broadly divided into two categories: (1) traditional choral repertoire, and (2) Western-influenced choral works known as modern Nigerian art songs. Traditional choral singing can be observed in naming ceremonies, funeral rites, religious worship, children’s activities, folk tales, royal events, wedding ceremonies, and at recreational gatherings. The performance techniques of indigenous choral songs include call-and-response, hand clapping, dancing, and instrumental accompaniment supplied by diverse kinds of drums, iron bells, sekere [maracas], or other types of idiophones such as bottles, calabash, sticks, and wooden clappers. On the other hand, Western-influenced choral works are usually performed in churches, colleges and universities, and public concerts. This article discusses the imprint of European and Nigerian musical elements in Ayo Bankole’s FESTAC Cantata.

Short biography
Ayo Bankole was born on May 17, 1935, at Jos, in Plateau State of Nigeria. He was a chorister at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos, in the 1940s, under Thomas Ekundayo Phillips (1884–1969), the then organist and master of the music. It was Phillips who gave Bankole his early musical training in music theory, piano, and organ. In August 1957, Bankole left Nigeria on a Federal Government Scholarship to study music at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London, where he concentrated on piano, organ, and composition. During his studies at Guildhall, Bankole experimented with advanced techniques based on twentieth-century tonality.
After four years of study at Guildhall, Bankole proceeded to Clare College, Cambridge University, London, where he obtained a B.A. degree in music in 1964. While at Cambridge as an organ scholar (1961–1964), Bankole earned the prestigious Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO), making him the second Nigerian after Fela Sowande to receive the highest diploma in organ playing given in Great Britain. At the end of his training at Cambridge University in 1964, Bankole received a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship to study ethnomusicology at the University of California, Los Angeles.
After a brief service at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (now Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria) in Lagos, he was appointed in 1969 to the position of Lecturer in Music at the University of Lagos, where he embarked on in-depth research on Nigerian traditional music and presented scholarly papers at conferences. At the University of Lagos, Bankole combined the roles of music educator, composer, choral conductor, performer, and musicologist. Bankole composed for several musical genres, including organ, piano, choral works, and solo art songs. He did not write any purely orchestral pieces, except choral works accompanied by the orchestra. Unfortunately, Bankole was brutally murdered by his own half brother in Lagos in 1976, while he was still in his creative prime.

FESTAC Cantata No. 4
Out of all his numerous compositions, the last work written by Bankole shortly before his untimely death was the FESTAC Cantata No. 4 for soloists, chorus, organ, orchestra, and Nigerian traditional instruments. According to Afolabi Alaja-Browne, the FESTAC Cantata was commissioned in 1974 by the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation in commemoration of the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC).1 The festival took place in 1977 in Lagos, Nigeria, one year after Bankole’s demise. The cantata was actually premiered in 1976 at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos, under the direction of the composer. The soloists included Tope Williams, bass, and Joy Nwosu Lo-Bamijoko, soprano. The choir was from the Baptist Church in Lagos, where Bankole was the organist and choir director. The cantata is one of Bankole’s most mature works and represents a summation of his entire creative experience in the art of intercultural composition.
This composition demonstrates Bankole’s fluency in both the European convention and Nigerian traditional music. The use of Western forms such as overture, fugue, and aria, along with techniques such as orchestration, contrapuntal devices, chromatic passages, tonal shifting, atonality, pandiatonicism, and polytonality attest to his mastery of Western classical music theory. In terms of Nigerian traditional practice, Bankole draws from his vast experience with various types of indigenous creative procedures to bring the music to its cultural roots and attract the Nigerian audience to it. The Western orchestra in Cantata No. 4 consists of flutes, clarinets, piccolos, trumpets, euphonium, triangle, and bass guitar, while the Nigerian traditional instruments include sekere (shaking idiophone or gourd rattle), high- and medium-pitched agogo (hand bell), small and large ikoro (slit-drum), iya-ilu dundun (talking drum or hourglass tension drum), and gudugudu (single-headed kettle drum). The text of the entire cantata is derived from the Old Testament (Psalms 14, 24, 53, and 91). Indeed, the FESTAC Cantata is a truly multicultural composition.
Structurally, Cantata No. 4 is divided into twelve sections. The opening instrumental overture is written for organ, trumpets, flutes, and clarinets. It is in the style of a typical French overture in three distinct sections, but having a very slow trumpet fanfare as introduction. (See Example 1. Bankole, Overture [from FESTAC Cantata No. 4], mm. 1–21, on page 26.) The fanfare from the Largo introduction transforms into the principal theme played by the euphonium in the A section Andante, while the flutes play fast-moving eighth notes over the theme. The flutes’ tune is a diminution of the ostinato of the tenor and bass voices in Fun Mi N’Ibeji Part II, another choral work by Bankole. The euphonium plays the principal theme in the bass. The B section, Allegretto, scored for organ and flute solo, is based on a phrase heard in several keys with the use of sequences. From measures 87 to 95, the principal theme from the A section reappears in modified form. The A section Andante returns to close the overture, but this time played only by the organ.
The second section of the cantata is a tenor recitative and chorus. The tenor solo that is accompanied by organ sings “Onare o, enikan o mo, Awamaridi ni” (“Nobody knows your ways, they are mysterious”). The vocal melody starts in C major but modulates to F in m. 136 to prepare the incoming chorus for its tonal center. The final chorus is accompanied with agogo, playing the popular West African time-line pattern (a.k.a. the konkonkonlo rhythm among the Yoruba of southwest Nigeria).
The third section of the cantata is an instrumental Allegro scored for several Nigerian traditional instruments, Western flutes, and clarinets. It opens with the sekere and agogo, followed by small ikoro, and later enters large ikoro, gugugudu, and finally the full orchestra plays to the end. The fourth section of the FESTAC Cantata is a chorus, “Nitori iwo Oluwa” (“Because of you Lord”) accompanied by brass, flute, euphonium, clarinet, and organ. All the instruments come in at various points, while the organ plays through the entire section. Section five is a soprano recitative and duet accompanied only by organ and sekere.
Section six is a tenor aria preceded by a fanfare played by two trumpets. The aria is not consistent with the formal structure of a seventeenth-century aria (ABA); rather, it is through-composed. The aria is accompanied with a passacaglia theme on the organ and clarinet. The passacaglia helps to maintain the phrasing of the vocal line and to reinforce the harmonic progression of the entire musical fabric. As in most passacaglias, the theme moves between the pedal and the manuals of the organ. The passacaglia is coated with various shades of harmonic colors and diverse rhythmic figurations to embellish the repetitions, develop the thematic material, and to create contrast between each appearance of the theme in different sections.
(See Example 2. Bankole, Chorus [from FESTAC Cantata No. 4], mm. 264–266.)
The seventh section of the FESTAC Cantata is a chorus, “O nse kisa, Olorun Oba” (“God the king performs wonders”), accompanied with improvised drumming, sekere, trumpet, and organ. The eighth section is exclusively traditional Nigerian. It demonstrates the composer’s experience, expertise, and musicological research into the traditional music of the Yoruba culture. It is an ege (a.k.a. oriki, a praise chant) and is accompanied only by sere that is shaken all through the section. Ege is a chant to be performed by an experienced praise singer. In the eighth section of the cantata, the ege or oriki is in praise of God Almighty. It sings of God’s power over nature and humankind, and his ability to fulfill his promises (this is the choral recitative sung by the sopranos and altos). The ege is chanted by a soprano or tenor soloist. It is not written down in the score as practiced in the oral tradition of the Yoruba, and consists of five-verse poetry, with each verse separated by the choral recitative of the female voices.
Section nine of the cantata is an instrumental Andante scored for trumpet, agogo, triangle, gong, sekere, wood block, small and large ikoro, ogido (another type of slit-drum), and iya-ilu. This is an instrumental interlude in the cantata, similar to the “Sinfonia” or “Pastoral Symphony” in Handel’s Messiah. “Inter” culturalism is further broken down in Bankole’s cantata into “intra” culturalism. The variety of musical resources in this section displays an array of instruments from the three major ethnic groups in Nigeria: the trumpet (Algaita) is from the northern region; the gong and ikoro are often found in the music of the Igbo from the southeast region, while the sekere and agogo are commonly featured in the music of the Yoruba region of southwest Nigeria.
Of all the orchestral instruments, the trumpet, agogo, and sekere are more active, playing repetitive rhythmic and melodic phrases all through. The trumpet melody consists of a three-note phrase—B, G, D—with the exception of measure 555 where it plays the only E. Most traditional flutes in Africa have three to five holes, meaning that they can effectively play three to five notes. Additional notes can be realized on such instruments by overblowing. Bankole understands the theory behind the organology of traditional African instruments. Thus, in spite of the fact that the Western trumpet employed in this section is capable of producing several notes, Bankole assigns only three notes to it as observed in Nigerian traditional music. Section nine closes with the full orchestra playing ff.
Section ten of the FESTAC Cantata is made of multiple chorus units and it is accompanied by organ, flute, bass guitar, and improvised drums. It is structurally formalized into three main units:
A – Soprano solo, tenor solo, SA chorus, and TB chorus (mm. 582–608)
B – Duet between soprano and tenor, alto solo and chorus (mm. 609–618)
A – Soprano solo, tenor solo, SA chorus, and TB chorus (mm. 619–634).
Section eleven of the cantata is written for a bass solo with chorus. (See Example 3. Bankole, Bass Solo [from FESTAC Cantata No. 4], mm. 645–654, on page 27.)
The final section of the FESTAC Cantata is based on Psalm 24. It consists of an instrumental introduction and choral fugue. The introduction is a fanfare for trumpets and organ conceived in bitonality, where the trumpet plays in D major and the organ is in C major. The choral fugue follows the structure of a standard fugue. The low brass in C major introduces the fugue theme from measures 833 to 840.
In the exposition, the tenor and bass first sing the subject, while the soprano and alto sing the answer. (See Example 4. Bankole, Choral Fugue [from FESTAC Cantata No. 4], mm. 841–851, on page 27.) In the episode, the SA chorus and soprano solo present the fugue theme in C major. In the keys of G and E major, soprano solo and contralto solo with SATB chorus exchange the fugue theme “Ti Oluwa ni ile” (“The earth is the Lord’s”) from measures 920 to 945. The finale presents the last entry of the fugue theme from measure 1043 in the SATB chorus, while the soprano solo, alto solo, and tenor solo sing a new phrase, “O nse kisa, Olorun Oba” (“God the king, does wonders”) over the fugue theme. The trio solos close the singing segment with the fugue theme in augmentation. There is a stretto between the tenor and bass solo in measure 1033. The FESTAC Cantata closes with an instrumental postlude for organ, piccolo, flutes, clarinets, trumpets, euphonium, bass guitar, triangle, agogo, sekere, ogido, and iya-ilu dundun from measures 1063 to 1086.

Conclusion
Ayo Bankole’s FESTAC Cantata represents one of the first experimental attempts by a twentieth-century composer in Nigeria to successfully incorporate Western and indigenous Nigerian instruments as well as creative procedures in a large major choral work. Bankole succeeded in creating a truly multi-cultural work that freely conjoins elements of two musical worlds to create such massive choral music. Bankole demonstrates his mastery of Western art music and indigenous Nigerian music in the way that he meticulously crafted this masterpiece into one organic entity. The way he shaped and molded the two cultures together in this work shows that Bankole remains a force to be reckoned with in the field of modern Nigerian music and intercultural musical composition.2