HERITAGE

Jahdiel
Heritage lyrics


Oh I was made for this
To know your tender kiss to know this love is mine
To know this love is ours
And I was made to laugh
I was made to sing
Giving the gift of life
You gave me everything
My feet were made to dance
My spirit made to soar
My life is not by chance
You give me more and more
And I was made to laugh
I was made to sing
And all that stole my joy
I left it at the cross

[Chorus:]
This one na my heritage
This one na my culture
This one na my tradition
I go follow Jesus
I go carryt the gospel well well
I go carry Jesus higher higher
E mercies no dey cease
E love no dey die

For a very long time
I've come to know
I am from another country
For a very long time
I've come to know
I am from another nation
My name is Jahdiel
I come from zion
I'm representing the most high on Earth
I speak in tongues
I heal the sick
By the power of Jesus in me
This is the way of life
This is the thing I do
Am a christian
I am for the lord

[Chorus:]
This one na my heritage
This one na my culture
This one na my tradition
I go follow Jesus
I go carry the gospel well well
I go carry jesus higher higher
E mercies no dey ceas
E love no dey die

[Repeat 1st Verse]

[Chorus:]
This one na my heritage
This one na my culture
This one na my tradition
I go follow Jesus
I go carry the gospel well well
I go carry Jesus higher higher
E mercies no dey cease
E love no dey die
This one na my heritage
This one na my culture
This na my tradition
I go follow Jesus
I carry the gospel well well
I go carry Jesus higher higher
E mercies no dey cease
E love no dey die...

JEBELE BY KWEEN

Artiste(s): Kween
Title: Jebele
Album: Kweendom Come
Genre: Naija
Year Realeased: 2007


VERSE 1
She called the house today
telling me this, telling me that
where you both slept last night
Boy you know that ain't right
She said your love's getting stronger
but I can't hold much longer
na you dey put asunder
I just can't help but wonder
honey mo
gini ka n mere gi
esigwa yin mo
Tell me what I've done wrong
can you give me one reason
just only one reason
I just might let you be

HOOK
Cos i no fit hold your handie o
I no fit tie your leg
I no fit pluck your eyes o
E no make sense abeg
If today I lose you
dem no make you for me
If I'm supposed to have you
nobody fit take you from me
So I say

CHORUS
Jebele jebele (2x)
make you dey go [Jebele jebele]
I no do again o [Jebele jebele]
If you dey chop dey go [jebele jebele]
Na today e finish [Jebele jebele]
Leave me alone [jebele jebele]
Your monkey don get belle

Verse 2
Yes i called her a monkey
She jumps on men like a junkie
You chose to be with her
and thats so sad
am going back to my dad
you were all I had
You broke my heart in two
and thats so sad
honey mo
gini ka n mere gi
oriaku mo
Tell what I've done wrong
can you give me one reason
just only one reason
I just might let you be

REPEAT HOOK

REPEAT CHORUS

BRIDGE
Boy I've made up my mind
cos this time you really stepped out of line
and I no fit waste my time [I no fit waste my time]
I don't think I can still spend my life with you

REPEAT HOOK

REPEAT CHORUS

Make u go your way
Make I do my thing
Soilder go, soilder come, Haha
Wetin you fit do I fit do better, Ha
Shayo na bassssssssssss

REPEAT CHORUS (till fade)

IJOBA ORUN BY LARA GEORGE

Artiste(s): Lara George
Title: Ijoba Orun
Album: Single
Genre: Gospel
Year Realeased: 2008


Uhhhuhhhh
Uhuh

Ijoba orun
Ere Onigbagbo o
Ijoba orun
Ere Onigbagbo o

Ma je n kuna
Baba
Mu mi dele o
Ma je n kuna
Baba se
Mu mi dele o

Owo ti mo ni
ko le mu mi dele o
Moto ti mo ri ra
ko le wa mi dele o
Ore ti mo ni
ko le sinmi dele o
Gbogbo iwe ti mo ri ka
won o le gbe mi dele o

[lyrics from www.niglyrics.com]

Ma je n kuna
Baba
Mu mi dele o
ki n ma ku sajo bi efin
Mu mi dele o
Aye loja, oorun ni ile
Mu mi dele o
Aye loja yi, oorun nile se
Mu mi dele o

Mu mi dele o (x8)
Ma ma je n kuna
Baba ooo
Baba ooo
Mu mi dele o (x5)

Ile ogo
Ile ayo, Ile ayo
Ile alafia
Ile ogo
Ile ayo, Ile ayo
Ile alafia

Ijoba orun
Ere onigbagbo o
Ijoba oorun
Ere onigbagbo o
Ma je n kuna

LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

Johann Sebastian Bach

"Bach" redirects here. For other uses, see Bach (disambiguation).

Bach in a 1748 portrait by HaussmannJohann Sebastian Bach (pronounced [joˈhan/ˈjoːhan zeˈbastjan ˈbax]) (31 March 1685 [O.S. 21 March] – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and organist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity.[1] Although he introduced no new forms, he enriched the prevailing German style with a robust contrapuntal technique, an unrivalled control of harmonic and motivic organisation in composition for diverse instrumentation, and the adaptation of rhythms and textures from abroad, particularly Italy and France.

Revered for their intellectual depth, technical command and artistic beauty, Bach's works include the Brandenburg concertos, the Goldberg Variations, the Partitas, the Well-Tempered Clavier, the Mass in B Minor, the St. Matthew Passion, the St. John Passion, the Magnificat, The Musical Offering, The Art of Fugue, the English Suites, the French Suites, the Sonatas and Partitas for violin solo, the Cello Suites, more than 200 surviving cantatas, and a similar number of organ works, including the celebrated Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.

While Bach's fame as an organist was great during his lifetime, he was not particularly well-known as a composer. His adherence to Baroque forms and contrapuntal style was considered "old-fashioned" by his contemporaries, especially late in his career when the musical fashion tended towards Rococo and later Classical styles. A revival of interest and performances of his music began early in the 19th century, and he is now widely considered to be one of the greatest composers in the Western tradition.

Contents
1 Childhood (1685–1703)
2 Arnstadt to Weimar (1703–08)
3 Weimar (1708–17)
4 Cöthen (1717–23)
5 Leipzig (1723–50)
6 Death (1750)
7 Musical style
8 Family members
9 Works
9.1 Organ works
9.2 Other keyboard works
9.3 Orchestral and chamber music
9.4 Vocal and choral works
10 Performances
11 Legacy
12 Media
13 See also
14 Notes
15 References
16 Further reading
17 External links



Childhood (1685–1703)
Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Saxe-Eisenach. He was the youngest child of Johann Ambrosius Bach, the director of the Stadtpfeifer or town musicians,[1] and Maria Elisabeth Lämmerhirt. His father taught him to play violin and harpsichord. His uncles were all professional musicians, whose posts ranged from church organists and court chamber musicians to composers. One uncle, Johann Christoph Bach (1645–93), was especially famous and introduced him to the art of organ playing. Bach was proud of his family's musical achievements, and around 1735 he drafted a genealogy, "Origin of the musical Bach family".[2]


Johann Ambrosius Bach, Bach's fatherBach's mother died in 1694, and his father eight months later. The 10-year-old orphan moved in with his oldest brother, Johann Christoph Bach (1671–1721), the organist at the Michaeliskirche in nearby Ohrdruf. There, he copied, studied and performed music, and apparently received valuable teaching from his brother, who instructed him on the clavichord. J.C. Bach exposed him to the works of the great South German composers of the day, such as Johann Pachelbel (under whom Johann Christoph had studied) and Johann Jakob Froberger; possibly to the music of North German composers, to Frenchmen, such as Jean-Baptiste Lully, Louis Marchand, Marin Marais; and to the Italian clavierist Girolamo Frescobaldi. The young Bach probably witnessed and assisted in the maintenance of the organ music. Bach's obituary indicates that he copied music out of Johann Christoph's scores, but his brother had apparently forbidden him to do so, possibly because scores were valuable and private commodities at the time.

At the age of 14, Bach, along with his older school friend George Erdmann, was awarded a choral scholarship to study at the prestigious St. Michael's School in Lüneburg, not far from the northern seaport of Hamburg, one of the largest cities in the Holy Roman Empire.[3] This involved a long journey with his friend, probably undertaken partly on foot and partly by coach. His two years there appear to have been critical in exposing him to a wider palette of European culture than he would have experienced in Thuringia. In addition to singing in the a cappella choir, it is likely that he played the School's three-manual organ and its harpsichords. He probably learned French and Italian, and received a thorough grounding in theology, Latin, history, geography, and physics. He would have come into contact with sons of noblemen from northern Germany sent to the highly selective school to prepare for careers in diplomacy, government, and the military.

Although little supporting historical evidence exists at this time, it is almost certain that while in Lüneburg, young Bach would have visited the Johanniskirche (Church of St. John) and heard (and possibly played) the church's famous organ (built in 1549 by Jasper Johannsen and nicknamed the "Böhm organ" after its most prominent master). Given his innate musical talent, Bach would have had significant contact with prominent organists of the day in Lüneburg, most notably Georg Böhm (the organist at Johanniskirche) as well as organists in nearby Hamburg, such as Johann Adam Reincken. Through contact with these musicians, Bach probably gained access to the largest and finest instruments he had played thus far. It is likely that during this stage he became acquainted with the music of the German organ schools, especially the work of Dieterich Buxtehude, and with music manuscripts and treatises on music theory that were in the possession of these musicians.


Arnstadt to Weimar (1703–08)

St. Boniface's Church in ArnstadtIn January 1703, shortly after graduating and failing an audition for an organist's post at Sangerhausen[4], Bach took up a post as a court musician in the chapel of Duke Johann Ernst in Weimar, a large town in Thuringia. His role there is unclear, but appears to have included menial, non-musical duties. During his seven-month tenure at Weimar, his reputation as a keyboard player spread. He was invited to inspect and give the inaugural recital on the new organ at St. Boniface's Church in Arnstadt. The Bach family had close connections with this oldest town in Thuringia, about 180 km to the southwest of Weimar at the edge of the great forest. In August 1703, he accepted the post of organist at that church, with light duties, a relatively generous salary, and a fine new organ tuned to a modern system that allowed a wide range of keys to be used. At this time, Bach was embarking on the serious composition of organ preludes; these works, in the North German tradition of virtuosic, improvisatory preludes, already showed tight motivic control (where a single, short music idea is explored cogently throughout a movement). However, in these works the composer had yet to fully develop his powers of large-scale organisation and his contrapuntal technique (where two or more melodies interact simultaneously).

Strong family connections and a musically enthusiastic employer failed to prevent tension between the young organist and the authorities after several years in the post. He was apparently dissatisfied with the standard of singers in the choir; more seriously, there was his unauthorised absence from Arnstadt for several months in 1705–06, when he visited the great master Dieterich Buxtehude and his Abendmusik in the northern city of Lübeck. This well-known incident in Bach's life involved his walking some 400 kilometres (250 mi) each way to spend time with the man he probably regarded as the father figure of German organists. The trip reinforced Buxtehude's style as a foundation for Bach's earlier works, and that he overstayed his planned visit by several months suggests that his time with the old man was of great value to his art. According to legend, both Bach and George Frederic Handel wanted to become amanuenses of Buxtehude, but neither wanted to marry his daughter, as that was a condition for the position.[5]

According to minutes from the proceedings of the Arnstadt consistory in August 1705, Bach was involved in a brawl in Arnstadt:

“ Johann Sebastian Bach, organist here at the New Church, appeared and stated that, as he walked home yesterday, fairly late night ... six students were sitting on the "Langenstein" (Long Stone), and as he passed the town hall, the student Geyersbach went after him with a stick, calling him to account: Why had he [Bach] made abusive remarks about him? He [Bach] answered that he had made no abusive remarks about him, and that no one could prove it, for he had gone his way very quietly. Geyersbach retorted that while he [Bach] might not have maligned him, he had maligned his bassoon at some time, and whoever insulted his belongings insulted him as well ... [Geyersbach] had at once struck out at him. Since he had not been prepared for this, he had been about to draw his dagger, but Geyersbach had fallen into his arms, and the two of them tumbled about until the rest of the students ... had rushed toward them and separated them.[6] ”

Places in which Bach lived throughout his lifeDespite his comfortable position in Arnstadt, by 1706 Bach appeared to have realised that he needed to escape from the family milieu and move on to further his career. He was offered a more lucrative post as organist at St. Blasius's in Mühlhausen, a large and important city to the north. The following year, he took up this senior post with significantly improved pay and conditions, including a good choir. Four months after arriving at Mühlhausen, he married his second cousin from Arnstadt, Maria Barbara Bach. They had seven children, four of whom survived to adulthood. Two of them—Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach—became important composers in the ornate Rococo style that followed the Baroque.

The church and city government at Mühlhausen must have been proud of their new musical director. They readily agreed to his plan for an expensive renovation of the organ at St. Blasius's, and were so delighted at the elaborate, festive cantata he wrote for the inauguration of the new council in 1708—God is my king BWV 71, clearly in the style of Buxtehude—that they paid handsomely for its publication, and twice in later years had the composer return to conduct it. However, that same year, Bach was offered a better position in Weimar.



Weimar (1708–17)

A portrait of a young man, supposedly of Bach, but disputed[7]After barely a year at Mühlhausen, Bach left, to become the court organist and concertmaster at the ducal court in Weimar, a far cry from his earlier position there as 'lackey'. The munificent salary on offer at the court and the prospect of working entirely with a large, well-funded contingent of professional musicians may have prompted the move. The family moved into an apartment just five minutes' walk from the ducal palace. In the following year, their first child was born and they were joined by Maria Barbara's elder, unmarried sister, who remained with them to assist in the running of the household until her death in 1729. It was in Weimar that the two musically significant sons were born—Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.

Bach's position in Weimar marked the start of a sustained period of composing keyboard and orchestral works, in which he had attained the technical proficiency and confidence to extend the prevailing large-scale structures and to synthesise influences from abroad. From the music of Italians such as Vivaldi, Corelli and Torelli, he learnt how to write dramatic openings and adopted their sunny dispositions, dynamic motor-rhythms and decisive harmonic schemes. Bach inducted himself into these stylistic aspects largely by transcribing for harpsichord and organ the ensemble concertos of Vivaldi; these works are still concert favourites. He may have picked up the idea of transcribing the latest fashionable Italian music from Prince Johann Ernst, one of his employers, who was a musician of professional calibre. In 1713, the Duke returned from a tour of the Low Countries with a large collection of scores, some of them possibly transcriptions of the latest fashionable Italian music by the blind organist Jan Jacob de Graaf. Bach was particularly attracted to the Italian solo-tutti structure, in which one or more solo instruments alternate section-by-section with the full orchestra throughout a movement.


Violin Sonata No. 1 in G minor (BWV 1001) in Bach's handwritingIn Weimar, he had the opportunity to play and compose for the organ, and to perform a varied repertoire of concert music with the duke's ensemble. A master of contrapuntal technique, Bach's steady output of fugues began in Weimar. The largest single body of his fugal writing is Das wohltemperierte Clavier ("The well-tempered keyboard"—Clavier meaning keyboard instrument). It consists of two collections compiled in 1722 and 1744, each containing a prelude and fugue in every major and minor key. This is a monumental work for its masterful use of counterpoint and its exploration, for the first time, of the full range of keys–and the means of expression made possible by their slight differences from each other—available to keyboardists when their instruments are tuned according to systems such as that of Andreas Werckmeister.

During his tenure at Weimar, Bach started work on The little organ book for his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann; this contains traditional Lutheran chorales (hymn tunes), set in complex textures to assist the training of organists. The book illustrates two major themes in Bach's life: his dedication to teaching and his love of the chorale as a musical form.

Bach eventually fell out of favour in Weimar and was, according to the court secretary's report, jailed for almost a month before being unfavourably dismissed:

“ On November 6, [1717], the quondam concertmaster and organist Bach was confined to the County Judge's place of detention for too stubbornly forcing the issue of his dismissal and finally on December 2 was freed from arrest with notice of his unfavourable discharge.[8] ”


Cöthen (1717–23)

The palace and gardens at Cöthen in an engraving from Matthäus Merian's Topographia (1650)Bach began once again to search out a more stable job that was conducive to his musical interests. Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen hired Bach to serve as his Kapellmeister (director of music). Prince Leopold, himself a musician, appreciated Bach's talents, paid him well, and gave him considerable latitude in composing and performing. However, the prince was Calvinist and did not use elaborate music in his worship; thus, most of Bach's work from this period was secular, including the Orchestral suites, the Six suites for solo cello and the Sonatas and partitas for solo violin. The well-known Brandenburg concertos date from this period.

On 7 July 1720, while Bach was abroad with Prince Leopold, tragedy struck: his wife, Maria Barbara, the mother of his first 7 children, died suddenly. The following year, the widower met Anna Magdalena Wilcke, a young, highly gifted soprano 17 years his junior, who performed at the court in Cöthen; they married on 3 December 1721. Together they had 13 more children, six of whom survived into adulthood: Gottfried Heinrich, Johann Christoph Friedrich and Johann Christian, all of whom became significant musicians; Elisabeth Juliane Friederica (1726–81), who married Bach's pupil Johann Christoph Altnikol; Johanna Carolina (1737–81); and Regina Susanna (1742–1809).[9]


Commemorative statue of J.S. Bach in Leipzig
Leipzig (1723–50)
In 1723, Bach was appointed Cantor of Thomasschule, adjacent to the Thomaskirche (St. Thomas' Lutheran Church) in Leipzig, as well as Director of Music in the principal churches in the town. This was a prestigious post in the leading mercantile city in Saxony, a neighbouring electorate to Thuringia. Apart from his brief tenures in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen, this was Bach's first government position in a career that had mainly involved service to the aristocracy. This final post, which he held for 27 years until his death, brought him into contact with the political machinations of his employer, the Leipzig Council. The Council comprised two factions: the Absolutists, loyal to the Saxon monarch in Dresden, Augustus the Strong; and the City-Estate faction, representing the interests of the mercantile class, the guilds and minor aristocrats. Bach was the nominee of the monarchists, in particular of the Mayor at the time, Gottlieb Lange, a lawyer who had earlier served in the Dresden court. In return for agreeing to Bach's appointment, the City-Estate faction was granted control of the School, and Bach was required to make a number of compromises with respect to his working conditions.[10] Although it appears that no one on the Council doubted Bach's musical genius, there was continual tension between the Cantor, who regarded himself as the leader of church music in the city, and the City-Estate faction, which saw him as a schoolmaster and wanted to reduce the emphasis on elaborate music in both the School and the Churches. The Council never honoured Lange's promise at interview of a handsome salary of 1,000 talers a year, although it did provide Bach and his family with a smaller income and a good apartment at one end of the school building, which was renovated at great expense in 1732.


St Thomas's Church, Leipzig, in the 21st centuryBach's job required him to instruct the students of the Thomasschule in singing and to provide weekly music at the two main churches in Leipzig, St. Thomas' and St Nicholas's. His post also obliged him to teach Latin, but he was allowed to employ a deputy to do this instead. In an astonishing burst of creativity, he wrote up to five annual cantata cycles during his first six years in Leipzig (two of which have apparently been lost). Most of these concerted works expound on the Gospel readings for every Sunday and feast day in the Lutheran year; many were written using traditional church hymns, such as Wachet auf! Ruft uns die Stimme and Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, as inspiration.

To rehearse and perform these works at St Thomas's Church, Bach probably sat at the harpsichord or stood in front of the choir on the lower gallery at the west end, his back to the congregation and the altar at the east end. He would have looked upwards to the organ that rose from a loft about four metres above. To the right of the organ in a side gallery would have been the winds, brass and timpani; to the left were the strings. The Council provided only about eight permanent instrumentalists, a source of continual friction with the Cantor, who had to recruit the rest of the 20 or so players required for medium-to-large scores from the University, the School and the public. The organ or harpsichord was probably played by the composer (when not standing to conduct), the in-house organist, or one of Bach's elder sons, Wilhelm Friedemann or Carl Philipp Emanuel.

Bach drew the soprano and alto choristers from the School, and the tenors and basses from the School and elsewhere in Leipzig. Performing at weddings and funerals provided extra income for these groups; it was probably for this purpose, and for in-school training, that he wrote at least six motets, mostly for double choir. As part of his regular church work, he performed motets of the Venetian school and Germans such as Heinrich Schütz, which would have served as formal models for his own motets.

Having spent much of the 1720s composing cantatas, Bach had assembled a huge repertoire of church music for Leipzig's two main churches. He now wished to broaden his composing and performing beyond the liturgy. In March 1729, he took over the directorship of the Collegium Musicum, a secular performance ensemble that had been started in 1701 by his old friend, the composer Georg Philipp Telemann. This was one of the dozens of private societies in the major German-speaking cities that had been established by musically active university students; these societies had come to play an increasingly important role in public musical life and were typically led by the most prominent professionals in a city. In the words of Christoph Wolff, assuming the directorship was a shrewd move that 'consolidated Bach's firm grip on Leipzig's principal musical institutions'.[11] During much of the year, Leipzig's Collegium Musicum gave twice-weekly, two-hour performances in Zimmerman's Coffeehouse on Catherine Street, just off the main market square. For this purpose, the proprietor provided a large hall and acquired several musical instruments. Many of Bach's works during the 1730s and 1740s were probably written for and performed by the Collegium Musicum; among these were almost certainly parts of the Clavier-Übung (Keyboard Practice) and many of the violin and harpsichord concertos.


Zimmerman's Coffeehouse in Leipzig, where Bach's Collegium Musicum gave regular concertsDuring this period, he composed the Kyrie and Gloria of the Mass in B Minor, and in 1733, he presented the manuscript to the Elector of Saxony in an ultimately successful bid to persuade the monarch to appoint him as Royal Court Composer. He later extended this work into a full Mass, by adding a Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei, the music for which was almost wholly taken from some of the best of his cantata movements. Bach's appointment as court composer appears to have been part of his long-term struggle to achieve greater bargaining power with the Leipzig Council. Although the complete mass was probably never performed during the composer's lifetime, it is considered to be among the greatest choral works of all time. Between 1737 and 1739, Bach's former pupil Carl Gotthelf Gerlach took over the directorship of the Collegium Musicum.

In 1747, Bach went to the court of Frederick II of Prussia in Potsdam, where the king played a theme for Bach and challenged him to improvise a fugue based on his theme. Bach improvised a three-part fugue on Frederick's pianoforte, then a novelty, and later presented the king with a Musical Offering which consists of fugues, canons and a trio based on the "royal theme", nominated by the monarch. Its six-part fugue includes a slightly altered subject more suitable for extensive elaboration.

The Art of Fugue, published posthumously but probably written years before Bach's death, is unfinished. It consists of 18 complex fugues and canons based on a simple theme. A magnum opus of thematic transformation and contrapuntal devices, this work is often cited as the summation of polyphonic techniques.

The final work Bach completed was a chorale prelude for organ, dictated to his son-in-law, Johann Altnikol, from his deathbed. Entitled Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiermit (Before thy throne I now appear, BWV 668a); when the notes on the three staves of the final cadence are counted and mapped onto the Roman alphabet, the initials "JSB" are found. The chorale is often played after the unfinished 14th fugue to conclude performances of The Art of Fugue.


Death (1750)

The 1750 "Volbach Portrait" may show Bach in the last months of his life[12]Bach's health may have been in decline in 1749, as on 2 June, Heinrich von Brühl wrote to one of the Leipzig burgomasters to request that his music director, Gottlob Harrer, immediately begin to audition someone to succeed to the Thomascantor and Director musices posts "upon the eventual... decease of Mr. Bach."[13] Bach became increasingly blind, and a celebrated British quack John Taylor (who had operated unsuccessfully on Handel) operated on Bach while visiting Leipzig in 1750. Bach died on 28 July 1750 at the age of 65. A contemporary newspaper reported the cause of death was "from the unhappy consequences of the very unsuccessful eye operation".[14] Some modern historians speculate the cause of death was a stroke complicated by pneumonia.[15][16][17] His estate was valued at 1159 Thalers and included 5 Clavecins, 2 Lute-Harpsichords, 3 violins, 3 violas, 2 cellos, a viola da gamba, a lute and a spinet, 52 "Sacred Books" (many by Martin Luther, Muller and Pfeiffer, also including Josephus' History of the Jews and 9 volumes of Wagner's Leipzig Song Book).[18]

During his life he composed more than 1,000 works.

At Leipzig, Bach seems to have maintained active relationships with several members of the faculty of the university. He enjoyed a particularly fruitful relationship with the poet Picander. Sebastian and Anna Magdalena welcomed friends, family, and fellow musicians from all over Germany into their home. Court musicians at Dresden and Berlin, and musicians including Georg Philipp Telemann (one of Emanuel's godfathers) made frequent visits to Bach's apartment and may have kept up frequent correspondence with him. Interestingly, George Frideric Handel, who was born in the same year as Bach in Halle, only 50 km from Leipzig, made several trips to Germany, but Bach was unable to meet him—a fact that Bach appears to have deeply regretted.[19]


Musical style

Bach's final resting place, St. Thomas' Church, LeipzigBach's musical style arose from his extraordinary fluency in contrapuntal invention and motivic control, his flair for improvisation at the keyboard, his exposure to South German, North German, Italian and French music, and his apparent devotion to the Lutheran liturgy. His access to musicians, scores and instruments as a child and a young man, combined with his emerging talent for writing tightly woven music of powerful sonority, appear to have set him on course to develop an eclectic, energetic musical style in which foreign influences were injected into an intensified version of the pre-existing German musical language. Throughout his teens and 20s, his output showed increasing skill in the large-scale organisation of musical ideas, and the enhancement of the Buxtehudian model of improvisatory preludes and counterpoint of limited complexity. The period 1713–14, when a large repertoire of Italian music became available to the Weimar court orchestra, was a turning point. From this time onwards, he appears to have absorbed into his style the Italians' dramatic openings, clear melodic contours, the sharp outlines of their bass lines, greater motoric and rhythmic conciseness, more unified motivic treatment, and more clearly articulated schemes for modulation.[20]

There are several more specific features of Bach's style. The notation of baroque melodic lines tended to assume that composers would write out only the basic framework, and that performers would embellish this framework by inserting ornamental notes and otherwise elaborating on it. Although this practice varied considerably between the schools of European music, Bach was regarded at the time as being on one extreme end of the spectrum, notating most or all of the details of his melodic lines—particularly in his fast movements—thus leaving little for performers to interpolate. This may have assisted his control over the dense contrapuntal textures that he favoured, which allow less leeway for the spontaneous variation of musical lines. Bach's contrapuntal textures tend to be more cumulative than those of Händel and most other composers of the day, who would typically allow a line to drop out after it had been joined by two or three others. Bach's harmony is marked by a tendency to employ brief tonicisation—subtle references to another key that lasts for only a few beats at the longest—particularly of the supertonic, to add colour to his textures.


The opening of the six-part fugue from The Musical Offering, in Bach's handAt the same time, Bach, unlike later composers, left the instrumentation of major works including The Art of Fugue and The Musical Offering open. It is likely that his detailed notation was less an absolute demand on the performer and more a response to a 17th-century culture in which the boundary between what the performer could embellish and what the composer demanded to be authentic was being negotiated.

Bach's apparently devout, personal relationship with the Christian God in the Lutheran tradition and the high demand for religious music of his times inevitably placed sacred music at the centre of his repertory; more specifically, the Lutheran chorale hymn tune, the principal musical aspect of the Lutheran service, was the basis of much of his output. He invested the chorale prelude, already a standard set of Lutheran forms, with a more cogent, tightly integrated architecture, in which the intervallic patterns and melodic contours of the tune were typically treated in a dense, contrapuntal lattice against relatively slow-moving, overarching statements of the tune.

Bach's theology also informed his compositional structures: Sei Gegrüsset is perhaps the finest example where there is a theme with 11 variations (making 12 movements) that, while still one work, becomes two sets of six—to match Lutheran preaching principles of repetition. At the same time the theological interpretation of 'master' and 11 disciples would not be lost on his contemporary audience. Further, the practical relationship of each variation to the next (in preparing registration and the expected textural changes) seems to show an incredible capacity to preach through the music using the musical forms available at the time.


Bach's seal, used throughout his Leipzig years. It contains the letters J S B superimposed over their mirror image topped with a crown.Bach's deep knowledge of and interest in the liturgy led to his developing intricate relationships between music and linguistic text. This was evident from the smallest to the largest levels of his compositional technique. On the smallest level, many of his sacred works contain short motifs that, by recurrent association, can be regarded as pictorial symbolism and articulations of liturgical concepts. For example, the octave leap, usually in a bass line, represents the relationship between heaven and earth; the slow, repeated notes of the bass line in the opening movement of Cantata 106 (Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit) depict the laboured trudging of Jesus as he was forced to drag the cross from the city to the crucifixion site.

On the largest level, the large-scale structure of some of his sacred vocal works is evidence of subtle, elaborate planning: for example, the overall form of the St. Matthew Passion illustrates the liturgical and dramatic flow of the Easter story on a number of levels simultaneously; the text, keys and variations of instrumental and vocal forces used in the movements of Cantata 11 (Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen) may form a structure that resembles the cross.

Beyond these specific musical features arising from Bach's religious affiliation is the fact that he was able to produce music for an audience that was committed to serious, regular worship, for which a concentrated density and complexity was accepted. His natural inclination may have been to reinvigorate existing forms, rather than to discard them and pursue more dramatic musical innovations. Thus, Bach's inventive genius was almost entirely directed towards working within the structures he inherited, according to most critics and historians.


Frontispiece of Bach's Clavier-Büchlein vor Anna Magdalena Bach, composed in 1722 for his second wifeBach's inner personal drive to display his musical achievements was evident in a number of ways. The most obvious was his successful striving to become the leading virtuoso and improviser of the day on the organ. Keyboard music occupied a central position in his output throughout his life, and he pioneered the elevation of the keyboard from continuo to solo instrument in his numerous harpsichord concertos and chamber movements with keyboard obbligato, in which he himself probably played the solo part. Many of his keyboard preludes are vehicles for a free improvisatory virtuosity in the German tradition, although their internal organisation became increasingly more cogent as he matured. Virtuosity is a key element in other forms, such as the fugal movement from Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, in which Bach himself may have been the first to play the rapid solo violin passages. Another example is in the organ fugue from BWV 548, a late work from Leipzig, in which virtuosic passages are mapped onto Italian solo-tutti alternation within the fugal development.

Related to his cherished role as teacher was his drive to encompass whole genres by producing collections of movements that thoroughly explore the range of artistic and technical possibilities inherent in those genres. The most famous examples are the two books of the Well Tempered Clavier, each of which presents a prelude and fugue in every major and minor key, in which a variety of contrapuntal and fugal techniques are displayed. The English and French Suites, and the Partitas, all keyboard works from the Cöthen period, systematically explore a range of metres and of sharp and flat keys. This urge to manifest structures is evident throughout his life: the Goldberg Variations (1746?), include a sequence of canons at increasing intervals (unison, seconds, thirds, etc.), and The Art of Fugue (1749) can be seen as a compendium of fugal techniques.


Family members
See also: Bach family
Bach married his second cousin Maria Barbara Bach in 1707. They had seven children, four of whom survived to adulthood:

Catharina Dorothea (28 December 1708 – 14 January 1774).
Wilhelm Friedemann (22 November 1710 – 1 July 1784).
Carl Philipp Emanuel (8 March 1714 – 14 December 1788).
Johann Gottfried Bernhard (11 May 1715 – 27 May 1739).
Maria died in 1720, and Bach married Anna Magdalena Wilcke in 1721. They had a further thirteen children, six of whom survived to adulthood:

Gottfried Heinrich (1724–63)
Elisabeth Juliana Friederica, called "Lieschen" (1726–81)
Johann Christoph Friedrich, the 'Bückeburg' Bach (1732–95)
Johann Christian, the 'London' Bach (1735–82)
Johanna Carolina (1737–81)
Regina Susanna (1742–1809)

Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710–84)
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714–88)
Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (1732–95)
Johann Christian Bach
(1735–82)


Works
Main articles: BWV and List of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach
See also: Category:Compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach, List of fugal works by Johann Sebastian Bach, and List of transcriptions of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach
J.S. Bach's works are indexed with BWV numbers, an initialism for Bach Werke Verzeichnis (Bach Works Catalogue). The catalogue, published in 1950, was compiled by Wolfgang Schmieder. The catalogue is organised thematically, rather than chronologically: BWV 1–224 are cantatas; BWV 225–249, the large-scale choral works; BWV 250–524, chorales and sacred songs; BWV 525–748, organ works; BWV 772–994, other keyboard works; BWV 995–1000, lute music; BWV 1001–40, chamber music; BWV 1041–71, orchestral music; and BWV 1072–1126, canons and fugues. In compiling the catalogue, Schmieder largely followed the Bach Gesellschaft Ausgabe, a comprehensive edition of the composer's works that was produced between 1850 and 1905. For a list of works catalogued by BWV number, see List of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach.


Organ works
Bach was best known during his lifetime as an organist, organ consultant, and composer of organ works in both the traditional German free genres—such as preludes, fantasias, and toccatas—and stricter forms, such as chorale preludes and fugues. He established a reputation at a young age for his great creativity and ability to integrate foreign styles into his organ works. A decidedly North German influence was exerted by Georg Böhm, with whom Bach came into contact in Lüneburg, and Dieterich Buxtehude in Lübeck, whom the young organist visited in 1704 on an extended leave of absence from his job in Arnstadt. Around this time, Bach copied the works of numerous French and Italian composers to gain insights into their compositional languages, and later arranged violin concertos by Vivaldi and others for organ and harpsichord. His most productive period (1708–14) saw the composition of several pairs of preludes & fugues and toccatas & fugues, and of the Orgelbüchlein ("Little organ book"), an unfinished collection of 45 short chorale preludes that demonstrate compositional techniques in the setting of chorale tunes. After he left Weimar, Bach's output for organ fell off, although his best-known works (the six trio sonatas, the "German Organ Mass" in Clavier-Übung III from 1739, and the "Great Eighteen" chorales, revised late in his life) were all composed after this time. Bach was extensively engaged later in his life in consulting on organ projects, testing newly built organs, and dedicating organs in afternoon recitals.[21][22] One of the high points may be the third part of the Clavier-Übung, a setting of 21 chorale preludes uniting the traditional Catholic Missa with the Lutheran catechism liturgy, the whole set interpolated between the mighty "St. Anne" Prelude and Fugue on the theme of the Trinity.


Other keyboard works

The title page of the third part of the Clavier-Übung, one of the few works by Bach that was published during his lifetime.Bach wrote many works for the harpsichord, some of which may also have been played on the clavichord. Many of his keyboard works are anthologies that show an eagerness to encompass whole theoretical systems in an encyclopaedic fashion.

The Well-Tempered Clavier, Books 1 and 2 (BWV 846–893). Each book comprises a prelude and fugue in each of the 24 major and minor keys in chromatic order from C major to B minor (thus, the whole collection is often referred to as 'the 48'). "Well-tempered" in the title refers to the temperament (system of tuning); many temperaments before Bach's time were not flexible enough to allow compositions to move through more than just a few keys.
The 15 Inventions and 15 Sinfonias (BWV 772–801). These short two- and three-part contrapuntal works are arranged in the same chromatic order as the Well-Tempered Clavier, omitting some of the less used keys. The pieces were intended by Bach for instructional purposes.
Three collections of dance suites: the English Suites (BWV 806–811), the French Suites (BWV 812–817) and the Partitas for keyboard (BWV 825–830). Each collection contains six suites built on the standard model (Allemande–Courante–Sarabande–(optional movement)–Gigue). The English Suites closely follow the traditional model, adding a prelude before the allemande and including a single movement between the sarabande and the gigue. The French Suites omit preludes, but have multiple movements between the sarabande and the gigue. The partitas expand the model further with elaborate introductory movements and miscellaneous movements between the basic elements of the model.
The Goldberg Variations (BWV 988), an aria with thirty variations. The collection has a complex and unconventional structure: the variations build on the bass line of the aria, rather than its melody, and musical canons are interpolated according to a grand plan. There are nine canons within the 30 variations, one placed every three variations between variations 3 and 27. These variations move in order from canon at the unison to canon at the ninth. The first eight are in pairs (unison and octave, second and seventh, third and sixth, fourth and fifth). The ninth canon stands on its own due to compositional dissimilarities.
Miscellaneous pieces such as the Overture in the French Style (French Overture, BWV 831), Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue (BWV 903), and the Italian Concerto (BWV 971).
Among Bach's lesser known keyboard works are seven toccatas (BWV 910–916), four duets (BWV 802–805), sonatas for keyboard (BWV 963–967), the Six Little Preludes (BWV 933–938), and the Aria variata alla maniera italiana (BWV 989).


Orchestral and chamber music
Bach wrote music for single instruments, duets and small ensembles. Bach's works for solo instruments—the six sonatas and partitas for violin (BWV 1001–1006), the six cello suites (BWV 1007–1012) and the Partita for solo flute (BWV 1013)—may be listed among the most profound works in the repertoire. Bach also composed a suite and several other works for solo lute. He wrote trio sonatas; solo sonatas (accompanied by continuo) for the flute and for the viola da gamba; and a large number of canons and ricercare, mostly for unspecified instrumentation. The most significant examples of the latter are contained in The Art of Fugue and The Musical Offering.

Bach's best-known orchestral works are the Brandenburg concertos, so named because he submitted them in the hope of gaining employment from Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg-Schwedt in 1721; his application was unsuccessful. These works are examples of the concerto grosso genre. Other surviving works in the concerto form include two violin concertos (BWV 1041 and BWV 1042); a Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor (BWV 1043), often referred to as Bach's "double" concerto; and concertos for one, two, three and even four harpsichords. It is widely accepted that many of the harpsichord concertos were not original works, but arrangements of his concertos for other instruments now lost. A number of violin, oboe and flute concertos have been reconstructed from these. In addition to concertos, Bach also wrote four orchestral suites, a series of stylised dances for orchestra, each preceded by a French overture. The work now known as the Air on the G String is an arrangement for the violin made in the nineteenth century from the second movement of the Orchestral Suite No. 3.


Vocal and choral works
Bach performed a cantata on Sunday at the Thomaskirche, on a theme corresponding to the lectionary readings of the week, as determined by the Lutheran Church Year calendar. He did not perform cantatas during the seasons of Lent and Advent. Although he performed cantatas by other composers, he also composed at least three entire sets of cantatas, one for each Sunday and holiday of the church year, at Leipzig, in addition to those composed at Mühlhausen and Weimar. In total he wrote more than 300 sacred cantatas, of which approximately 195 survive.

His cantatas vary greatly in form and instrumentation. Some of them are only for a solo singer; some are single choruses; some are for grand orchestras; some only a few instruments. A very common format, however, includes a large opening chorus followed by one or more recitative-aria pairs for soloists (or duets) and a concluding chorale. The recitative is part of the corresponding Bible reading for the week and the aria is a contemporary reflection on it. The melody of the concluding chorale often appears as a cantus firmus in the opening movement. Among the best known cantatas are BWV 4 ("Christ lag in Todesbanden"), BWV 21 ("Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis"), BWV 80 ("Ein' feste Burg"), BWV 106 ("Actus Tragicus"), BWV 140 ("Wachet auf") and BWV 147 ("Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben").

In addition, Bach wrote a number of secular cantatas, usually for civic events such as council inaugurations. These also include wedding cantatas, the Wedding Quodlibet, the Peasant Cantata and the Coffee Cantata, which concerns a girl whose father will not let her marry until she gives up her addiction to that extremely popular drink.

Bach's large choral-orchestral works include the famous St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion, both written for Good Friday vespers services at St. Thomas' and St. Nicholas' Churches in alternate years, and the Christmas Oratorio (a set of six cantatas for use in the Liturgical season of Christmas). The Magnificat in two versions (one in E-flat major, with four interpolated Christmas-related movements, and the later and better-known version in D major) and the Easter Oratorio compare to large, elaborate cantatas, of a lesser extent than the Passions and the Christmas Oratorio.

Bach's other large work, the Mass in B minor, was assembled by Bach near the end of his life, mostly from pieces composed earlier (such as cantata BWV 191 and BWV 12). It was never performed in Bach's lifetime, or even after his death, until the 19th century.

All of these works, unlike the six motets (Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied; Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf; Jesu, meine Freude; Fürchte dich nicht; Komm, Jesu, komm!; and Lobet den Herrn alle Heiden), have substantial solo parts as well as choruses.

Bach's copy of a two volume Bible commentary by the orthodox Lutheran theologian, Abraham Calov, was discovered in the 1950s in a barn in Minnesota, purchased apparently in Germany as part of a "job lot" of old books and brought to America by an immigrant. Its provenance was verified and it was subsequently deposited in the rare book holdings of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. It contains his markings of texts for his cantatas and notes. It is only rarely displayed to the public. A study of the so-called Bach Bible was prepared by Robin Leaver, titled J.S. Bach and Scripture: Glosses from the Calov Bible Commentary (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1985).


Performances
Present-day Bach performers usually pursue either of two traditions: so-called "authentic performance practice", utilising historical techniques, or alternatively the use of modern instruments and playing techniques, with a tendency towards larger ensembles. In Bach's time orchestras and choirs were usually smaller than those known to, for example, Brahms, and even Bach's most ambitious choral works, such as his Mass in B minor and Passions, are composed for relatively modest forces. Some of Bach's important chamber music does not indicate instrumentation, which gives greater latitude for variety of ensemble.

Easy listening realisations of Bach's music and its use in advertising also contributed greatly to Bach's popularisation in the second half of the twentieth century. Among these were the Swingle Singers' versions of Bach pieces that are now well-known (for instance, the Air on the G string, or the Wachet Auf chorale prelude) and Wendy Carlos' 1968 ground-breaking recording Switched-On Bach, using the then recently-invented Moog electronic synthesiser. Jazz musicians have also adopted Bach's music, with Jacques Loussier, Ian Anderson, Uri Caine and the Modern Jazz Quartet among those creating jazz versions of Bach works.


Legacy

Since being moved in 1938, the Donndorf statue of Bach now stands in the Frauenplan in Eisenach. The pedestal has been shortened and the relief now is at the wall in the background.In his later years and after his death, Bach's reputation as a composer declined; his work was regarded as old-fashioned compared to the emerging classical style.[23] Initially he was remembered more as a player, teacher and as the father of his children, most notably Johann Christian and Carl Philipp Emanuel. (Two other children, Wilhelm Friedmann and Johann Christoph Friedrich, were also composers.)

During this time, his works for keyboard were those most appreciated and composers ever since have acknowledged his mastery of the genre. Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin were among his most prominent admirers. On a visit to Thomasschule, for example, Mozart heard a performance of one of the motets (BWV 225) and exclaimed "Now, here is something one can learn from!"; on being given the motets' parts, "Mozart sat down, the parts all around him, held in both hands, on his knees, on the nearest chairs. Forgetting everything else, he did not stand up again until he had looked through all the music of Sebastian Bach". Beethoven was a devotee, learning the Well-Tempered Clavier as a child and later calling Bach the "Urvater der Harmonie" ("Original father of Harmony") and, in a pun on the literal meaning of Bach's name, "nicht Bach, sondern Meer" ("not a brook, but a sea"). Before performing a concert, Chopin used to lock himself away and play Bach's music. Several notable composers, including Mozart, Beethoven, Robert Schumann, and Felix Mendelssohn began writing in a more contrapuntal style after being introduced to Bach's music.

Today the "Bach style" continues to influence musical composition, from hymns and religious works to pop and rock. Many of Bach's themes—particularly the theme from Toccata and Fugue in D minor—have been used in rock songs repeatedly and have received notable popularity. Bach has even been referred to as "the father of all music."[24]

The revival in the composer's reputation among the wider public was prompted in part by Johann Nikolaus Forkel's 1802 biography, which was read by Beethoven. Goethe became acquainted with Bach's works relatively late in life through a series of performances of keyboard and choral works at Bad Berka in 1814 and 1815; in a letter of 1827 he compared the experience of listening to Bach's music to "eternal harmony in dialogue with itself".[25] But it was Felix Mendelssohn who did the most to revive Bach's reputation with his 1829 Berlin performance of the St. Matthew Passion. Hegel, who attended the performance, later called Bach a "grand, truly Protestant, robust and, so to speak, erudite genius which we have only recently learned again to appreciate at its full value".[26] Mendelssohn's promotion of Bach, and the growth of the composer's stature, continued in subsequent years. The Bach Gesellschaft (Bach Society) was founded in 1850 to promote the works, publishing a comprehensive edition over the subsequent half century.


The Bach monument that was constructed in 1884 by Adolf von Donndorf and erected in front of the Georgenkirche at the Marktplatz in Eisenach.Thereafter, Bach's reputation has remained consistently high. During the twentieth century, the process of recognising the musical as well as the pedagogic value of some of the works has continued, perhaps most notably in the promotion of the Cello Suites by Pablo Casals. Another development has been the growth of the "authentic" or period performance movement, which, as far as possible, attempts to present the music as the composer intended it. Examples include the playing of keyboard works on the harpsichord rather than a modern grand piano and the use of small choirs or single voices instead of the larger forces favoured by nineteenth- and early twentieth-century performers.

Johann Sebastian Bach's contributions to music—or, to borrow a term popularised by his student Lorenz Christoph Mizler, his "musical science"—are frequently bracketed with those by William Shakespeare in English literature and Isaac Newton in physics. Scientist and author Lewis Thomas once suggested how the people of Earth should communicate with the universe: "I would vote for Bach, all of Bach, streamed out into space, over and over again. We would be bragging, of course, but it is surely excusable to put the best possible face on at the beginning of such an acquaintance. We can tell the harder truths later."

Some composers have paid tribute to Bach by setting his name in musical notes (B-flat, A, C, B-natural; B-natural is notated as "H" in German musical texts, while B-flat is just "B") or using contrapuntal derivatives. Liszt, for example, wrote a praeludium & fugue on this BACH motif (existing in versions both for organ and piano). Bach himself set the precedent for this musical acronym, most notably in Contrapunctus XIV from the Art of Fugue. Whereas Bach also conceived this cruciform melody (among other similar ones) as a sign of devotion to Christ and his cross, later composers have employed the BACH motif in homage to the composer himself.

Some of the greatest composers since Bach have written works that explicitly pay homage to him. Examples include Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, Shostakovich's Preludes and Fugues, and Brahms's Cello Sonata in E, whose finale is based on themes from the Art of Fugue. A 20th-century work very strongly influenced by Bach is Villa-Lobos' Bachianas brasileiras. Stephen Sondheim once claimed he listened to no one else except Bach.

He is commemorated as a musician in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church on 28 July.


Johann Sebastian Bach Straße in Wittenberg, GermanyBach is the most represented artist on the Voyager Golden Record, a phonograph record included in two Voyager missions. Bach's compositions comprise three of the 27 recordings chosen. Many early examples of synthesised music played on the Commodore 64 home computer's SID chip were realisations of Bach's contrapuntal works.

Although Bach fathered twenty children, only ten survived infancy. He has no known descendants living today. His great-granddaughter—Frau Carolina Augusta Wilhelmine Ritter, who died May 13, 1871—was his last known descendant.[27]

A modern reconstruction of Johann Sebastian Bach's head using computer modeling techniques, unveiled 3 March 2008 in Berlin, showed the composer as a strong-jawed man with a slight underbite, his large head topped with short, silver hair.[28]


Media
A number of recordings are available at List of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach


See also
Abraham Calovius-the commentator for his 3-volume study Bible.[29]
Agenda-as appointed by Church Order, this directed worship.
Chorale-a hymn sung by the entire congregation.
Divine Service (Gottesdienst)-liturgy used among Lutherans for a mass.
Law and Gospel-his sacred cantatas reflect this hermeneutic.[30]
List of students of Johann Sebastian Bach
Lutheran Orthodoxy-religious convictions which motivated his sacred works.[31]
Luther's Small Catechism-he taught this catechism as the Thomascantor in Leipzig[32] and some of his pieces represent it.[33]

Notes
^ a b Grout, Donald (1980). A History of Western Music. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 435. ISBN 0-393-95136-7.
^ Printed in translation in The Bach Reader (ISBN 0393002594)
^ Wolff, Christoph (2000). Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 41–43. ISBN 0-393-04825-X.
^ Rich, Alan (1995). Johann Sebastiam Bach: Play by Play. Harper Collins. pp. 27. ISBN 0-06-263547-6.
^ "Classical Net - Basic Repertoire List - Buxtehude". Classical.net. http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/buxtehude.php. Retrieved on 2008-09-20.
^ Mendel 1999, p. 43
^ "The Face Of Bach". Nathan P. Johansen. http://www.npj.com/thefaceofbach/09w624.html. Retrieved on 2008-05-19.
^ Mendel 1999, p. 80
^ Wolff 1983, p. 98, 111
^ Butt, John (1997-06-28). The Cambridge Companion to Bach. Cambridge University Press. pp. 17–34. ISBN 0521587808.
^ Wolff, Christoph (2000). Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 341. ISBN 0-393-04825-X.
^ Towe, Teri Noel (2000-08-28). "The Inscrutable Volbach Portrait". The Face of Bach. http://www.npj.com/thefaceofbach/08w828.html. Retrieved on 2008-05-20.
^ Wolff, Christoph (2000). Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 442. ISBN 0-393-04825-X.
^ Mendel 1999, p. 188
^ Breitenfeld, Tomislav; Solter, Vesna Vargek; Breitenfeld, Darko; Zavoreo, Iris; Demarin, Vida (2006-01-03). "Johann Sebastian Bach's Strokes" (PDF). Acta Clinica Croatica (Sisters of Charity Hospital) 45 (1). http://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak_download&id_clanak_jezik=21520. Retrieved on 2008-05-20.
^ Baer, Ka. (1956). "Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) in medical history". Bulletin of the Medical Library Association (Medical Library Association) 39 (206).
^ Breitenfeld, D.; Thaller, V; Breitenfeld, T; Golik-Gruber, V; Pogorevc, T; Zoričić, Z; Grubišić, F (2000). "The pathography of Bach's family". Alcoholism 36: 161–164.
^ Mendel 1999, pp. 191–97
^ Mendel 1999, p. 407
^ Wolff, Christoph (2000). Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 401. ISBN 0-393-04825-X.
^ "Bach, Johann Sebastian". ClassicalPlus. http://classicalplus.gmn.com/composers/composer.asp?id=2. Retrieved on 2008-05-19.
^ "Arnstadt (1703–1707)". Northern Arizona University. http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~tas3/arnstadt.html. Retrieved on 2008-05-19.
^ Beethoven: The Universal Composer. Edmund Morris. 2005. p. 2 - noting that Bach was "mocked as passe even in his own lifetime."
^ "Why was Bach considered the father of all music???". Able2Know. http://www.able2know.org/forums/about41366.html. Retrieved on 2008-05-19.
^ "Wittheits-Vortrag über „Goethe und Johann Sebastian Bach“" (in German). Bremen. http://www2.bremen.de/web/owa/p_anz_presse_mitteilung?pi_mid=76241. Retrieved on 2008-05-19.
^ "Matthäus-Passion BWV 244". Bach Cantatas. http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Vocal/BWV244-Spering.htm. Retrieved on 2008-05-19.
^ Terry, C. Sanford (1930-06-01). "Has Bach Surviving Descendants?". The Musical Times (JSTOR) 71 (1048): 511–513. doi:10.2307/917359. http://j.s.bach.gr.jp/tomita/script/bach2.pl?22=10824. Retrieved on 2007-10-08.
^ Terry, C. Sanford (2008-03-03). "What did Bach look like?" ([dead link] – Scholar search). The Musical Times (CNN) 71: 511. doi:10.2307/917359. http://edition.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Music/03/03/reconstructing.bach.ap/index.html. Retrieved on 2008-03-03.
^ Maxwell, D.R.Theological Symbolism in the Organ Works of J.S. Bach
^ Analyzing Bach Cantatas By Chafe, E.T.Analyzing Bach Cantatas. New York: Oxford University Press US, 2000.
^ Herl, J. Worship Wars in Early Lutheranism: Choir, Congregation, and Three Centuries of Conflict. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
^ Leaver, R.A.Luther's Liturgical Music. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans Publishing, 2007.
^ For example, see Grove, G. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Vol. 4. New York: Macmillian, 1980. p. 335.

References
Mendel, Arthur (1999), The New Bach Reader, W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 0393319563 .
Wolff, Christopher (1983), The New Grove: Bach Family, Papermac, ISBN 0333343506 .

Further reading
Baron, Carol K. (2006-06-09). Bach's Changing World:: Voices in the Community. University of Rochester. ISBN 1580461905.
Boyd, Malcolm (2001-01-18). Bach. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195142225.
Eidam, Klaus (2001-07-03). The True Life Of J.s. Bach. Basic Books. ISBN 0465018610.
Geck, Martin (2006-12-04). Johann Sebastian Bach: Life and Work. Harcourt Trade Publishers. ISBN 0151006482.
Hofstadter, Douglas (1999-02-04). Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. Basic Books. ISBN 0465026567.
Schweitzer, Albert (1967-06-01). J. S. Bach (Vol 1). Dover Publications. ISBN 0486216314.
Spitta, Philipp (1997-07-03). Johann Sebastian Bach: His Work and Influence on the Music of Germany, 1685–1750 (Volume II). Dover Publications. ISBN 0486274136.
Stauffer, George (February 1986). J. S. Bach As Organist: His Instruments, Music, and Performance Practices. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253331811.
Williams, Peter (2007-03-05). J.S. Bach: A Life in Music. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521870747.
Wolff, Christoph (September 2001). Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0393322564

Dr Victor Olaiya - The best of 3 decades of Highlife

Dr Victor Olaiya - The best of 3 decades of Highlife
(Premier Music 2003)
To be named the 'Evil Genius' of any strand of music takes some beating, but to be named that as a highlife musician is true class. Dr Victor Olaiya is a musical giant in both Highlife music and Nigerian music in general. Olaiya was able to take all the possibilities that were available at the height of popular music in Nigeria, and used it to secure his name in the hall of fame of highlife.

The infectiousness of all his music typifies highlife music, yes - but once again let us remember that he was called 'Evil genius'. He always brings energy to his music - and some of the grooves that can be heard in his music past and present could never be matched. Music is his life, his work and his play. He can still be heard today playing at his famous 'Stadium Hotel' in Lagos, Nigeria, and takes pleasure from making music as enjoyable as possible

LIFE AND WORKS OF FELA SOWANDE

Fela Sowande (1905-1987)Nigerian Composer, Organist & Professor
Father of Modern Nigerian Art Music

Table of Contents
1 Birth 2 Father 3 Education in Nigeria 4 Jazz in Nigeria 5 Move to London 6 African American Influences 7 World War II Years 8 African Suite 9 Postwar Years in London 10 Homecoming 11 Nigerian Folk Symphony 12 Nationalism 13 Professor 14 Death 15 Honors 16 Centennia
The Organ Works of Fela Sowande: Cultural Perspectives by Godwin SadohQuality Paperback (2007)
Audio Samples 1 Cedille 90000 055 (2000); African Heritage Symphonic series, Vol. 1; Chicago Sinfonietta; Paul Freeman, Conductor; African Suite Joyful Day2 Decca LM 4547 (1952); Fela Sowande African Suite for Strings; The New Symphony Strings; Trevor Harvey, Conductor; Digitally Remastered, Mike S. Wright; Akinla1 BirthThe African composer Olufela Sowande was born in Oyo, Nigeria on May 29, 1905. Bode Omojola, Ph.D., chronicles his life and career in the 1995 book, Nigerian Art Music, in which he observes:
Fela Sowande is undoubtedly the father of modern Nigerian Art Music and perhaps the most distinguished and internationally known African composer. The most significant pioneer-composer of works in the European classical idiom, his works mark the beginning of an era of modern Nigerian Art Music.
2 FatherFela's father was Emmanuel Sowande, an Anglican priest of Egba descent who helped establish Nigerian church music in the early 20th century. The elder Sowande taught at St. Andrew's College, a missionary institute in Nigeria which trained young people to become teachers. Emmanuel Sowande was subsequently transferred to Lagos, and young Fela accompanied him there. Fela's father arranged for him to be a choir boy at Christ Church Cathedral.
Dominique-René de Lerma is Professor of Music at Lawrence University Conservatory of Music, and a leading authority on composers of African descent. He notes that Fela went from choir boy to music student, beginning a "20-year association" with the choir's Director, Thomas King Ekundayo Phillips. The professor has posted an excerpt on Sowande from a manuscript on Black composers at a Web site: www.africanchorus.org/Artists/Sowande.htm 3 Education in NigeriaSowande's education began at the Church Missionary Society Grammar School and continued at Kings College. Throughout that period, he studied organ with Phillips and faithfully attended his teacher's organ recitals. De Lerma recounts that those performances included:
...European music and particularly the organ works of Bach, Handel, and Rheinberger, as well as Coleridge-Taylor's Hiawatha's wedding feast. On his graduation from Kings College, he was an accomplished pianist and was engaged as deputy organist under Phillips at the Cathedral. Simultaneously, he taught in a mission school and worked as a civil servant for three years.
4 Jazz in NigeriaShort-wave radio broadcasts of the music of Duke Ellington introduced Sowande to jazz in 1932. Radio programs from the United States, France and Britain allowed him to hear recordings of other jazz artists as well. De Lerma continues:
This led to his organization of the Triumph Dance Club Orchestra, in which he played piano. He was also a member of the jazz band, The Chocolate Dandies, that had been organized about 1927 in Lagos.
5 Move to LondonSowande went to London to study civil engineering, but he was soon supporting himself as a jazz musician. He founded a jazz septet, comprised principally of musicians from the Caribbean, and decided to study music. Sowande attended the University of London and the Trinity College of Music as an external candidate, and also studied individually with George D. Cuningham, George Oldroyd and Edmond Rubbra. De Lerma explains:
However he was influenced by these contacts, it was in 1935 that he began coping with nationalistic impulses, which were articulated in his articles from 1965, the development of a national tradition of music and Language in African music.
6 African American InfluencesSowande took lessons in jazz piano, and began performing on both the piano and the Hammond organ. A number of African Americans who visited London became his friends. They included Paul Robeson and Fats Waller. Sowande performed George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue as part of the show Black Birds of 1936. This brought him into contact with J. Rosamond Johnson, who served as choral conductor for the production and who introduced him to the works of Robert Nathaniel Dett, who is featured on another page of this Web site. Sowande also worked with Adelaide Hall as her cabaret pianist and recording partner in the late 1930s. 7 World War II YearsIn 1940, Sowande presented his own compositions as examples on a radio program of the BBC Africa Service, West African Music and the Possibilities of its Development. He then joined Britain's Royal Air Force, but was relieved of duty so he could serve as music director for the country's Colonial Film Unit. In that capacity he composed music for films which were intended to be seen by Africans. De Lerma adds:
Composed at this time was his personal "signature tune", based on a sacred melody (Obangiji) composed by Rev. Joshua Jesse Ransome-Kuti that served its needs and those of the BBC's African programs from 1943 to the 1960s.It was in 1943 that he earned the Fellowship diploma of the Royal College of Organists, as well as the Limas Prize for music theory, the Harding Prize for his organ playing, and the Read Prize for the overall excellence of his examinations, along with his B.M. degree from the University of London. He was appointed organist and choir director of the West London Mission of the Methodist Church in 1945 (Kingsway Hall), which stimulated the creation of new works for organ. His Sunday recitals became very popular.
8 African SuiteOmojola recounts that Sowande collected African melodies for use in his activities for the BBC Africa Service, and says of them:
These were later to be developed into original compositions, in particular, Six Sketches for Full Orchestra and the African Suite, both of which were issued on Decca Records in London in 1953.
The African Suite (24:52) was recorded on CD in 1994 on CBC Records SMCD 5135. The CBC Vancouver Orchestra is led by Mario Bernardi, Conductor. The liner notes outline the history and composition of the work:
The African Suite, written in 1944, combines well-known West African musics with European forces and methods. For the opening movement, Joyful Day, Sowande uses a melody written by Ghanaian composer Ephrain Amu, as he does in the fourth movement, Onipe. In Nostalgia, Sowande composes a traditional slow movement to express his nostalgia for the homeland (in itself a rather European idea). At the centre of the work is a restive Lullaby, based on a folk original.The finale of the Suite, Akinla, traces a very singular musical history. It began as a popular Highlife tune - Highlife being a pungent, 20th-century style, combining colonial Western military and popular music with West African elements and a history of its own. Sowande then featured it as a cornerstone of his "argument" that West African music could be heard on European terms: the African Suite was originally broadcast by the BBC to the British colonies in Africa. Years later, in another colony far away, the sturdy Highlife dance tune became famous as the theme song of the long-running CBC Radio programme "Gilmour's Albums", a typically idiosyncratic choice of the host, Clyde Gilmour.
9 Post War Years in LondonSowande's tenure as organist and choirmaster at the West London Mission of the Methodist Church extended from 1945 to 1952. Omojola says of these years:
It was during this period that he began active composition; it is not surprising that many of his early works were written for the organ. The church element which formed the basic foundation of his musical career continued to be the axis of his musical life. Organ works written during this period included Oyigiyigi, Kyrie, Prayer, Obangiji, Gloria and Ka Mura. These, like virtually all Sowande's organ works, are based on Nigerian melodies.
10 HomecomingSowande moved back to Nigeria in 1953 to become Head of Music and Music Research of the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. De Lerma explains his duties:
In this post he produced weekly radio programs based on field research of Yoruba folklore, mythology, and oral history, presented by tribal priests.
Even after his return to Nigeria, Sowande played a part in British television. Clare Ethel Deniz was a Black British jazz pianist. Her obituary in Britain's newspaper The Guardian, on January 3, 2003, recalled:
She sang in Fela Sowande's choir for the 1954 television series Club Ebony...
Between 1955 and 1958, Sowande composed four songs based on African American gospel music: Roll de Ol' Chariot, My Way's Cloudy, De Ol' Ark's a-Moverin, and De Angels are Watchin'. De Lerma notes that a grant from the United States Government enabled Sowande to travel to the U.S. in 1957 and give organ recitals in Boston, Chicago and New York. While in the country he also lectured on the findings of his research.11 Nigerian Folk SymphonyThe composer's Nigerian Folk Symphony was his last major work. It was conceived as part of the celebration of Nigeria's independence from Britain. Omojola sees it as the best evidence of Sowande's cultural nationalism:
No other work reveals Sowande's appreciation of Nigerian culture and his strong belief in cultural nationalism more than his Folk Symphony (1960). At the peak of his research activities at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, just before he became a Research Fellow at the University of Ibadan, Sowande was asked by the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation to write a work to mark the Nigerian Independence celebrations. This work, the Folk Symphony, was premiered on October 1st, 1960 during the Independence celebrations. ... The work gives a very strong reflection of African elements and it could be argued that it marked the climax of Sowande's commitment to nationalism.
De Lerma comments on the response to the symphony in the liner notes for three movements of the African Suite on Cedille 90000 055 (2000):
When Sowande conducted the New York Philharmonic in his Nigerian Folk Symphony in 1964, a critic lamented that it sounded more European than Nigerian. What he missed was that, although the orchestral sonority was certainly not rooted in Africa, the rhythms, scales, and melodies were idealizations of Nigerian sources. Sowande thus joined the other nationalists, following the same process traveled by William Grant Still.
12 NationalismSowande composed most of his works during a time of rising nationalism, with one African country after another achieving its independence from a colonial power. He consciously employed both Nigerian elements and European forms, and Omojola writes he remained open-minded:
He believed in the philosophy of cultural reciprocity and argued against what he called 'apartheid in art'. According to him: 'We are not prepared to submit to the doctrine of apartheid in art by which a musician is expected to work only within the limits of his traditional forms of music.' He therefore warned against: 'uncontrolled nationalism in which case nationals of any one country may forget that they are all members of one human family with other nationals.'
13 ProfessorAfter 1960, Sowande worked mainly as a professor. During the 1961-62 academic year he was a Visiting Scholar in the Anthropology Department of Northwestern University in the U.S. He also worked with Roger Sessions at Princeton University. De Lerma writes that his next position was in Nigeria:
From 1962 until 1965 he was senior research fellow at the University of Ibadan, then becoming musicology professor at the university's Institute of African Studies. A government grant in 1966 resulted in a series of studies on Nigerian music.
Sowande also studied Yoruba religion from 1962-65 with the aid of a grant from the Ford Foundation. In 1968 he returned to the U.S. to accept a position on the faculty of Howard University in Washington. D.C. He held it until 1972. Between 1968 and 1972, Sowande made at least 48 recordings on the history, language, literature and music of Nigeria, for distribution by the Broadcasting Foundation of America. De Lerma adds:
He became professor of Black studies at the University of Pittsburgh in 1972, later joining the faculty of the School of Education. He was affectionately known here as 'Papa Sowande'. His last position was in the Department of Pan-African Studies at Kent State University, which he held until his retirement in 1982, accompanied by Eleanor, his wife.
14 DeathFela Sowande spent his last days in a nursing home in Ravenna, Ohio. He was 82 years old when he died of a stroke on March 13, 1987. De Lerma describes the funeral service:
A memorial service was held at St. James Episcopal Church in New York on 3 May 1987, at which time Eugene Hancock complied with Sowande's 1965 request by performing his Bury me eas' or wes'. Sowande had received a permanent American visa in 1972 and had become a citizen in 1977.
15 HonorsThroughout his career, Sowande accumulated an impressive array of honors in recognition of his contributions to music. In 1943 he became a Fellow of Britain's Royal College of Organists. De Lerma writes:
Queen Elizabeth II named him a Member of the British Empire in 1956, the same year he became a Member of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The music department at theUniversity of Nigeria-Nsukka, was renamed the Sowande School of Music in his honor (1962). In 1968 he was given the Traditional Chieftancy Award, named the Bagbile of Lagos. He was given an honorary doctorate by the University of Ife in 1972.
The Fela Sowande Memorial Lecture and Concert Series is an ongoing tribute which has been held at the Institute of African Studies of the University of Ibadan since 1996. 16 CentennialThe Fela Sowande Centennial Symposia and Festivals took place in North America in 2004, and in Europe and Africa in 2005, to mark the centennial of the composer's birth.

LIFE AND WORKS OF SAMUEL EKPE AKPABOT

Samuel Ekpe Akpabot (1932-2000)Nigerian Composer, Professor and Author

Table of Contents
1 Pittsburgh 1963 2 Youth 3 Adolescence 4 Studies in London 5 Early Compositions 6 Nsuuka 7 African Influences 8 Cynthia's Lament 9 Orchestral Composer 10 Three Nigerian Dances 11 Studies in the U.S. 12 Sacred Works 13 Professor and Author 14 Conclusion 15 Death 16 Resources
Samuel Akpabot : The Odyssey of a Nigerian Composer-Ethnomusicologist (Paperback) by Godwin Sadoh
Audio Sample: Marco Polo 8.223832 (1995); Five African Songs, San Gloria, Three Nigerian Dances, San Chronicle; National Symphony Orchestra of the South African Broadcasting Corporation; Richard Cock, Conductor Three Nigerian Dances"Congratulations for helping to project these Black composers. I hope that very soon the works of these composers will feature more prominently in concert halls around the globe." Bode Omojola, Author, Nigerian Art Music
1 Pittsburgh 1963In the year before Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Nigerian composer Samuel Ekpe Akpabot and Cynthia Boudreau, the 16-year-old White woman with whom he was sitting, were denied service at the restaurant of the Conrad Hilton Hotel in Pittsburgh, on the basis of his race. The young woman expressed her outrage and fled the scene in tears. The incident was not an uncommon occurrence in the U.S. at the time, and would in most cases have passed unnoticed by the rest of the world. The composer resolved on the spot, however, to memorialize it, and later did so in a tone poem which came to be called Cynthia's Lament.
2 YouthSamuel Ekpe Akpabot was an African composer who was born in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria on October 3, 1932. One of the principal documentary sources on his life and career is Nigerian Art Music, a book written by Bode Omojola, Ph.D. and published in 1995 by the Institute of African Studies at Ibadan University in Nigeria. He says of the composer's youth:
At the age of eleven he came to Lagos for his education at King's College, a school often referred to as the "Eton of Nigeria" and where European music was taught. It was, however, in the Church that Samuel Akpabot received the most significant introduction to European music. He was a chorister at Christ Church Cathedral, Lagos, under Phillips.
3 AdolescenceTo illustrate the role of the church in teaching young Samuel about European religious masterpîeces, Omojola quotes Akpabot from a personal conversation the two had in January 1985:
'I sang all of them before going to England and that turned out to be a very great advantage.'
The choral works included Handel's Messiah and Mendelssohn's Elija. The author reports that Mendelssohn was still Akpabot's favorite composer years later, although his influence was seldom evident in Akpabot's compositions. Omojola continues:
As well as being a chorister he also found time to play in bands, the most popular of which was the Chocolate Dandies, formed and led by Soji Lijadu. In 1949 when Akpabot left the choir, his voice having broken, he formed his own band, The Akpabot Players; T.A.P. as it was popularly called.
At the same time as he led a band, Akpabot served as organist at St. Saviour's Church in Lagos, Olabode Omojola relates:
I would come back very late in the night from night clubs and steal into the Bishop's court where I lived (with Bishop Vining, then, of Lagos) and the following morning go to play for both the Holy Communion Service and the Sunday Mattins!
4 Studies in LondonA scholarship enabled Akpabot to travel to England in 1954 and enroll in the Royal College of Music in London. There he studied organ and trumpet. His teachers included John Addison, Osborn Pisgow and Herbert Howells. Akpabot subsequently left to study music at Trinity College.
5 Early CompositionsIn 1959 Akpabot returned to Nigeria and became a broadcaster with the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. At the same time he produced his earliest compositions, which were influenced by his country's Highlife idiom. Omojola continues:
His first work, Nigeriana, for orchestra (1959) was originally written as an exercise for his composition teacher, John Addison. After minor revisions it was later renamed Overture for a Nigerian Ballet. Conceived along the tradition of the nineteenth century European concert overture, the work is characterised by literal and allusive quotations of Highlife tunes strung together in a rhapsodic manner.
6 NsukkaAkpabot left his position in broadcasting in 1962 to join the fledgling music faculty of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Omojola describes the environment as favorable for composing:
Nsukka proved a stimulating atmosphere in which to compose. The university, itself, established in the same year as Nigeria's independence, was generally regarded as a symbol of modern independent Nigeria. It was seen as one of the most important foundations for fashioning an artistic tradition that would reflect the national aspirations of the country. Between 1962 and 1967, Akpabot wrote four works which clearly reflected the prevailing nationalist euphoria of that time. The works are Scenes from Nigeria, for orchestra (1962); Three Nigerian Dances, for string orchestra and percussion (1962); Ofala, a tone poem for wind orchestra and five African instruments (1963); and Cynthia's Lament, tone poem for soloist, wind orchestra and six African instruments (1965).
7 African InfluencesOmojola explains that Ofala and Cynthia's Lament were both commissioned by Robert Austin Boudreau, Director of the American Wind Symphony Orchestra. He had visited Nigeria in 1962 at the invitation of the Nigerian Arts Council. The two works were premiered in Pittsburgh; Ofala in 1963 and Cynthia's Lament in 1965. The author discusses the African influence on each of the four works listed above:
While Scenes from Nigeria and Three Nigerian Dances belong essentially to the same category as Overture for a Nigerian Ballet; Ofala and Cynthia's Lament reveal a greater emphasis on African (Ibibio) elements not only in the use of instruments but in the use of melodic and formal procedures. ...Ofala, in 1972, won first prize in a competition for African composers organised by the Africa Centre of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); forty-one African countries were represented. The prize-winning work was a tone poem based on the annual 'yam eating festival' of the Onitsha people of Anambra State.
8 Cynthia's LamentOmojola writes that Cynthia's Lament is a tone poem whose underlying occurence was described to him by the composer in an interview in January, 1985:
'Cynthia Avery was the 16 year old daughter of the white American Vice-Chairman of the American Wind Symphony Orchestra of Pittsburgh with whom I stayed during a visit in 1963 for the premiere of Ofala. After the performance, we went to the Conrad Hilton to have coffee with Mr. Boudreau. The rather silly waiters deliberately avoided serving Miss Avery and myself (we were seated together a short distance from the girl's parents and Mr. Boudreau, who were served). This so distressed Miss Avery that she stormed out into the foyer, sobbing, "I don't know what has become of my people!" I decided to write a short piece for her, and on my next commission two years later, I produced Cynthia's Lament.'
9 Orchestral ComposerA later tone poem is Nigeria in Conflict, a 1973 composition which deals with the country's horrific civil war. Omojola observes:
Akpabot is the one Nigerian composer who has written almost entirely for the orchestra. His choice of instrumentation is, however, also conditioned by the need to project the features of traditional African instruments, as exemplified in Nigeria in Conflict consisting of those which are typical of Ibibio music. They are the gong, woodblock, rattle, wooden drum and xylophone. ...At the end of the civil war in 1970 Akpabot became a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, and the two works written there continued to reflect the nationalist element of the pre-war works. These were Two Nigerian Folk Tunes for choir and piano, (1974) and Jaja of Opobo, a folk opera, sung and spoken in Efik, English and Ibo (1972).
10 Three Nigerian DancesThe composer's Three Nigerian Dances (8:34) has been recorded by the National Symphony Orchestra of the South African Broadcasting Corporation, under the direction of Richard Cock, Conductor, on Marco Polo 8.223832 (1995). Brett Pyper writes in the liner notes:
Several of Akpabot's compositions juxtapose African and European instruments, while others, like Three Nigerian Dances, use Western instruments only (strings and timpani in this case). The Dances do, however convey a genuine sense of West African musical characteristics with their use of "call and response" patterns and idiomatic rhythmic motives.
Oxford University Press has published Samuel Akpabot's Three Nigerian Dances, and gives this history of the creation of the work:
His training helped equip Akpabot to notate traditional Nigerian material in such a way as to make it accessible to western audiences. As far as the Three Nigerian Dances are concerned, the composer wrote:"I was inspired in writing this work by Dvorak's Slavonic Dances which I enjoy listening to very much. Jolly good fun was my key word here and I think string orchestras would enjoy getting introduced to the dances which we, in Africa, have enjoyed through the years. They all consist of an opening section, a middle section which does not modulate, and a closing section. Modulation is very foreign to African instrumental music and I wanted very much to get away from the ABA form so common to early European instrumental music."
11 Studies in the U. S.Brett Pyper explains that Akpabot interrupted his academic career in Nigeria for ethno-musicological studies in the United States:
He then continued his ethno-musicological studies in the United States at the University of Chicago and Michigan State University, where he received a Doctor of Philosophy degree. His publications on the subject have gained him a reputation as a major scholar of West African indigenous music.
Akpabot's studies at the University of Chicago led to his receipt of an M.A. in Musicology. His Ph.D. dissertation at Michigan State University, published in 1975 by Michigan State University Press, was Functional Music of the Ibibio People of Nigeria.
12 Sacred WorksOmojola writes that Akpabot put aside his nationalist tendencies for two sacred works he composed in the 1970s:
Akpabot's nationalist zeal has, however, been curtailed in his two most recent works: Te Deum Laudamus, (Church anthem, choir and organ, 1975) and Verba Christi, (a cantata for three soloists, chorus and orchestra) commissioned by the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation for the World Black Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) which took place in Lagos in 1977. The two works brought back echoes of the Church, the foundation of his musical training. The Verba Christi is his largest work to date and is notable for its use of musical materials from diverse European styles ranging from Victorian choral tradition to twentieth century atonality.
13 Professor and AuthorAkpabot also served as a Visiting Scholar in African Music at Michigan State University. He continued to write about Nigerian and African music, and returned to teach Music at the University of Uyo in Nigeria in the 1990s. His book Foundation of Nigerian Traditional Music was published in 1986 by Spectrum Ibadan. He also wrote a book entitled Form, Function and Style in African Music. It was published in 1998 by MacMillan Nigeria Ibadan. All three of the books are available from used book dealers such as www.abebooks.com
14 ConclusionIn appraising the style which characterizes the works of Akpabot, Omojola draws comparisons with the compositions of two other Nigerian composers, Fela Sowande (1905-87) and Akin Euba (b. 1935). For biographical essays on Sowande and Euba follow the links at the top of the page. Omojola concludes:
Compared with that of Sowande, Samuel Akpabot's style is relatively homogenous. Virtually all his works are typified by a recurring approach in which elements of Highlife music combined with those of his traditional culture, Ibibio, are fused with features of European tradition. Often rejecting the expressionist, even avant-garde style of Euba, and the nineteenth century European heritage of Sowande, Akpabot's strong reliance on Highlife and Ibibio traditions is symptomatic of a personal vision of the role which Nigerian and modern African composers should perform in society.
15 DeathThe CBMR Digest reported in Vol. 14, No. 1, Spring 2001:
Samuel Ekpe Akpabot, renowned musicologist and composer, died in his hometown of Uyo, Nigeria, on August 7, 2000. He was 67 years old and until his death had been serving as a lecturer at the Institute of Cultural Studies, University of Uyo.
Like his fellow Nigerian Fela Sowande, Samuel Ekpe Akpabot was a very accomplished composer who lived to see very few of his compositions recorded.
16 ResourcesAfricaDatabase.org (www.africadatabase.org) - Profile of Samuel Ekpe Akpabot by Godwin Sadoh, ethnomusicologist, organist and composer.CBMR.org (www.cbmr.org) - Center for Black Music Research: Samuel Ekpe Akpabot (1932-2000), In Memoriam. CBMR Digest, Vol. 14, No. 1, Spring 2001.

LIFE AND WORKS OF AKIN EUBA

Table of Contents 1 Birth 2 Traditional Music 3 Piano Lessons 4 Trinity College of Music 5 Early Works 6 UCLA 7 Developing an Idiom 8 Composing for Piano 9 Bachelor's Degree 10 Master's Degree 11 Research 12 Articles 13 Books 14 African Pianism 15 Creative Ethnomusicology 16 Chaka CD 17 Narrative 18 References for Opera 19 Nigerian Art Music 20 Positions 21 University of Cambridge 22 Ensemble Noir 23 University of Pittsburgh 24 Africa and the Diaspora 25 A Bridge Across 26 Acknowledgment 27 Works 28 Bibliography 29 Electronic References



Dr. Akin EubaAndrew W. Mellon Professor of MusicUniversity of Pittsburgh
Audio Sample: Music Research Institute MRI-0001CD (1998); Chaka: An opera in two chants; City of Birmingham Touring Opera; Simon Halsey, Conductor Part VI - "Why do you not dance"
1 BirthAkin Euba was born in Lagos, Nigeria on April 28, 1935 and spent his early years there. He is a member of the Yoruba ethnic group. His biography is Akin Euba: An Introduction to the Life and Music of a Nigerian Composer by Joshua Uzoigwe. It is a 1992 publication of the Bayreuth African Studies Series, edited by Prof. Eckhard Breitinger. It explains that his father was an amateur musician:
Akin Euba's father, Alphaeus Sobiyi Euba, was in his youth an active musician (although music was not his profession). He was a chorister at the Olowogbowo Methodist Church (now Wesley Cathedral) Lagos and also played the clarinet in the Triumph Orchestra, a Lagos dance band in which Fela Sowande (who later became internationally famous as a composer)was the pianist.Akin Euba's mother, Winifred Remilekun Euba, née Dawodu, was a teacher by profession.
2 Traditional MusicThe author refers to a 1974 dissertation for examples of the types of traditional music which were common in the composer's childhood:
In his dissertation on Dundun Drumming of the Yoruba (Euba 1974) he gives an account of some of the traditional music types and events that were popular in those early periods of childhood. These include types such as waka and apala. Akin Euba describes waka as a socio-religious song, of Islamic origin, which later became entertainment music, accompanied on dundun drums. This music (in which female singers are supported by male instrumentalists) isusually employed in marriage, child-naming, and funeral ceremonies. Apala, which is performed only by men, also has some links with Islam. Like waka it is very much influenced by dundun drumming.
3 Piano LessonsAkin Euba received his first piano lessons from his father, beginning in 1943. His father clearly expected him to make music his profession. Euba's second piano teacher was Major J.G.C. Allen, a British civil servant with whom he began instruction in 1948. Euba won first prize at the First Nigerian Festival of the Arts in 1950. Josua Uzoigwe continues:
After 1950 Major Allen sent Akin Euba to a Monsieur Tessier Rémi du Cros, the then French Consul in Lagos, who taught him for a while, following which he returned to Major Allen before travelling to the United Kingdom in September 1952. He had left the C.M.S. Grammar School nine months earlier.
4 Trinity College of MusicAfter two years of study at Trinity College of Music, Euba changed his program to allow himself to concentrate on courses he considered of more value to his future career. His biographer recounts:
These subjects included piano, composition,harmony and counterpoint, orchestration, organ and score-reading.One teacher who influenced him a great deal at the College was Eric Taylor, with whom he studied harmony and counterpoint for some time. Taylor saw much potential in Akin Euba's arrangements of Nigerian folk songs and encouraged him to do them. The first ofsuch arrangements were, therefore, done when Akin Euba was a student. ...Another person who gave him much encouragement at the College was his composition teacher Dr Arnold Cooke, a pupil of Paul Hindemith. The report which Cooke gave Euba at the end of the first term as his teacher bore the grade 'excellent' with the comments that Akin Euba was a gifted student. This, in Euba's opinion, reinforced in no small way his desire to become a composer.
In four years at Trinity College of Music, Akin Euba earned three degrees:
They are Associate of the Trinity CollegeLondon (Piano Performance) 1954; Licentiate of the Trinity College London (Teacher's Training Diploma) 1955; and Licentiate of the Trinity College London (Piano Performance) 1956.
5 Early WorksUzoigwe tells us Akin Euba regarded his first major composition to be a 1956 work, Introduction and Allegro for Orchestra. He earned Fellowship diplomas at the College in 1957 in Composition and Piano Performance. Euba submitted a string quartet for the Composition Fellowship. He went back to Nigeria in 1957 and served as a Senior Programme Assistant (Music) at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation until his promotion to Head of Music in 1960. The author continues:
Two works which were written as a result of his experiences at this time are Six Yoruba Songs for voice and piano, and Two Yoruba Folk Songs for unaccompanied choir. They were both completed in 1959.In the same year that he was promoted as Head of Music (1960), Akin Euba wrote another work entitled The Wanderer for violoncello and piano.
The biography quotes Akin Euba's comments on The Wanderer:
"Hitherto," he confirms, "It was in arrangements of folk songs that I made use of African material. My original compositions were composed in European terms. The Wanderer was the first composition in which I attempted to explore elements of African music."
His position in broadcasting contributed to performances and recordings of some of Euba's early compositions.6 UCLAIn 1962 Akin Euba received a fellowship in ethnomusicology which had a major impact on his development as a composer, as we learn from the biography:
While still in the employ of the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, he received a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship in 1962 to study ethnomusicology at the University of California, Los Angeles. His arrival at UCLA towards the end of that year marked, according to Akin Euba, a turning point in his career. He was to be introduced to different musical cultures from many parts of the world, and, as time went on, he was to acquire a deep theoretical knowledge of African music. ...After an incubation period of one year or so, during which he absorbed the 'theoretical means' mentioned above, Akin Euba began to seek to develop what he considered an African idiom.
7 Developing an IdiomJoshua Uzoigwe tells us of the works Akin Euba composed while trying to develop an African idiom:
The earliest works in this new attempt include Igi Nla So for piano and four Yoruba drums, and Three Yoruba Songs for baritone, piano and Iyaalu (Yoruba 'talking drum' of the dundun tension drum family). Other works written in 1963 include Five Pieces for English horn and piano, and Dance to the Rising Sun. The latter is an orchestral piece which was commissioned by Robert Boudreau, who conducted the American Wind Symphony Orchestra at the work's premiere that same year.According to Akin Euba, in spite of these early efforts at composing in an African idiom, he could "not find the key to this idiom". But he felt all along that the key was being gradually revealed by his continued study of the theoretical basis of African traditional music and exposure to the traditional music of other peoples, and, especially, by his interaction with other composers at UCLA who were also involved with the study of non-Western music.
8 Composing for PianoThe author points out that the composer focused on works for piano in 1964:
His last academic year as an undergraduate at UCLA was that of increased influx in creative activities, particularly in writing for the piano. Akin Euba explains the reasons for this as follows:"I believe that my producing many works for the piano in 1964 resulted from (1) my need to have things which I could play by myself and (2) my wish to explore the 'African'/percussive aspects of the piano. I was at that time just beginning to develop the idea of 'African pianism', a style of piano playing which is as distinct as a jazz pianism or a Chopinesque pianism." ...The piano works that he wrote in 1964 include Four Pictures from Oyo Calabashes, Impressions from an Akwete Cloth, and Saturday Night at Caban Bamboo. The other works of this same year in which piano is combined with other instruments are Tortoise and the Speaking Cloth for narrator and piano, and Four Pieces for flute, bassoon, piano and percussion.
9 Bachelor's DegreeEuba graduated Cum Laude with a B.A. degree in Music, and returned to Nigeria, at the end of the 1963-64 school year, Uzoigwe writes, but registered at UCLA again in late 1965, this time in the Masters degree program in Composition. During the interim, Euba had written Abiku I, to be performed on Nigerian instruments. The author continues:
According to Akin Euba, it was written for a dance-drama (choreographed by Segun Olusola), involving a solo dancer, which was video-taped by the Nigerian Television Authority (formerly NBC-TV) and presented at the Salzburg Congress of the International Music Centre on "Dance, Ballet and Pantomime in Film and TV" in 1965.The music and dramatization of Abiku I were based, he says, on J.P. Clark's poem on the theme of abiku (a child "born to die"), although the text itself was not used. J.P.Clark is a Nigerian poet and playwright and a contemporary of Akin Euba.
10 Master's DegreeAkin Euba left his position with the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation when he returned to UCLA to earn a Master's degree. Uzoigwe adds:
He now set out to compose another series of pieces for an African orchestra as part of his thesis for a Master's degree in 1966.
The new collection was called Four Pieces. The book continues:
On completion of his Master's degree at UCLA in 1966, Akin Euba joined the University of Lagos as a lecturer in music, and within that same year he attended two music conferences in Bloomington, Indiana, and Legon, Ghana.
11 ResearchHis biographer tells us Akin Euba's teaching duties were light enough that he was able to do research in Ethnomusicology:
While at the University of Lagos, Euba was attached to the School of African and Asian Studies, where his teaching duties were minimal. He was therefore able to concentrate on research and creative work. ...In fact, in 1967, he registered with the University of Ghana as a Ph.D. student inethnomusicology.From 1967 onwards, Akin Euba began toacquire, through his research, a deeper knowledge of the music of his culture, which he in turn employed as an aid to his creative experiments. A piece of work which marks the beginning of this phase is Olurounbi, a tone poem for symphony orchestra. In 1966 he had written what appears to be a prelude to this work. The earlier work was titled Legend, and scored for violin, horn, piano, and percussion. The symphonic tone poem of 1967 is based on a Yoruba legend (see explanation in Chapter 4), and was performed in that year by the Portland Maine Symphony Orchestra conducted by Arthur Lipkin.
12 ArticlesAkin Euba composed two other works in 1967, Uzoigwe tells us: (1) Morning, Noon and Night for Nigerian instruments, performed in 1967 in Edinburgh by Theatre Express of Lagos. (2) Wind Quintet, performed in Nairobi in 1967 by the Bavarian Wind Quintet. Music was not all Euba produced that year; he also published two theoretical articles on music in Africa. Multiple Pitch Lines in Yoruba Choral Music appeared in the Journal of the International Folk Music Council, XIX. In Search of a Common Language of African Music was published in Interlink, III,iii. Akin Euba was founder and editor of the journal Nigerian Music Review, and established a series called Ife Music Editions to publish music composed by Africans. Joshua Uzoigwe tells us Euba subsequently wrote a number of music journal articles on his ideas:
They include such titles as "Creative Potential and Propagation of African Traditional Music" (Euba 1972), "Traditional Elements as the Basis of New African Art Music" (Euba 1970c), "Music Adapts to a Changed World" (Euba 1970a), "The Potential of African Traditional Music as a Contemplative Art" (Euba 1974), and the "Criteria for the Evaluation of New African Art Music" (Euba 1975a).
13 BooksProf. Akin Euba's curriculum vitae says he is the author of four books and the co-editor of another three volumes:
Euba is the author of four books, including Yoruba Drumming: The Dundun Tradition, and co-editor of three books in the series titled Intercultural Music.
14 African PianismHis curriculum vitae also includes autobiographical notes which begin as follows:
Akin Euba, who comes from Nigeria, divides his time between composition and scholarly work and considers himself to be a disciple of Bela Bartok. Since 1970, he has pioneered several theories of composition, the best known of which is that of African pianism. This concept has been adopted by some of the most important contemporary African composers, such as J.H. Kwabena Nketia, Joshua Uzoigwe and Gyimah Labi. The concept is articulated in several of Euba’s works for the piano, including Scenes from Traditional Life (1970) which has been performed extensively in various parts of the world.
15 Creative EthnomusicologyDr. Euba's autobiographical notes continue with a definition of his theory of creative ethnomusicology:
Another of Euba’s theories, creative ethnomusicology, was the subject of an inaugural lecture which he delivered in the University of Pittsburgh in March 2000, in his position as the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Music at the University. As defined by Euba, creative ethnomusicology is a process whereby information obtained from music research is used in composition rather than as the basis of scholarly writing.
16 Chaka CDAkin Euba's curriculum vitae observes that his creative concepts have no better representation than the opera Chaka. He explains in the liner notes of Chaka, MRI 0001CD (1999):
This recording is a revised version of the opera that was premiered in a semi-staged format by the City of Birmingham Touring Opera in September 1995, during Africa 95, a three-month long celebration of African arts that took place in various parts of the United Kingdom. ...Briefly stated, Chaka is a fusion of 20th century techniques of composition with stylistic elements derived from African traditional music, particularly the music of the Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria. Moreover, the orchestra is a combination of African and Western instruments.
17 NarrativeThe liner notes by Akin Euba give this account of the events portrayed in the opera Chaka:
The epic poem by Senghor is based on the real life story of Chaka, a 19th century king of the Zulu who achieved fame as a brilliant military strategist and empire builder but was also notorious for crimes against humanity.
The poem is in two parts, subtitled Chant 1 and Chant 2 and in designating Chaka as an opera in two chants (rather than two acts) I follow Senghor's example. The vocal parts of the opera are in any case written in a style that is akin to that of the chant mode of Yoruba music (in its free rhythm, but not speech-song, aspects).In the prelude to Chant 2, I include "Man and the Beast," also a poem by Senghor (but not part of the Chaka poem).Senghor's poem covers the last moments of Chaka's life. In Chant 1, the hithertoinvincible Chaka has been assassinated by some of his own people and lies dying from his wounds. He is cross-examined by a White Voice (who is a dual symbol of the missionary and colonial presence in Africa).The White Voice denounces Chaka as ablood-thirsty tyrant who murdered Noliwe, his wife-to-be, in order to gain absolute power, and also caused the slaughter of millions, including pregnant women and children. Chaka's defence is that every act of his was performed for the love of his black-skinned people.Chant 2 is a love song in which Chaka remembers tender moments with his beloved Noliwe, while a chorus chants in praise of Chaka.
Further information on Chaka is available in the author's notes at the Website AfricanChorus.org: http://www.africanchorus.org/Voam/Voam643.htm 18 ReferencesThe liner notes of the Chaka recording list these references for the opera:
Euba, Akin. Essays on Music in Africa 2: Intercultural Perspectives. Bayreuth: Bayreuth African Studies Series. (1989)Uzoigwe, Joshua Akin Euba: An Introduction to the Life and Music of a Nigerian Composer. Bayreuth: Bayreuth African Studies Series. (1992)Léopold Sédar Senghor, first president ofSenegal and doyen of modern African writers, originally published "Chaka" and "Man and the Beast" in French. The English translations used in the opera are not included in these notes and may be found in the OUP publication cited above. The Yoruba texts of the opera were written or derived from various traditional sources by Akin Euba. They are included here with parallel translations in English.
19 Nigerian Art MusicNigerian Art Music is an overview of classical music by Nigerian composers. The author is Olabode Omojola, Ph.D. Artists featured include Samuel Ekpe Akpabot, Fela Sowande and Akin Euba. All three are profiled at this Website. Dr. Omojola begins his analysis of Akin Euba with these words:
Like Sowande, Akin Euba's ideas on the need for African composers to maintain a strong link with traditional African traditional music have been reflected both in his compositions and research work. Clear parallels often, therefore, occur between his writing and his composition. The writing shows Euba's strong commitment, far beyond that of any of his colleagues, to a search for a contemporary African society.
20 PositionsDr. Euba has been a lecturer, visiting fellow, and external examiner at a variety of universities in Africa and North America. His first position as Lecturer at the University of Lagos in Nigeria extended from 1966-68. From 1968-75, he was a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Ife in Nigeria. He spent the Summer of 1969 at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Assignments as External Examiner involved both the University of Ife and Makerere University in Uganda. Dr. Euba was a Professor at the University of Lagos from 1978-81. He spent five years as a Research Scholar at the University of Bayreuth in Germany, from 1986-91. Among other appointments, he was Director of the Center for Intercultural Music Arts in London, which he founded, in 1988. Subsequent positions listed on his curriculum vitae include:
1992-94 External Examiner, University of Ghana, Legon.1992-94 Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Music Association1993 (October) - 1996 (September)Honorary Visiting Professor, Department of Music, City University, London.1993 (January) - 1996 (April) Visiting Andrew Mellon Professor of Music, University of Pittsburgh1994 Appointed by the Center for Black Music Research, Chicago, as a member of the Advisory Board for a Dictionary of Black Composers being published by the St. James's Press.1996 (September) Appointed Andrew Mellon Professor of Music, University of Pittsburgh1996-97 External Examiner, University of Ghana, Legon.
21 University of CambridgeHis curriculum vitae recounts his work on a new composition while he was an overseas fellow of the University of Cambridge in the 2000-2001 academic year. It also gives the time and circumstances of the work's subsequent premiere in New Orleans:
Euba spent the 2000-2001 academic year as an overseas fellow of Churchill College, University of Cambridge. While at Cambridge he worked on a major new composition, Orunmila’s Voices: Songs from the Beginning of Time, a music drama for soloists, chanters, chorus, dancers and symphony orchestra, which received its world premiere in New Orleans on 23 February 2002, during the second annual international festival of African and African American music (FESAAM 2002).
22 Ensemble NoirEnsemble Noir is a professional organization in Toronto which is devoted to "cultural diversity in contemporary classical music", as indicated at its Website, http://www.EnsembleNoir.org In his curriculum vitae, Dr. Euba recounts his 10 days as a composer-in-residence with the group:
During the spring semester of 2003, Dr Euba spent ten days in Toronto as a composer-in-residence with the Ensemble Noir, during which several of his works were performed, including three movements from Orunmila’s Voices, in new arrangements for various chamber ensembles.
23 University of PittsburghAkin Euba is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Music at the University of Pittsburgh. His fields are African Music, Composition and Piano Performance, according to his faculty Web page: http://www.pitt.edu/~musicdpt/faculty/euba.html The page adds that Dr. Euba's biography has been published in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2d ed., 2001; and in the International Dictionary of Black Composers, 1999. 24 Africa and the DiasporaProf. Euba's curriculum vitae recounts his change of concentration in the past several years from global interculturalism to connections between Africa and the Diaspora:
In recent years Euba has moved away from general issues on world interculturalism (with which he has been involved since 1988) to focus on links between Africa and the Diaspora. This new orientation is reflected in most of his recent and current projects, for example the international symposia and festivals on African pianism (Pittsburgh 1999) and on composition in Africa and the Diaspora (Cambridge 2001) which were organized by him.
25 A Bridge AcrossAfricanChorus.org has published Profile: Akin Euba at its Website:http://www.africanchorus.org/Voam/Voam644.htm It touches on aproject Euba started in 1993:
Since joining the University of Pittsburgh in 1993, Euba has initiated a new project, entitled A Bridge Across: Intercultural Composition, Performance, Musicology, which is an extension of Euba’s London activities and is designed to spotlight the works of composers, performers and musicologists through recitals, workshops, lectures, residencies and so forth.
26 AcknowledgmentThe Webmaster gratefully acknowledges permission to use the Works List, Bibliography and Electronic Resources compiled by Dr. Dominique-René de Lerma, Professor of Music at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. Prof. De Lerma has been publishing on Black Classical Music for four decades, and is a former Director of the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College, Chicago, http://www.CBMR.org 27 WorksCollections:Towards an African pianism; collected works for the keyboard, 1964-1997. Projected.Individual titles:A Yoruba folksong, for flute, harp, viola & percussion.Àbíkú, no. 1, for African instrumental ensemble (1965)..Àbíkú, no. 2, for textless chorus & African instrumental ensemble (1968).Alatangana, ballet. for singers, dancers & Nigerian instruments (1975).Amici, for string quartet.Below Rusumo Falls, for voice, dancer, kayagum, flute, drums & piano. Text: Olusola Oyeleye. Commssion (poetry): Barbican Education. Première: 2003/VIII/3, University of Cambridge, Churchill College, Wolfson Hall Auditorium; Dawn Padmore, soprano; Hee-sun Kim, kayagum; Laura Falzon, flute; Darryl Hollister, piano; Radiu Ayandokun, drums; Omotolani Sarumi, dancer; Bongani Ndodana, conductor.CD: Dawn Padmore, soprano; Laura Falzon, flute; Hee-sum Kim, kyagum; Anicet Mundundu, drums; Darryl Hollister, piano (2003/VIII/03; Churchill College, University of Cambridge).Black Bethlehem, for soloists, chorus, Nigerian drums & jazz ensemble (1979).Chaka, opera in two chants, for 2 sopranos, tenor, 2 basses, chorus and orchestra with African instruments (1970, rev. 1999). Text: Léopold Sédar Senghor, after the novel, Shaka the Zulu, by Thomas Mofolo (1925)?== Première: 1995/IX; Birmingham UK; Symphony Hall. Dedication: Morenike, the composers daughter. Duration: 61:16.CD: Daniel Washington (Chaka); Richard Halton (White voice); Mauren Brathwaite (Noliwe); Jæláadé Pratt (Praise chanter); Sarah Jane Wright (Leader of the chorus); Olúêọlá Oyèléyę (Isanussi); City of Birmingham Touring Opera; Simon Halsey, conductor. Music Research Institute MRI-0001 CD (1999). Liner notes unsigned.----- Noliwe's ariaCD: Dawn Padmore, soprano; Darryl Hollister, piano (Churchill College, University of Cambridge, 2003/VIII/4).----- Themes from Chaka, no. 1 (1996 == or 1966?). Duration: 5:50.CD: Eric Moe, piano (2001/VIII/06).CD: Darryl Hollister, piano (2001/III). Interntional Consortium for the Music of Africa and its Diaspora. FESAAM 2001.----- Themes from Chaka, no. 2, for piano. Première: 2003/VII/02; Churchill College, University of Cambridge; Darryl Hollister, piano.CD: Darryl Hollister, piano (2003/VIII/02; Churchill College; University of Cambridge).Dirges, for speakers, dancers, soloists & African instruments (1972). Première: 1972; Munich; Olympics.Festac 77 anthem, for chorus & jazz ensemble (1977). Première: 1977; Lagos; Second World Festival of Black and African Arts. Text: Margaret Walker.Ice cubes, for string orchestra. (1970).Igi n/a so, for 4 Yoruba drums & piano (1953). ==oriki scoresImpressions from Akwete cloth, for piano (1964).Introduction and allegro, for orchestra (1956).Legend of Olurounbi, for orchestra. Première: by 1967; United States.Morning, noon, and night, for singers, dancers & Nigerian instruments (1967).Music for horn, violin, percussion & piano.Olurombi, [2] for orchestra (1967). Première: 1967; Portland Symphony Orchestra [ME] Arthur Bennet Lipkin, conductor.Orumillas voices; songs from the beginning of time (2002).4 Pictures from oyo calabashes, for piano (1964).4 Pieces, for flute, bassoon, Nigerian instruments & piano (1964).4 Pieces for African orchestra (1966).Quartet, strings (1957).Quintet, winds (1967).Saturday night at Caban Bamboo (1964).Scenes from traditional life, for piano (1970). Ile-Ife: University of Ife Press, 1970. Contains 3 movements. Dedication: J. G. C. Allen.CD: Glen Inanga, piano (2003/VIII/1, Churchill College, University of Cambridge).Study in African jazz, no. 2; a song for Darelee (2000)CD: David Keberle, clarinet; Eric Moe, piano (2001/VIII).Study in African jazz, no. 3, for piano. Commission: Eric Moe.CD: Eric Moe, piano.The wanderer, for violoncello & piano ----- for piano trio (1960).2 Tortoise folk tales, for narrator & Nigerian instruments (1975).Wakar duru; 3 Studies in African pianism (1987). 1. Study 1; 2. Study 2. Première: 1993/I/29, Nigeria; University of Ilorin, Performing Arts Courtyard; Godwin Sadoh, piano.----- 1.CD: Darryl Hollister, piano (2001/VIII/06, Universty of Cambridge). DSL 003.----- 3.CD: Darryl Hollister, piano (2001/VIII/06, Universty of Cambridge). DSL 003.2 Yoruba folk songs, for chorus (1959).6 Yoruba folksongs, for voice & piano (1975 == or 1959?). 1. Mo lè jiyán yo; 2. Òré méta; 3. Mo já wé gbé gbé; 4. Omo jòwó; 5. Agbe; Ó se gbé na?CD: Joyce Adewumi, soprano; Darryl Hollister, piano (2001/VIII/06).6 Yoruba songs, for voice & piano (1959).3 Yoruba songs, for baritone, lyalu & piano (1963). ==? Oriki scores ==28 Bibliography1971 prize winners; Dance, music, drama in African arts, v5n3 (1972/winter) p8-11.Alatangana in African arts, v5n2 (1972/winter) p46-47.Dr. Éubàs tours in Music rap, v2n6 (1985/III) p15-16.Adégbìé, Adémçlá. The present state of development of African art music in Nigeria in African art music in Nigeria, ed, by Mosúnmợlá A Omíbíyì-Obidike. Ibadan: Stirling Horden, 2001, p77-92. Baldacchino, John. An analytical review of Akin Éubàs Modern African music and Joshua Uzoigwes Akin Éubà; An introduction to the life and music of a Nigerian composer in Commonwealth music (1966) p2-5.Black music research journal, 1981-1982, p147Black perspective in music, v4n1, p105; v5n1, p105; v6n1, p99.Bull, Storm. Index to biographies of contemporary composers, vol. 3. Metuchen: Scarecrow Press, 1987. xxiv, 854p. ISBN 0-8108-1930-9.Carter, Madison H. An annotated catalogue of composers of African ancestry. New York: Vantage Press, 1986.Clague, Mark. Éubà, Akin in International dictionary of Black composers, ed. by Samuel A. Floyd, Jr. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1999, v1, p424-432.Éubà, Akin. An introduction to music in Nigeria on Nigerian music review, n1 (1977) p1-38.Éubà, Akin. Concepts of neo-African music as manifested in the Yoruba folk opera in The African diaspora; A musical perspective, ed. by Ingrid Mondon. New York: Routledge, 2003, p207-241.Éubà, Akin. New idioms of music-drama among theYoruba; An introductory study in 1970 yearbook of the International Folk Music Council, ed. by Alexander L. Ringer. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1971.Éubà, Akin. Nigerian music in Nigerian magazine (1960).Éubà, Akin. Text setting in African composition in The landscape of African music, ed. by Abiola Irele. Special issue of Research in African literatures, v32n2 (2001), p119-132.Éubà, Akin. The interrelationship of music and poetry in Yoruba tradition in Yoruba oral tradition, ed. by Wandé Abímbæçlá. Ilé-Ifè: University of If`, Department of African Languages and Literature, 1975.Éubà, Akin. Themes from Chaka; A pianistic realization of African polyrhythm in Towards an African pianism, v1, ed. by Akin Éubà and Cynthia Tse Kimberlin. Point Richmond: MRI Press, 2002.Éubà, Akin. Traditional elements as the basis of new African music in African urban notes, n5/4. Éubà, Akin. Yoruba music in the church; The development of a neo-African art among the Yoruba of Nigeria in African musicology; Current trends, vol. 2; A Festschrift presented to J. H. Kwabena Nketia, ed. by Jacqueline C. DjeDje. Atlanta: Crossroads Press, 1992.Eubà, Akin. Bridging ethnomusicology and composition; A study of J. H. Kwabena Nketia. In progress.Éubà, Akin. Essays on music in Africa 2; Intercultural perspectives. Bayreuth: Bayreuth African Studies Series, 1989.Éubà, Akin. Modern African music; A catalogue of selected archical materials at Iwalewa-Haus, University of Bayreuth. Bayreuth: Iwalewa-Haus, 1993.Éubà, Akin. Yoruba drumming; The dundun tradition. Bayreuth: Bayreuth African Studies Series, 1990.Graham 1988, pix, 72Holohan, Meghan. Musical safari in Pitt magazine [University of Pittburgh] (2004/winter) p30-33.Horne 1996Horne, Aaron. String music by Black American composers. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1991 (Music reference collection, no. 33). xx, 327p. Foreword by Dominique-René de Lerma. ISBN 0-313-27938-1.Horne, Aaron. Woodwind music by Black American composers. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1990.Lerma, Dominique-René de. Black concert and recital music; A provisional list. Bloomington IN: Afro-American Music Opportunities Association, 1975.Lerma, Dominique-René de. Black music in our culture; curricular ideas on the subjects, materials, and problems. Kent: Kent State University Press, 1970. (Akim)Lerma, Dominique-René de. Reflections on Afro-American music. Kent: Kent State University Press, 1972.Morton, Brian, ed. Contemporary composers, ed. by Brian Morton and Pamela Collins. New York: St. James Press, 1992.Nwosu-Lohámijókò, Joy. Art singsing in Niegria; The composers and the perforners in African art music in Nigeria, ed, by Mosúnmợlá A Omíbíyì-Obidike. Ibadan: Stirling Horden, 2001, p70-76. Ọmọjọlà, Olabode. African pianism as an intercultural compositional framework; A study of the piano works of Akin Éubà in The landscape of African music, ed. by Abiola Irele. Special issue of Research in African literatures, v32n2 (2001), p153-174.Ojehomon, Agnes. Catalogue of recorded sound. Ibadan: University of Ibadan, Institute of African Studies, 1969 (Institute of African Studies, Occasional publications, 30). 39p.Roach, Hildred. Black American music, past and present. Miami: Krieger, 1985.Roberts, John Storm. Black music of two worlds; African, Caribbean, Latin, and African-American traditions. New York: Schirmer Books, 1998. xxxvii, 330p. Previously issued by Prager Publishers in 1972.Southern, Eileen. Éubà, Akin in Biographical dictionary of Afro-American and African musicians. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1982, p128. (The Greenwood encyclopedia of Black music).Southern, Eileen. A biographical dictionary of Afro-American and African musicians. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1982.==Spradling, Mary Mace. In black and white; Afro-Americans in print. 3rd ed. supplement. Detroit: Gale Research, 1985. Detroit: Gale Research, 1980.Stow, Betsy, ed. 2nd International Symposium and Festival on Composition in Africa and the Diapora, including Dialogue Africa meets Asia. Cambridge UK: Churchill College, 2003. 107p.Thomas 1989, p5.Uzoigwe, Joshua. A cultural analysis of Akin Éubàs musical works in Odu; Journal of West African studies, v24 (1983) p44-60.Uzoigwe, Joshua. Akin Éubà; An introduction to the life and music of a Nigerian composer. Graduate paper (M.A.) Queens University, Belfast, 1978.Uzoigwe, Joshua. Akin Éubà; An introduction to the life and music of a Nigerian composer. Bayreuth: Bayreuth African Studies Series, 1992.Waterman 199029 Electronic ResourcesContemporary African database http://people.africadatabase.org/people/data/person16618.html (2003). 2p. Consulted 2003/X/10.Nyaho http://www.nyaho/com/rep.html 2p. Consulted 2003/VI/02. Profile Akin Euba http://www.africanchorus.org/Voam/Voam644.htm (2004). 4p. Consulted 2004/IV/2.Hayman, Graham. Blakes triple for new SA http://www.chico.mweb.co.za/mg/art/music/9911/991118-blake.html (1999). 3p. Consulted 2003/VI/02/Bauer, Kerstin. Das Musikarchiv des Iwalewa-Hauses http://www.uni-bayreuth.de/Afriknologie/iwalewa/musikarchiv.htm Okoli, Tunde. Colours of African music across cultures wysiwyg://74/http://www.thisfayonlhive/20021014art01.html 3p. Consulted 2003/VI/02.Music; Ontario musicans around us in concert http://www.toronto.cbc.ca/musiciansaroundus/ensemble_noir.html 2p. (2003). Consulted 2003/VI/02.

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