Doctoral Degrees (Music)

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Music) by browse.metadata.advisor "Fourie, Paula"

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    A study of the music and social meaning of selected choral works from Dayo Oyeduns cantatas
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2020-03) Talabi, Grace Oluwabunmi; Muller, Stephanus; Fourie, Paula; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Department of Music.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation explores the interface between the socio-political realities in Nigeria and African art music discourses. It does so by performing the first ever substantive reading of selected choral numbers from Nigerian composer Dayọ̀ Oyèdúǹ’s cantata compositions, which are secular choral works. Four pieces from these cantatas were selected for this study: ‘Ọm’ọnírẹsì’, ‘Tòkunbọ̀’ and ‘American Visa’ from the Hospital Cantata; and ‘Nepa’ from the University Cantata. Oyèdúǹ’s biography is constructed as a framework in which to present his cantata-writing, as is the notion of the cantata as a genre in Nigerian music. I argue that the contexts in which the concept of ‘cantata’ was established in Nigeria are very different from its Western cultural origin, and that the notion of ‘cantata’ as used by Nigerian composers is best understood as informed by an understanding of ‘Nigerian art music’. To this end the study also provides a historical overview of art music in Nigeria, which it endeavours to tie to Oyèdúǹ’s biography through his Baptist upbringing. Drawing on theoretical and philosophical models from contemporary African music scholars, the study engages with Adédèjì’s notion of ‘transformative musicology’, a concept developed from a discourse known as intercultural music. I suggest in this dissertation that the performance of art music repertories that reflect on Nigeria’s socio-political issues in performance spaces such as concert halls, might lead to productive engagements, negotiations, mediations and interventions in social, economic and political spheres. The potential of such engagements to transformation, understood here as positive change, is considered. Another conceptual lens applied to performances of Oyèdúǹ’s cantatas is the ‘total art concept’. Through the reading of recorded music performances that involve various art forms, the dissertation seeks to combine a reading of scores with the performance contexts of Oyèdúǹ’s music, focusing attention on the interaction between the score, traditional Nigerian notions of musical performance as integrative of all the dramatic arts, and the way in which the art music discourse functions within this context.