Wednesday, April 15, 2020

AKIN EUBA: A Giant of Musicology and Composition Passes!


Wednesday, April 15, 2020

 "Professor Akin Euba was an expansive thinker in 
the world of musicology, - not just African. He was 
a theorist of immense world scope but with 
unparalleled devotion to Africa's unique voice. 
Without a doubt he not only coined the term, 
'African Pianism,' he led the debate to define 
what it entails."  He will be missed!" - Fred 
Onovwerosuoke (http://fredomusic.com)

Akin Euba ( April 28 1935 - 
April 14 2020)
(Courtesy of Intercultural Music Initiative 
archives in St. Louis, Missouri, USA)

(The following was culled from Wikipedia)

Born on 28 April 1935 in Lagos, Nigeria, Euba 
studied composition with Arnold Cooke at the 
Trinity College of Music, London, obtaining the diplomas 
of fellow of the Trinity College London (Composition) 
and fellow of the Trinity College London (Piano). He 
was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship in 1962. 
He received B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University 
of California, Los Angeles, where he studied with Mantle 
Hood, Charles Seeger, Professor J. H. Kwabena 
Nketia, Klaus Wachsmann, and Roy Travis. He 
holds a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the 
University of Ghana, Legon (1974). While at Legon, 
Euba's doctoral work was supervised by Professor 
Nketia, and his dissertation is entitled "Dundun Music of 
the Yoruba".

He was professor and director of the Centre for 
Cultural Studies at the University of Lagos, and has 
also served as a senior research fellow at the 
University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) 
in Nigeria. He served as head of music at the 
Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation for five years. He 
was a research scholar and artist in residence at 
IWALEWA House, the African studies center of 
the University of Bayreuth in Germany between 1986 
and 1992. He was the Andrew Mellon Professor 
of Music at the University of Pittsburgh between 1993 
and 2011 and he is the current Andrew W. Mellon 
Professor, Emeritus in music. He is the founder 
and director of the Centre for Intercultural Music 
Arts, London  (founded in 1989), and director 
emeritus of the Centre for Intercultural Musicology at 
Churchill College, University of Cambridge.


Euba's scholarly interests include the musicology 
and ethnomusicology of modern interculturalism. 
He has organized regular symposia on music in 
Africa and the Diaspora at Churchill College, 
Cambridge as well as the Central Conservatory of 
Music in Beijing. These events have featured such 
notable composers and scholars as J. H. Kwabena 
Nketia and Halim El-Dabh. With his Elekoto 
Ensemble, he has brought together musicians 
from Nigeria, China, India, Germany, Malta, and 
the United States.


His compositions involve a synthesis of African 
traditional material (often from his own ethnic 
group, the Yoruba people) and contemporary 
classical music. His most ambitious composition is 
the opera Chaka: An Opera in Two Chants (1970), 
which blends West African percussion and atenteben 
flutes with twelve tone technique.

Works
Six Yoruba Folk Songs, arranged for voice and piano
1956 – Introduction and Allegro, orchestra
1963 – Five Pieces for English Horn and Piano for 

Derek Bell
1964 – Four Pictures from Oyo Calabashes
1964 – Impressions From an Akwete Cloth, piano
1967 – Morning, Noon, and Night, singers, 

dancers, and Nigerian instruments
1967 – Olurounbi (or Olurombi), Symphonic study for 

Orchestra
1970 (rev. 1999) – Chaka, Opera
1970 – Ice Cubes, string orchestra
1970 – Scenes From Traditional Life, piano
1975 – Alatangana, ballet for singers, 

dancers, and Nigerian instruments
1979 – Black Bethlehem, soloists, chorus, 

Nigerian drums, and jazz ensemble
1987 – Wakar Duru: Studies in African Pianism 1-3, 

piano
2003 – Below Rusumo Falls, voice, dancer, 

kayagum, flute, drums, and piano (text: Olusola 
Oyeleye)
Discography[edit]
1989 – Piano Music of Akin Euba, 
performed by Peter Schmalfuss (includes 
Scenes from Traditional Life and Wakar Duru: 
Studies in African Pianism)
1999 – Chaka: An Opera in Two Chants, from an 

epic poem by Léopold Sédar Senghor. Point 
Richmond, California, United States: Music 
Research Institute MRI-001CD.
2005 – Towards an African Pianism: An 

Anthology of Keyboard Music From Africa and 
the Diaspora. Vol. 1. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 
United States: A Bridge Across: 
Intercultural Composition, Performance, 
Musicology, Department of Music, University 
of Pittsburgh, ABA 001 CD.
2005 – Towards an African Pianism: An 

Anthology of Keyboard Music From Africa and 
the Diaspora. Vol. 2. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 
United States: A Bridge Across: 
Intercultural Composition, Performance, 
Musicology, Department of Music, University 
of Pittsburgh, ABA 002 CD.
Writings[edit]
Euba, Akin (1970). "Music Adapts to a 
Changed World: A Leading Composer Looks 
at How Africa's Musical Traditions Have 
Expanded to Suit Contemporary Society." 
Africa Report, November 1970, pp. 24–27.
Euba, Akin (1989). "Yoruba Music in the 

Church: The Development of a Neo-African 
Art Among the Yoruba of Nigeria." In 
African Musicology: Current Trends: A 
Festschrift Presented to J. H. Kwabena 
Nketia, ed. J. C. DjeDje and W. G. Carter 
(Atlanta, Georgia), pp. 45–63.
References[edit]
Uzoigwe, Joshua (1992). Akin Euba: An 
Introduction to the Life and Music of a 
Nigerian Composer. Bayreuth, Germany: 
Bayreuth African Studies Series.


CLICK HERE to listen to Movement No. III 
of  Akin Euba's "Scenes from Traditional 
Life," from Peter Henderson's CD, "A 
Celebration of African Composers for 
Piano," released on AMP label, AGCD 2706. 
The eclectic high art of Yoruba drum 
language tradition always fascinated 
Euba and preoccupied his research for 
much of his entire career as composer 
and musicologist. Peter Henderson's CD 
is available on Amazon or 
African Music Publishers 
(http://ampublishers.org)





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