Wheaton College Conservatory of Music hosts FMCS March 17-19, 2011 with Keynote Address by J.H. Kwabena Nketia

[J.H. Kwabena Nketia]

Rashida Black forwards this poster and message from LaTonya Taylor, Director of Media Relations of Wheaton College:

“The Wheaton College Conservatory of Music will host the annual meeting of the Forum on Music and Christian Scholarship March 17-19, 2011. Legendary scholar of African music J. H. Kwabena Nketia will offer the keynote address, titled 'Bridging the Old and New in Contemporary Africa: The Creative Task of Christian Scholarship.' The address will take place at 8 p.m. in Barrows Auditorium.

“Additionally, plenary and concurrent sessions will be offered all day Friday, March 18, and on Saturday morning, March 19. Scholars and musicians will discuss the following topics: Freedom, Creativity and Wonder; Church Music, Philosophy and Practice; Communicating Christian Faith; Arts and the Christian Church, Multicultural Perspectives; Barber and Bernstein; Time and Eternity; Christianity and Popular Culture; and Music and Crisis in Popular Culture: A Thematic Approach to Christian Musical Scholarship.”

University of Ghana: 'Feschrift in Honour of Emeritus Prof. J. H. Kwabena Nketia, Call For Papers'

Donna Armstrong of The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, Department of Ethnomusicology, has forwarded a Call for Papers from the University of Ghana:

INSTITUTE OF AFRICAN STUDIES

P.O. Box LG 73

Legon - Accra, GHANA

e-mail: awedoba@ug.edu.gh

FESCHRIFT IN HONOUR OF EMERITUS PROF. J. H. KWABENA NKETIA

CALL FOR PAPERS

In recognition of the life and works of Prof. J. H. Kwabena Nketia, renowned Africanist, teacher, ethno-musicologist, composer and poet, linguist and sociologist, and former director of the Institute of African Studies of the University of Ghana, Legon, and of the International Centre for African Music and Dance (ICAMD), the Institute of African Studies announces with pleasure a Festschrift in honour of Prof. J. H. Nketia’s contribution to academia, and particularly to the development of the Institute of African Studies. A two day conference seeking papers that could form contributions to the Festschrift will be held from Friday 23rd to Saturday 24th September, 2011, at the Kwabena Nketia Conference Hall of the Institute of African Studies University of Ghana on the theme: THE LIFE AND WORKS OF EMERITUS PROF. J. H. KWABENA NKETIA. There will also be performances to accompany the academic presentations.

The Institute of African Studies would appreciate your contribution to this celebration in honour of Prof. Nketia’s as he approaches his ninetieth birthday. Abstracts are invited on various aspects of the broad academic field that has engaged the attention of Prof. Nketia for over half a century. Themes can address, but need not be limited to: Music, Linguistics, Poetry, Sociology, Dance, Drama, Anthropology, etc. If you cannot be present but would like to contribute to the festschrift, you may do so by submitting a paper to be considered for inclusion in the festschrift.

The Deadline for abstract submissions is February 15, 2011 and the deadline for submissions of full papers is April 29, 2011.

FORMAT FOR ABSTRACT SUBMISSION;

Abstracts of between 250 and 300 words should be submitted to the following email address. Chairman: Godwin K. Adjei: godwinkwafoadjei@gmail.com

Prof. J. H. Kwabena Nketia, 89, Ghanaian Composer and Musicologist, Keynote Speaker of 'FMCS' Mar. 17-19, Wheaton College, IL

[Prof. J. H. Kwabena Nketia]

The Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College Chicago (CBMR) has forwarded a conference announcement from Johann S. Buis, Professor of Musicology at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. It concerns the “...annual conference of the Forum on Music and Christian Scholarship (FMCS) 2011 to be held at Wheaton College, Illinois, March 17-19, 2011. See http://fmcs.us/2011 for details. You, and any organizations you belong to, are warmly welcomed to hear Prof. Nketia (Ghana) during his 90th year give the keynote address at this conference.”

“The annual meeting of the Forum On Music And Christian Scholarship (FMCS), 2011 will take place at Wheaton College, Illinois, during Thursday, March 17, 2011 – Saturday, March 19, 2011. A multimedia Keynote Address titled 'Bridging the Old and New in Contemporary Africa: The Creative Task of Christian Scholarship' will be given by Emeritus Prof. J.H. Kwabena Nketia (90), legendary scholar of African Music."

GhanaWeb.com

“Kwabena Nketia was born (June 22, 1921) at Mampong, then a little town in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. He received his first musical education, and eventually trained as a teacher at the Presbyterian Training College, Akropong Akwapin - where he later taught and was appointed Acting Principal in 1952. At 23, a very young age to go abroad in those days, Kwabena, through a Ghanaian government scholarship, went to the University of London to study for a certificate of phonetics at the School of Oriental and African studies.

“He went on (1949) to Birkeck College, University of London, and Trinity College of Music, London, to obtain his Bachelor of Arts degree. In 1958 he came to the United States, attending Columbia University, Juilliard School of Music, and Northwestern University to do courses in musicology and composition. After a year in the United States, he returned to Ghana where he rapidly rose through the ranks at the University of Ghana, Legon - from Senior Research Fellow (1962), to Associate Professor, and finally a full professor in 1963. Two years later, he was appointed Director of the Institute of African Studies.

“Prof. Nketia is world-renowned as musicologist and composer. He is to African music what Bartok is to Western music. Of all the interpreters of African music and aesthetics, Nketia sets the pace. His concept and interpretation of time and rhythmic patterns in Ghanaian and other African folk music were revolutionary, and became standard for researchers and scholars around the world. For example, Nketia introduced the use of the easier-to-read 6/8 time signature in his compositions as an alternative to the use of duple (2/4) time with triplets used earlier by his mentor, Ephraim Amu. Although this practice undermined Amu’s theory of a constant basic rhythm (or pulse) in African music, and generated some debate, Nketia maintained that the constant use of triplets in a duple time signature was misleading. Today, many scholars around the world have found Nketia’s theory very useful in transcribing African music. Prof. Nketia’s work to reconcile the melodic and rhythmic elements of folk music with contemporary music spurred a new kind of compositional technique for African musicians and academics, worldwide. Other pioneering work include the transcription of many Ghanaian folk songs in a manner virtually free from Western influences.”