Biography
This stamp of individuality can be seen in the work of Fela Sowande (1905-1987). Sowande is celebrated and internationally renowned as being a founding father figure in the development of modern Nigerian Art Music. He was born in Lagos in 1905, where under Dr. Ekundayo Phillips he was trained as a chorister and organist at Lagos Cathedral, being exposed to Western European Church music and Yoruba traditional musical culture.
In 1934, after studying European Classical music in London, he gained a Bachelors degree in Music (University of London), and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists by private study with George Oldroyd and George Cunningham. Later, he became a Fellow of Trinity College of Music.
After studying, Sowande undertook a diverse range of activities as an organist/choirmaster, composer and jazz musician. Sowande became Music Advisor to the Colonial Film Unit of the British Ministry of Information in London (1941), was Head of Music/Research of the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation in the 1950s and held Professorships at the University of Ibadan (Nigeria 1968), at Howard University (Washington D.C. 1968-72) and at the University of Pittsburgh (1972-1987). He died in 1987 aged 82.
Sowande’s musical output includes folk song arrangements, organ music, sacred choral music, solo songs, African American choral music, and orchestral music. Sowande’s musical style manifests eclectic influences including hi-life and jazz idioms, 19th century European harmony, Liturgical music blending Anglican/Yoruba influences and Yoruba traditional music. African Suite (1930) and Folk Symphony (1960) express his cultural and nationalistic style. He received many honours, including in 1956 an M.B.E. from Queen Elizabeth II for his distinguished services to music.
African Suite for Strings and Harp (1930) is one of his best-known works. The composition uses popular African melodies and places them within the Western arts music tradition. This work was designed for radio broadcast from London to West Africa because Sowande wanted to illustrate to his countrymen some ideas on the unification of African and European music. To illustrate this, he selected those melodies that would be readily recognised by African listeners. The suite draws heavily on 19th century Western idioms and harmonies, as well as being centred in tonality. Although the suite is made up from five movements – ‘Joyful day’, ‘Nostalgia’, ‘Lullaby’, ‘Onipe’, and ‘Akinla’ – we will be hearing this evening ‘Joyful Day’, ‘Nostalgia’ and ‘Akinla’.
