Akin Euba
Encyclopedia
Akin Euba is a Nigeria
n composer
, musicologist, and pianist.
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 received B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles
, where he studied with Mantle Hood
, Charles Seeger
, 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 J. H. Kwabena Nketia, and his dissertation is entitled "Dundun Music of the Yoruba."
He was former 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. Since December 1986 has served as a research scholar and artist in residence at IWALEWA House, the African studies center of the University of Bayreuth
in Germany. He currently serves as Andrew Mellon
Professor of Music at the University of Pittsburgh
. He is the founder and director of the Centre for Intercultural Music Arts, London
(founded in 1989), and currently serves on the Board of Management of The Centre for Intercultural Musicology at Churchill College (CIMACC).
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
.
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
n composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, musicologist, and pianist.
Euba studied composition with Arnold Cooke
Arnold Cooke
Arnold Atkinson Cooke was a British composer.-Career:He was born at Gomersal, West Yorkshire into a family of carpet manufacturers. He was educated at Repton School and at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, where he read History, but he was already attracted to a career in music...
at the Trinity College of Music
Trinity College of Music
Trinity College of Music is one of the London music conservatories, based in Greenwich. It is part of Trinity Laban.The conservatoire is inheritor of elegant riverside buildings of the former Greenwich Hospital, designed in part by Sir Christopher Wren...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, obtaining the diplomas of Fellow of the Trinity College London (Composition) and Fellow of the Trinity College London (Piano). He received B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
, where he studied with Mantle Hood
Mantle Hood
Mantle Hood was an American ethnomusicologist. Among other areas, he specialized in studying gamelan music from Indonesia. Hood pioneered, in the 1950s and 1960s, a new approach to the study of music, and the creation at UCLA of the first American university program devoted to ethnomusicology...
, Charles Seeger
Charles Seeger
Charles Seeger, Jr. was a noted musicologist, composer, and teacher. He was the father of iconic American folk singer Pete Seeger .-Life:...
, J. H. Kwabena Nketia
J. H. Kwabena Nketia
Joseph Hanson Kwabena Nketia is a Ghanaian ethnomusicologist and composer....
, Klaus Wachsmann
Klaus Wachsmann
Klaus Philipp Wachsmann was a British ethnomusicologist of German birth. Born in 1907 in Berlin, he is considered a pioneer in the study of the traditional musics of Africa...
, and Roy Travis. He holds a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology is defined as "the study of social and cultural aspects of music and dance in local and global contexts."Coined by the musician Jaap Kunst from the Greek words ἔθνος ethnos and μουσική mousike , it is often considered the anthropology or ethnography of music...
from the University of Ghana
University of Ghana
The University of Ghana is the oldest and largest of the thirteen Ghanaian universities and tertiary institutions. It is one of the best universities in Africa and by far the most prestigious in West Africa...
, Legon
Legon
Legon, a suburb of the Ghanaian capital city Accra, is situated about twelve kilometres north-east of the city center. Legon is home to the main campus of the University of Ghana. The word "Legon" is derived from the indigenous Ga language of the people of Greater Accra; NI-LEY GON therefore "Hill...
(1974). While at Legon Euba's doctoral work was supervised by J. H. Kwabena Nketia, and his dissertation is entitled "Dundun Music of the Yoruba."
He was former Professor and Director of the Centre for Cultural Studies at the University of Lagos
University of Lagos
The University of Lagos - popularly known as Unilag - is a federal government university with a main campus located at Akoka, Yaba and a college of medicine located at Idi-Araba, all in Lagos, Lagos State, southern Nigeria...
, and has also served as a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University
Obafemi Awolowo University
Obafemi Awolowo University is a government-owned and -operated Nigerian university. The university is in the ancient city of Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria...
) in Nigeria. He served as Head of Music at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation for five years. Since December 1986 has served as a research scholar and artist in residence at IWALEWA House, the African studies center of the University of Bayreuth
University of Bayreuth
The University of Bayreuth is a public research university situated in Bayreuth, Germany. It was founded in 1975 as a campus university focusing on international collaboration and interdisciplinarity...
in Germany. He currently serves as Andrew Mellon
Andrew W. Mellon
Andrew William Mellon was an American banker, industrialist, philanthropist, art collector and Secretary of the Treasury from March 4, 1921 until February 12, 1932.-Early life:...
Professor of Music at the University of Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
. He is the founder and director of the Centre for Intercultural Music Arts, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
(founded in 1989), and currently serves on the Board of Management of The Centre for Intercultural Musicology at Churchill College (CIMACC).
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
Churchill College, Cambridge
Churchill College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.In 1958, a Trust was established with Sir Winston Churchill as its Chairman of Trustees, to build and endow a college for 60 fellows and 540 Students as a national and Commonwealth memorial to Winston Churchill; its...
as well as the Central Conservatory of Music
Central Conservatory of Music
The Central Conservatory of Music is the national leading music school in Beijing, China.Founded in 1950, the Conservatory offers courses to both Chinese nationals and foreign students, and caters for all levels from primary up to postgraduate programmes...
in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
. These events have featured such notable composers and scholars as J. H. Kwabena Nketia and Halim El-Dabh
Halim El-Dabh
Halim Abdul Messieh El-Dabh is an Egyptian-born American composer, performer, ethnomusicologist, and educator, who has had a career spanning six decades...
. 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
Yoruba people
The Yoruba people are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa. The majority of the Yoruba speak the Yoruba language...
) and contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...
. His most ambitious composition is the opera Chaka: An Opera in Two Chants (1970), which blends West African percussion and atenteben
Atenteben
The atenteben is a bamboo flute from Ghana. It is played vertically, like the European recorder, and, like the recorder, can be played diatonically as well as chromatically. Although originally used as a traditional instrument , beginning in the 20th century it has also been used in contemporary...
flutes with twelve tone technique
Twelve-tone technique
Twelve-tone technique is a method of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg...
.
Works
- Six Yoruba Folk Songs, arranged for voice and piano
- 1956 - Introduction and Allegro, orchestra
- 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, kayagumGayageumThe gayageum or kayagum is a traditional Korean zither-like string instrument, with 12 strings, although more recently variants have been constructed with 21 or other numbers of strings. It is probably the best known traditional Korean musical instrument...
, flute, drums, and piano (text: Olusola Oyeleye)
Discography
- 1989 - Piano Music of Akin Euba, performed by Peter SchmalfussPeter SchmalfussPeter Schmalfuss was a German classical pianist born in Berlin, Germany.He studied with Walter Gieseking, Adrian Aeschbacher and, at the Beethoven-Class Positano, with Wilhelm Kempff...
(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
- 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.
External links
- Akin Euba homepage via University of PittsburghUniversity of PittsburghThe University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
- The Centre for Intercultural Musicology at Churchill College (CIMACC) official site
- Akin Euba profile via africadatabase.com
- Akin Euba biography