Musical Sense and Musical Meaning: An Indigenous African Perception (SAVUSA Series)

Musical Sense and Musical Meaning is an exposition of the indigenous philosophy, theory and societal meaning of the African musical arts system using the Igbo conceptual paradigm. It is co-authored by five articulate Igbo 'mother' musicians and the scholar who studied under them. The five indigenous authorities on musical sense and musical meaning are composer-performer (performance composition) soloists on three cognate Igbo keyboard mother instruments, the ese, ukom and mgba, which are tuned drum rows. The complex compositional formula and formal principles of each music type encodes, sequences and validates the systematic procedural framework of its event. The creative integrity of the mother musician is then critical for the success of an event occasion that the orchestral type automatically accords human-cultural meaning. The musical arts thus functions as a meta-language in event context as well as an agency that organizes, structures and interprets societal systems and relationships in an African society. This book is an anatomical study of the indigenous philosophy, theory and purpose of the musical arts in Africa using the model of three Igbo complex orchestral music practices. It as well positions the 'professorial' voices of specialist culture exponents explicating their creative and performance processes.