Olatunji Akin Euba (28 April 1935 – 14 April 2020), was a Nigerian composer,

musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...

, and pianist.

Career

Born on 28 April 1935 in

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...

, Nigeria, Akin Euba studied composition with

Arnold Cooke Arnold Atkinson Cooke (4 November 1906 – 13 August 2005) was a British composer.Biography by Eric Wetherell, British Music Society/ref> Education Cooke was born at Gomersal, West Yorkshire, into a family of carpet manufacturers. As a child, ...

at the

Trinity College of Music Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance is a music and dance conservatoire based in London, England. It was formed in 2005 as a merger of two older institutions – Trinity College of Music and Laban Dance Centre. The conservatoire has ...

, 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 The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...

Fellowship in 1962. He received B.A. and M.A. degrees from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, where he studied with

Mantle Hood Mantle Hood (June 24, 1918 – July 31, 2005) 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 cr ...

Charles Seeger Charles Louis Seeger Jr. (December 14, 1886 – February 7, 1979) was an American musicologist, composer, teacher, and folklorist. He was the father of the American folk singers Pete Seeger (1919–2014), Peggy Seeger (b. 1935), and Mike Seeger ( ...

J. H. Kwabena Nketia Joseph Hanson Kwabena Nketia (22 June 1921 – 13 March 2019) was a Ghanaian ethnomusicologist and composer. Considered Africa's premier musicologist, during his lifetime, he was called a "living legend" and "easily the most published and best ...

Klaus Wachsmann Klaus Philipp Wachsmann (8 March 1907 – 17 July 1984) 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. His studies in Germany (on pre-Gregorian ...

, and

Roy Travis Roy is a masculine given name and a family surname with varied origin. In Anglo-Norman England, the name derived from the Norman ''roy'', meaning "king", while its Old French cognate, ''rey'' or ''roy'' (modern ''roi''), likewise gave rise to ...

. He held a Ph.D. in

ethnomusicology Ethnomusicology is the study of music from the cultural and social aspects of the people who make it. It encompasses distinct theoretical and methodical approaches that emphasize cultural, social, material, cognitive, biological, and other dim ...

from the

University of Ghana The University of Ghana is a public university located in Accra, Ghana. It the oldest and largest of the thirteen Ghanaian national public universities. The university was founded in 1948 as the University College of the Gold Coast in the Br ...

Legon Legon , a suburb of the Ghanaian city Accra, is situated about north-east of the city center in the Accra Metropolis District, a district in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. Legon is home to the main campus of the University of Ghana. Ghanaia ...

(1974). While at Legon, Euba's doctoral work was supervised by Professor Nketia, and his dissertation is titled "Dundun Music of the Yoruba". Euba was professor and director of the Centre for Cultural Studies at the

University of Lagos The University of Lagos, popularly known as UNILAG, is a public research university located in Lagos, Nigeria and was founded in 1962. UNILAG is one of the first generation universities in Nigeria and is ranked among the top universities in th ...

, and also served as a senior research fellow at the University of Ife (now

Obafemi Awolowo University Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) is a federal government-owned university that is located in the ancient city of Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria. The university was founded in 1961 and classes commenced in October 1962 as the University of Ife ...

) in Nigeria. He served as head of music at the

Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation The Voice of Nigeria or VON is the official international broadcasting station of Nigeria. History Founded in 1961, the Voice of Nigeria began life as the External Service of the then Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (now Federal Radio Corpora ...

for five years. He was a research scholar and artist in residence at IWALEWA House, the African studies center of the

University of Bayreuth A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

in Germany between 1986 and 1992. He was the

Andrew Mellon Andrew William Mellon (; March 24, 1855 – August 26, 1937), sometimes A. W. Mellon, was an American banker, businessman, industrialist, philanthropist, art collector, and politician. From the wealthy Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylva ...

Professor of Music at the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...

between 1993 and 2011 and until his death, was the Andrew W. Mellon Professor, Emeritus in music; 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 included the musicology and ethnomusicology of modern interculturalism. He organized regular symposia on music in Africa and the Diaspora at

Churchill College, Cambridge Churchill College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It has a primary focus on science, engineering and technology, but still retains a strong interest in the arts and humanities. In 1958, a trust was establish ...

as well as the

Central Conservatory of Music The Central Conservatory of Music () is a prestigious leading public music school of China and a member of Double First Class University Plan and former Project 211. Its campus is in the Xicheng District of Beijing, China, near Fuxingmen Statio ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

. These events featured such notable composers and scholars as J. H. Kwabena Nketia and

Halim El-Dabh Halim Abdul Messieh El-Dabh ( ar, حليم عبد المسيح الضبع, ''Ḥalīm ʻAbd al-Masīḥ al-Ḍab''ʻ; March 4, 1921 – September 2, 2017) was an Egyptian-American composer, musician, ethnomusicologist, and educator, who ha ...

. With his Elekoto Ensemble, he 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 The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...

) and

contemporary classical music Contemporary classical music is classical music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included seria ...

. His most ambitious composition is the opera ''Chaka: An Opera in Two Chants'' (1970), which blends West African percussion and ''

atenteben The ''atenteben'' ''(atɛntɛbɛn)'' 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 instr ...

'' flutes with

twelve-tone technique The twelve-tone technique—also known as dodecaphony, twelve-tone serialism, and (in British usage) twelve-note composition—is a method of musical composition first devised by Austrian composer Josef Matthias Hauer, who published his "law o ...

. Euba died on 14 April 2020, two weeks short of his 85th birthday.Gregory Austin Nwakunor
"Akin Euba, the father of African pianism, dies at 84"
''The Guardian'' (Nigeria), 15 April 2020.

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 Akwete cloth is a unique hand woven textile produced in Igboland for which the town of Akwete in Abia state, Nigeria is famous. The traditional Igbo weaving as demonstrated in Akwete processes sisal, hemp, raffia, cotton Cotton is a so ...

'', 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

*1989 – Piano Music of Akin Euba, performed by

Peter Schmalfuss Peter Schmalfuss (13 January 1937 – 23 October 2008) 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. In 1960 he began touring ...

(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 –

'. Vol. 1. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States: A Bridge Across: Intercultural Composition, Performance, Musicology, Department of Music, University of Pittsburgh, ABA 001 CD. *2005 –

'. 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.

References

*Uzoigwe, Joshua (1992). ''Akin Euba: An Introduction to the Life and Music of a Nigerian Composer''. Bayreuth, Germany: Bayreuth African Studies Series. *Omojola, Bode (2001). "African Pianism as an Intercultural Compositional Framework: A Study of the Piano Works of Akin Euba." ''Research in African Literatures'' 32(2):153-174.

External links

Akin Euba homepage
via

The Centre for Intercultural Musicology at Churchill College (CIMACC) official site
via africadatabase.com

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Euba, Akin 1935 births 20th-century classical composers 21st-century classical composers Alumni of Trinity College of Music 2020 deaths Nigerian male musicians Yoruba musicians Nigerian composers Nigerian musicologists University of Lagos faculty Musicians from Lagos University of California, Los Angeles alumni University of Ghana alumni University of Pittsburgh faculty Nigerian expatriate academics in the United States 20th-century Nigerian musicians 21st-century Nigerian musicians Yoruba academics Male classical composers 20th-century male musicians 21st-century male musicians