CONTEMPORARY PERIOD OF CHORAL ART MUSIC COMPOSITION IN THE CHURCH OF NIGERIA, ANGLICAN COMMUNION, PROVINCE OF THE NIGER: 1960-2014

Abstract

Choral Art music composition in the Anglican Communion, Province of the Niger, Nigeria, according to historical records, began with the experimental works of its early composers in 1930s, in their bid to create musical works with African flavour for Christian worship. It has unarguably developed to a world class musical art. However, various researches on Art music in Nigeria took a broader scope, resulting to complete omission or partial capturing of some important events that occur in some areas, hence the limiting of this study to the Anglican Communion, Province of the Niger, Nigeria by the researcher. This paper focuses on the period between 1960 and 2014, which the author termed the Contemporary period. The aim of this study is to identify the characteristic features of contemporary choral Art compositions in the Province of the Niger as well as provide the musical backgrounds of nine selected contemporary composers whose works were prominently used for music festival/competition within the period under study. This work is hinged on the theory of development as freedom, propounded by Sen (1999). The research data was collected through oral interview, observation, active participation, and analytical study of compositions of various contemporary composers of choral Art music in the province of the Niger. This study concludes that with the exposure of the composers to professional study of music as well as modern technologies available within the period under study, choral Art music in the Anglican Communion, Province of the Niger, Nigeria, has developed to a near perfect art. It recommends that further studies on the subject be carried out subsequently in the province of the Niger, other Anglican Provinces as well as other Christian denominations.