CULTURALLY INFORMED PIANO INSTRUCTION IN NIGERIAN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS: A COMPOSITION OF THREE PIANO ETUDES CELEBRATING LOCAL HERITAGE

Abstract

A look into the piano works used for piano studies in the Music Departments of Nigerian tertiary institutions shows a preponderance of Western piano works. These do not speak to the cultural background of the students. This has led to a growing concern by African music scholars on the imposition of western culture and musical norms through music education curriculum. It has also created a problem which is that students struggle with African piano pieces. Therefore, it is upon this background that the researchers carried out this study to compose piano etudes based on African music rhythms to help students overcome this challenge. It was based on collecting folk songs of the Igbo which were transcribed, and analyzed to extract the folk idioms for original compositions of piano pieces. The methodology employed in the study was research-composition technique. This is a compositional approach that involves in-depth ethnomusicological research of indigenous music. Three (3) original piano pieces were composed based on the collected folk songs and the folk music idioms extracted from them. These original compositions were analyzed based on chosen criteria. Recommendations were made one of which is that composers should base their compositions on elements drawn from the folk idioms of the people.