NIGERIAN ART MUSIC: EXPLORING DAVID AINA’S COMPOSITIONAL STYLES AND TECHNIQUES

Abstract

African music is a total art form of music that is closely linked to dance, gesture, and dramatization. It permeates African life occurs on daily activities translated to music. African music is also composed for several purposes in the society, such as rituals, entertainment, education purposes, and other social ceremonies. Vidal (2012), states that the introduction of songs is often followed by drumming and dancing. To ascertain this, African music is beyond aesthetic expression. In other words, it involved the totality of an African identity expressed in music. Art music is one of the classification of African music which expresses the functionality of music in African context composed or arranged by a person who have gone to school to study music. According to Collins dictionary (accessed 25th April, 2022), defines art music is a music written by a composer rather than passed by oral traditions. Omojola (1995), notes that Nigerian art music can be traced as a comprehensive works of a modern Nigerian composers who have the European knowledge of music and then exhibit the European knowledge of music to write, compose or document their music on paper through Western musical elements and software’s. Abiodun (2018), also opined that, art music in Nigerian context is the composition of Nigerians who have formal music training, and have composed music using Western idioms to express traditional Nigerian music. However, one of these modern Nigerian art composers is David Aina who has composed music for several activities and purposes in Nigeria using African context, been performed at several occasions both in Nigeria and outside Nigeria.