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

musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

, and pianist.

Career

Born on 28 April 1935 in

Lagos Lagos ( ; ), or Lagos City, is a large metropolitan city in southwestern Nigeria. With an upper population estimated above 21 million dwellers, it is the largest city in Nigeria, the most populous urban area on the African continent, and on ...

, Nigeria, Akin Euba studied composition with

Arnold Cooke Arnold Atkinson Cooke (4 November 1906 – 13 August 2005) was a British composer, a pupil of Paul Hindemith. He wrote a considerable amount of chamber music, including five string quartets and many instrumental sonatas, much of which is only n ...

at the

Trinity College of Music Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance is a music, dance, and musical theatre conservatoire based in South East London. It was formed in 2005 as a merger of two older institutions – Trinity College of Music and Laban Dance Centre. Trini ...

, 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 foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller (" ...

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 university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

, 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 c ...

Charles Seeger Charles Louis Seeger Jr. (December 14, 1886 – February 7, 1979) was an American musicologist, composer, teacher, and folklorist. He was the husband of the composer Ruth Crawford Seeger, father of the American folk singers Pete Seeger (1919– ...

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 c ...

, and Roy Travis. He held a Ph.D. in

ethnomusicology Ethnomusicology is the multidisciplinary study of music in its cultural context. The discipline investigates social, cognitive, biological, comparative, and other dimensions. Ethnomusicologists study music as a reflection of culture and investiga ...

from the

University of Ghana The University of Ghana is a public university located in Accra, Ghana. It is the oldest public university in the country. The university was founded in 1948 as the University College of the Gold Coast in the British colony of the Gold Coast ...

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

(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 (UNILAG) is a Public university, public research university located in Lagos, Nigeria, which was founded in 1962. UNILAG is one of the education in Nigeria#First generation universities, first generation universities in ...

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

Obafemi Awolowo University Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) is a federal university in Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria. The university was founded in 1961 and classes commenced in October 1962 as the University of Ife by the regional government of Western Nigeria, which w ...

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

Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation The Voice of Nigeria or VON ( Yoruba: ; Hausa: ; Igbo: ; Fula: ) is the official international broadcasting station of Nigeria. History Founded in 1961, the Voice of Nigeria began as the External Service of the then Nigerian Broadcasting Corpo ...

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

University of Bayreuth The University of Bayreuth (German: Universität Bayreuth) is a public research university located in Bayreuth, Germany. It is one of the youngest German universities. It is broadly organized into seven undergraduate and graduate faculties, with ...

in Germany between 1986 and 1992. He was the

Andrew Mellon Andrew William Mellon (; March 24, 1855 – August 26, 1937), known also as A. W. Mellon, was an American banker, businessman, industrialist, philanthropist, art collector, and politician. The son of Mellon family patriarch Thomas Mellon ...

Professor of Music at the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

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 Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. It has a primary focus on science, engineering and technology, but retains a strong interest in the arts ...

as well as the

Central Conservatory of Music The Central Conservatory of Music (CCOM; ) is the national music academy of China, located in Beijing. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education. The academy is part of Project 211 and the Double First-Class Construction. Overview Fo ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

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

Halim El-Dabh Halim Abdul Messieh El-Dabh (, ''Ḥalīm ʻAbd al-Masīḥ al-Ḍab''ʻ; 4 March 1921 – 2 September 2017) was an Egyptian-American composer, musician, ethnomusicologist, and educator, who had a career spanning six decades. He is particu ...

. 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 who inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo, which are collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute more than 50 million people in Africa, are over a million outsid ...

) and

contemporary classical music Contemporary classical music is Western art music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st-century classical music, 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 Modernism (music), post-tonal music after the death of ...

. 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 inst ...

'' 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. The technique is a means of ensuring that all 12 notes of the chromatic scale ...

. Euba died on 14 April 2020, two weeks short of his 85th birthday.

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'', 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) *2011 - "emem was born into the world

Discography

*1989 – Piano Music of Akin Euba, performed by Peter Schmalfuss (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

External links

Akin Euba homepage
via