ART MUSIC IN NIGERIA is the most comprehensive book on the works of modem Nigerian composers who have been influenced by European classical music. Relying on over 500 scores, archival materials and interviews with many Nigerian composers, the author traces the historical developments of this new idiom in Nigeria and provides a critical and detailed analysis of certain works. Written in a refreshing and lucid style and amply illustrated with music examples, the book represents a milestone in musicological research in Nigeria. Although written essentially for students and scholars of African music, this interesting book will also be enjoyed by the général reader.

Full text available online on OpenEditions Books: http://books.openedition.org/ifra/598

First words

At the height of a campaign to make Kishwahili the common language for the black African continent, I was asked — by a very committed ideologue — just what contribution such a language policy distraction had to offer to the far more urgent revolutionary struggle of African neo-colonial societies. That was easy enough. "For one thing", I replied, "it would put an end to the mystification which is constantly embedded in the very kind of question you have posed. It will compel you to define, in a language accessible to all, what you mean when you speak of a ‘comprador’ class to an African audience; when you dismiss your intellectual opponents as ‘revisionists’, which not only makes further dialogue with them beneath your intellect, but justifies their liquidation; it would compel you to show your listeners where you found ‘kulaks’ in the heart of Africa, thus dismissing them as deserving no less than a ‘Stalinist solution’ְ. ... in short, you would be left no option but to narrate, in ...

Full text available online on OpenEditions Books: http://books.openedition.org/ifra/432