Composing and Contemplating African Melo-Rhythmic Polyphony

A Chronological Sketch of Nigeria’s Post-traditional Harmony

Theophilus Ekundayo Phillips, one of the major pillars of modern musical composition in Nigeria, drew similarities between Yoruba music and the European harmony “of the period of the old modes, beginning with plainsong and culminating in the sixteenth century” (Phillips, 1953, p. 14). He urged his colleagues to adopt the European idiom in their compositions, adding that the “semitonal leading-note and its associated functional dominant chords” of the common practice era should be avoided. He continues:

If then as I have endeavoured to prove, there is a close similarity between our present Yorùbá music and the Plainsong of the Europeans, should we not be proud of it and regard our music as a noble heritage worth preserving? This is exactly what should be our aim in planning our church music (Phillips, 1953, 14).

It is important to note that, despite Phillips’ strong advocacy and the strong impact of modal procedures in his compositions, functional dominant chords recur in his music. In his Èmi Yíó Gbé Ojú Mi Sókè Wonnì (choir and organ), a Yoruba setting of Psalm 121, for example, pentatonic melodies are sometimes enclosed within V-I cadences, generating a mixed modal language.

Some younger composers, although they may be inspired by Phillips, have charted different harmonic directions, some more radically than others. For example, Ayo Oluranti and Seun Owoaje have produced harmonic styles based on the exploration of the inherent musicality of speech tones. Such works often feature, or are dominated by, musical passages existing in the fluid interstices between chant, speech, and melody and with hesitancy toward the diatonic-modal world of Phillips’ harmony. Oluranti’s “Rabata” (SATB a cappella) and Seun Owoaje’s “Grove for the Master Drummer” (soprano, piano, and dundun) are illustrative of such new directions.

Phillips’ influences are also revealed in the music of his former student, Fela Sowande, Nigeria’s most celebrated composer, whom I have described as the “father of modern Nigerian art music” (Omojola, 1995, p. 39). Sowande’s use of modal material in works based on the Negro spirituals and Yoruba melodies is not, like Phillips, to court European medieval music but to link Yoruba music with the African American tradition and articulate a global Africanist musical cosmopolitanism. Beyond political considerations, however, modality is often conceived to serve specific structural functions, especially in his instrumental works. The compositional process of re-contextualizing modality within larger forms and expanded tonal spectrum manifests in diverse ways. These include interjecting diatonic harmonic progressions with modal melo-rhythmic punctuations (African Suite, strings orchestra and harp, 1955), the cadential use of pentatonic-friendly harmonic progressions (Oyigiyigi, organ, 1958) and (Kyrie, organ, 1953), and constructing middle-ground sectional tonal relationships that de-emphasize tonic-dominant movement (Oyigiyigi).

The music of some of the significant composers coming after Sowande reveals new perspectives in their engagement with European harmony. Samuel Akpabot’s limited approach to the use of diatonic harmony is strategic and carries political resonances. As illustrated in “Ofala” (Wind Orchestra and African percussion, 1963), minimalist multipart writing allied to repetitive form and showcasing traditional Nigerian instruments is crucial to his objective to dehegemonize colonial music and question the exoticization of African music.

Mixed harmonic procedures also typify the music of Okechukwu Ndubuisi, but in a different way. His harmonic styles derive from highlife music and jazz and are often folk-inspired. One of these often dominates in a specific work: O Se Va (SATB, a cappella) and Ozuitem Obodomu (SATB, a cappella), for example, reveal highlife influences, while “The Blue Nocturne” (piano) shows jazz influences. The harmonic idiom of “Ife Di Na Oba” (voice and piano) is folk-inspired. While each style serves a specific musical content, the use of multiple harmonic techniques highlighting diverse compositional experiments is common among composers searching for a personal compositional voice.

The harmonic approaches of composers like Ayo Bankole, Akin Euba, and Uzoigwe admit both the more conventional ones, whether informed by Yoruba or Igbo tonal systems or revealing the impact of European tonal harmony. However, each of them also experimented with techniques that move away from the scope of colonial tonal harmony, as is the case, with Bankole’s exploration of chromaticism in his Toccata and Fugue (organ) and Nigerian Suite (piano). Euba’s melo-rhythmically tempered atonality in Scenes from Traditional Life (piano) represents a critical element of his own search for music that speaks the language of Yoruba drums as proposed in his concept of African pianism. Joshua Uzoigwe’s exploration of the vertical and horizontal ambiance of Igbo instrument music is particularly striking for its unique sound world. It has inspired younger composers like Christian Onyeji, as shown in his piano work, “Ufie,” and provided a model for one of my recent compositions, “Dance of the Crossroads.” A very good example is his “Ukom” (from Talking Drums, piano), which is formulated to mimic and reinterpret traditional Igbo Ukom drum row music. Like many of his piano compositions, this work demonstrates the elements of what I characterize as melo-rhythmic polyphony.

Melo-rhythmic Harmony and Polyphony

A critical issue is how to account for the kinds of functional relationships that define African harmonic practices. When African musicians talk about complementary relationships, it is as much about the linear foregrounding of melo-rhythmic material as the specific principles guiding vertical alignment. The goal often is to create a multidimensional sound-world. The gradations that mark the timbral identities of Yoruba dundun and Igbo ukom and the pitched sounds of Mandingo balafon and Shona mbira all speak to the multidimensional conception of sounds. Meki Nzewi’s concept of melo-rhythm, a term that has gained considerable global recognition, draws attention to the melodic marking of rhythmic patterns (Nzewi, 1974). Of course, all melodies are rhythmically defined. Melo-rhythm, however, refers not to silent rhythms—those that hide behind melodic motion. Melo-rhythm designates and empowers rhythm as an active determinant of melodic identity. If rhythmic lines must be (at least minimally) melodic, and if the juxtaposition of melo-rhythmic lines is deliberate, that is, according to specific rules of complementarity, then harmonic resultants should be seen to be pre-purposed rather than incidental.

Indeed, Agawu’s discussion already identifies the essential elements of melo-rhythmic harmony that I am proposing. He observes, for example, the “suspended harmonic fields in xylophone playing, (and) two-or three-chord progressions animated by melodic elaboration in Azande harp music. …” (p. 269). Also, “a musical system such as an anhemitonic pentatonic scale” could serve “as a source of pitches for singers. Lines are then temporally coordinated in such a way that the pentatonic referent is heard both linearly and vertically” (p. 279). Also relevant to the concept of melo-rhythmic polyphony is Ignazio Macchiarella’s definition of “multipart” performance, cited by Agawu. According to Macchiarella, multipart refers to any

music behavior producing at least two intentional sound sequences, regulated by specific overlapping rules, each of which is performed by both one single person or more persons in unison, who maintain a distinctiveness of their own, within contexts of strict interactions and (hierarchical) relationships” (pp. 273–274).

Implied in Nzewi’s discussion of African melo-rhythmic essence is the element of integration. Agawu’s discussion highlights the multidimensional nature of integration. As he notes, “[t]here is a dynamic element in … the movements of voices under various rhythmic, melodic, and timbral regimes … which impinge directly on one another, making them ultimately inseparable” p. 281).

Dance of the Crossroads

One of my recent compositions, “Dance of the Crossroads” (orchestra, 2019), illustrates the concept of melo-rhythmic polyphony. The piece is structured around two primary musical palettes: the melo-rhythmic polyphony of Yoruba instrumental music (as obtained in bata and dundun) and Ekiti vocal music, distinctive for its modality and cadential major seconds. As expected, I exercise some liberty in deploying both palettes compositionally. For example, regarding the first palette, melo-rhythmic phrases are approximated to the tempered pitch notes of the European orchestra. As shown in Ex. 1, the phrases include:

1. A 2-note ostinato pattern (typically played by the Yoruba gudugudu drum), assigned to violin I and viola.

2. A speech-based melodic pattern of the Yoruba iyaalu (lead drum), expressed in three pitches and played by the cello with a significant emphasis on E as the note of repose.

3. A third pattern, not derived from Yoruba music, assigned to the clarinet. It is designed to generate cross-rhythmic relationship and expand the pitch vocabulary of the piece.

4. Another phrase, hinting at a Yoruba melody that would appear later, here played by the oboe.

A sense of movement is facilitated as phrases are reshuffled, and new thematic material appears. These materials and the section they define are alternated with an Ekiti song that I weave into a polyphonic texture as shown in Ex. II. The polyphonic fiber is designed to sustain the song’s call-and-response structure, generating a sense of continuous motion through overlapping and complementary alignment. And as in Ekiti music, cadential major seconds provide moments of repose within and at the end of the piece. Each of the two palettes is marked by a distinct, interpenetrating modal-intervallic color.