The substance of African Divine Church choral music

Abstract

Choral music in Africa could be classified asWestern“art”, African“art”or indigenous African choral music, which includes traditional“classical”, ethnic, religious and folk styles. All over Africa, indigenous choral singing was a strongly established tradition long before colonisation and the subsequent introduction of Western choral music. This music is rich in terms of culture, musical quality and functionality, making use of styles which although diverse, are unique to Africa. As observed among theYoruba of Africa, indigenous choral music is organised on gender, age, social, hereditary and divine orders. The harmonic textures include unison, homophonic parallelism and polyphony, while the arrangement of scores is completely oral, surviving through oral traditions. Unlike Western practice, the conducting is carried out by the master musician or the lead singer, while the voice arrangements and stylistic techniques are distinct. This paper examines the unique aesthetic principles that underlie the indigenous choral styles of the Yoruba of Africa and the resultant organisational structures, performance contexts and practices, with a view to documenting and reviving the indigenous choral heritage which is almost dying in many ethnic groups as a result of education, modernity and other external influences.