YORUBA VOCAL ART MUSIC OF SEUN OWOAJE IN THE CONTEXT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (original) (raw)

Yoruba art music has continued to draw attention to itself, through the efforts of contemporary art music composers and arrangers who have continued to tilt towards addressing critical societal issues, with the use of up-to-date musical materials. Recently, the genre has witnessed a gradual shift from its religious base, into engaging topical life’s issues such as sustainable development. Scholars have explored various aspects of Yoruba art music, such as its historical background, growth, and composers, compositional techniques and the ideologies guiding their works. However, little attention has been given to the contributions of contemporary Yoruba art music to sustainable development. This study therefore, explores the contributions of the Yoruba vocal art music of Seun Owoaje to sustainable development. The study is anchored on Carl Hovland’s Persuasion theory and Edith Wharton’s Mirror theory. The study adopts the ethnographic procedure, through the use of key-informant interview with Seun Owoaje, and two focus group discussions with selected individuals within Ibadan, who have listened to or played a lead role in the performance of the selected pieces. Three Yoruba art compositions of Seun Owoaje were purposively selected and subjected to content analysis. Oluwaseun Bababusola Owoaje was born on 25 March, 1970 in Lagos, into the musical family of the late Pa Moses Oluyomi and Madam Comfort Owoaje. His musical life was influenced first by the presence of a piano in his house while he was growing up, and later, by his foundation church, Christ Apostolic Church (CAC), Yaba, Lagos. A significant factor that informed Seun Owoaje’s choice of music as a career was his realization of his musical talent, which he considered more passionate than his initial preference to study law. Seun Owoaje generates his musical ideas from various sources, such as openness to new ideas, and the need to communicate and teach certain lessons which are expected to better the lives of listeners and performers. He also considers the need to either marry several musical elements, switch between musical styles, or make use of completely different musical ideas, in expressing his musical thoughts. The Yoruba art music compositions of Seun Owoaje have contributed the achieving of sustainable development. His compositions explore wide themes, many of which speak to the general well-being of individuals, as well as the sustenance of peace, prosperity and development in the Nigerian society. Owoaje’s Ma di Olowo addresses the need for individuals to be enterprising and shun the idea of wealth without enterprise, which is not a sustainable way of generating income. His arrangement of Ebenezer Obey’s Ore mi se pelepele is relevant to the issues surrounding the promotion of peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, while Lojiiki Gari ati Bota comes forth as a tool of promoting and increasing human desires and achievements. There is need for Yoruba art musicians to be more deliberate about the use of their compositions as medium of promoting general well-being of the society, which will help in fostering sustained growth within their immediate society and the larger society