“The Interrelationship of Musical and Social Structures of Yoruba Traditional Music: A Perspective on Music as an Art”. Journal of the Association of Nigerian Musicologists. 10, 190-195. (original) (raw)

The Yoruba people are blessed with a rich musical culture, with their traditional music engaging various arts and exhibiting their musical and extra-musical identities. Domiciled in Southwestern part of Nigeria, the Yoruba often express their socio-cultural way of life through music. This is epitomized in Yoruba traditional music in which the musical structure reflects the social structure. The music's vocal, instrumental, rhythmic and dance practices portray the religious, leadership, kinship and gender ethics and hierarchy of Yoruba traditional institutions. This study therefore discusses different perspectives on music as art in examining how the Yoruba social structure is reflected in their traditional music. It employs descriptive analysis for its methodology, with primary data elicited through oral interviews and observations and secondary data through bibliography. The study revealed that Yoruba traditional music does not only serve musical purposes, but also showcases and conserves the extra-musical arts of panegyrics, chants, poetries, dance, masks, costumes, rituals, instrumentations and entertainment. This study concludes that the Yoruba traditional music function as an artistic expression of their socio attributes and recommends further research into Nigerian musical and socio-cultural arts.