Loading
15th June, 2011
Prof. Kwabena Nketia @ 90
Come June 25, this year, the National Theatre in Accra would make history.
The sprawling auditorium would rise up to the occasion and, in all reverence and honour, celebrate one of the country’s all-round greats, who distinguished himself on every field that he landed, from music to academia and beyond.
He is Professor (Emeritus) Joseph Hanson Kwabena Nketia, the man who, aside his luminous academic exploits, has endeared himself to African music the way Bartok is to Western music.
He, for instance, set the pace for African music and aesthetics with his concept and interpretation of time and rhythmic patterns in Ghanaian and other African folk music, which became the standard for researchers and scholars around the world.
Prof Nketia introduced the use of the easier-to-read 6/6 time signature in his composition, as an alternative to the use of (2/4) time with triplet used earlier by his mentor, Ephraim Amu.
Although this ‘undermined’ Amu’s theory of a constant basic rhythm (or pulse) in African music, and generated quite some debate, Prof. Nketia maintained that the constant use of triplet in a duple time signature was misleading.
Today, many scholars around the world have found Nketia’s theory very useful in transcribing African music, aside his extensively writings on Western orchestral instrument – like the flute, violin, cello, percussion and piano.
It is in this regard, among others, that country braces up to celebrate with a choral concert which coincides with his 90th birthday, Nketiah @ 90 Choral Concert.
The Vice-President, John Dramani Mahama, among a crop of high-profile local and international dignitaries are expected to grace the occasion being put together by the Nketia Music Foundation working in partnership with Accra-based Media Excel Production.
Ernest Kwesi Ennin, the Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), who is also the Chief Executive of Media Excel, told the Times Weekend yesterday that: “This concert is a proactive measure to honour a hero and a living legend.
“Oftentimes, we have, as a people, only found the reason to do such all-important events only when the people we are celebrating are gone. Now, we want to do things differently, to honour the man whilst he’s with us and alive,” he quipped.
A former director of the Institute of African Studies (IAS) of the University of Ghana (UG), Legon, and the International Centre for African Music and Dance (ICAMD), Prof. Nketia is a renowned ‘Africanist,’ teacher, ethno-musicologist, composer and poet, linguist and sociologist.
Born June 22, 1921, at Mampong in the Ashanti Region, trained as a teacher at the Presbyterian Training College, Akropong Akwapim, where he later taught and was appointed Acting Principal in 1952.
At 23, he enrolled at the University of London where he studied for a certificate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, through a government scholarship. He went to the Birkeck College, University of London, in 1949, and the Trinity College of Music, London, and obtained a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree.
In 1958, he travelled to the United States, attended the Columbia University, the Juliard School of Music and the Northwestern University, all in pursuance of musicology and composition.
After a year in the United States, he returned to Ghana where rose through the ranks at the University of Ghana, Legon, from a Senior Research Fellow (1962), to Associate Professor, and then a professor in 1963. Two years later, he was appointed Director of the IAS.
Some of his well-known choral works with the piano accompaniment include Yaanom Montie, Onipa Dasani Nni Aye, Onipa Beyee Bi, Yiadom Heneba, Mekae Na Woantie, Maforo Pata Hunu, Obarima Nifahene and Asuo Meresen.
He is a recipient of numerous national and international awards, including the Companion of the Order of the Star of Ghana, the Grand Medal of Government of Ghana, Ghana Gospel Music Special Awards, Cowell Awards of African Music Society and the Ghana Book Awards, among others. Prof. J H Kwabena Nketia is currently the Chancellor of the Presbyterian University College and a former professor of Music at UCLA, University of Pittsburg.
The sprawling auditorium would rise up to the occasion and, in all reverence and honour, celebrate one of the country’s all-round greats, who distinguished himself on every field that he landed, from music to academia and beyond.
He is Professor (Emeritus) Joseph Hanson Kwabena Nketia, the man who, aside his luminous academic exploits, has endeared himself to African music the way Bartok is to Western music.
He, for instance, set the pace for African music and aesthetics with his concept and interpretation of time and rhythmic patterns in Ghanaian and other African folk music, which became the standard for researchers and scholars around the world.
Prof Nketia introduced the use of the easier-to-read 6/6 time signature in his composition, as an alternative to the use of (2/4) time with triplet used earlier by his mentor, Ephraim Amu.
Although this ‘undermined’ Amu’s theory of a constant basic rhythm (or pulse) in African music, and generated quite some debate, Prof. Nketia maintained that the constant use of triplet in a duple time signature was misleading.
Today, many scholars around the world have found Nketia’s theory very useful in transcribing African music, aside his extensively writings on Western orchestral instrument – like the flute, violin, cello, percussion and piano.
It is in this regard, among others, that country braces up to celebrate with a choral concert which coincides with his 90th birthday, Nketiah @ 90 Choral Concert.
The Vice-President, John Dramani Mahama, among a crop of high-profile local and international dignitaries are expected to grace the occasion being put together by the Nketia Music Foundation working in partnership with Accra-based Media Excel Production.
Ernest Kwesi Ennin, the Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), who is also the Chief Executive of Media Excel, told the Times Weekend yesterday that: “This concert is a proactive measure to honour a hero and a living legend.
“Oftentimes, we have, as a people, only found the reason to do such all-important events only when the people we are celebrating are gone. Now, we want to do things differently, to honour the man whilst he’s with us and alive,” he quipped.
A former director of the Institute of African Studies (IAS) of the University of Ghana (UG), Legon, and the International Centre for African Music and Dance (ICAMD), Prof. Nketia is a renowned ‘Africanist,’ teacher, ethno-musicologist, composer and poet, linguist and sociologist.
Born June 22, 1921, at Mampong in the Ashanti Region, trained as a teacher at the Presbyterian Training College, Akropong Akwapim, where he later taught and was appointed Acting Principal in 1952.
At 23, he enrolled at the University of London where he studied for a certificate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, through a government scholarship. He went to the Birkeck College, University of London, in 1949, and the Trinity College of Music, London, and obtained a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree.
In 1958, he travelled to the United States, attended the Columbia University, the Juliard School of Music and the Northwestern University, all in pursuance of musicology and composition.
After a year in the United States, he returned to Ghana where rose through the ranks at the University of Ghana, Legon, from a Senior Research Fellow (1962), to Associate Professor, and then a professor in 1963. Two years later, he was appointed Director of the IAS.
Some of his well-known choral works with the piano accompaniment include Yaanom Montie, Onipa Dasani Nni Aye, Onipa Beyee Bi, Yiadom Heneba, Mekae Na Woantie, Maforo Pata Hunu, Obarima Nifahene and Asuo Meresen.
He is a recipient of numerous national and international awards, including the Companion of the Order of the Star of Ghana, the Grand Medal of Government of Ghana, Ghana Gospel Music Special Awards, Cowell Awards of African Music Society and the Ghana Book Awards, among others. Prof. J H Kwabena Nketia is currently the Chancellor of the Presbyterian University College and a former professor of Music at UCLA, University of Pittsburg.
Popular stories from Entertainment and Arts
