Fela Sowande

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Olufęlá Şowándé (born May 29, 1905 in Ợyó , † March 13, 1987 in Ravenna / Ohio ) was a Nigerian composer , organist and music teacher . He is considered the father of modern Nigerian art music.

Live and act

Şowándé was born the son of the Anglican priest Emmanuel Şowándé, who taught at St. Andrew's College , a mission school for teacher training. When his father was transferred to Lagos, Şowándé began a twenty-year training with Thomas King Ẹkúndayợ Phillips , the first professional Nigerian musician to be trained in London, first as a choirboy in his church choir and later as a music student. He completed his education at the Church Missionary Society Grammar School and later at Kings College .

In 1932 Şowándé first heard music by Duke Ellington , Art Tatum , Teddy Wilson and Earl Hines on the radio and founded the Triumph Dance Club Orchestra . He also played the piano in the jazz band The Chocolate Dandies . In 1935 he went to London to study engineering. He made a living as a musician and founded a jazz septet with Caribbean musicians. Eventually he decided to devote himself entirely to music and studied at the University of London and Trinity College of Music . He also took lessons from George D. Cunningham , George Oldroyd and Edmund Rubbra .

He also took jazz piano lessons with Jerry Moore and performed on the piano and the Hammond organ . He met traveling African American musicians such as Paul Robeson and Fats Waller know and performed George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue on the show Black Birds of 1936 . This brought him in contact with J. Rosamond Johnson , who introduced him to the work of the composer Robert Nathaniel Dett . He was also influenced by the works of the musicians Thornton Jenkins and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor , who had worked in England, as well as the Americans Harry Freeman , Will Marion Cook , Clarence Cameron White , Florence Price and William Grant Still .

In 1940 he joined the Royal Air Force , but was then transferred to the Colonial Film Unit as music director . In 1943 he received a diploma from the Royal College of Organists and a bachelor's degree from the University of London. From 1945 to 1952 he was choirmaster and organist for the West London Mission of the Methodist Church, but also worked for the BBC as musical director of the Club Ebony program . In 1953 his Six Sketches for Full Orchestra and the African Suite from 1944 appeared on Decca Records .

When he returned to Nigeria in 1953, Şowándé became musical director of the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation . He composed the Anthem Out of Zion for the coronation of Kings Elizabeth II for the Lagos Musical Society . At the end of the 1950s, gospels such as Roll de Ol 'Chariot , My Way's Cloudy , De Ol' Ark's a-Moverin and De Angels are Watchin 'were created . Conceived for the 1960 Nigerian independence celebrations, his Nigerian Folk Symphony was not premiered in Nigeria, but by the Bournemouth Orchestra under the direction of Charles Groves .

After giving organ concerts in New York, Boston and Chicago in the late 1950s, he studied anthropology as a visiting student at Northwestern University and composition at Princeton University with Roger Sessions in 1961 . From 1962 to 1965 he was a research assistant at the University of Ibadan , then professor at its Institute of African Studies . He then taught at Howard University until 1972 , at the University of Pittsburgh until 1976 and at Kent State University until his retirement . He spent his final years in a nursing home in Ravenna, Ohio.

Works

  • Six Sketches for Full Orchestra
  • African suite
  • Africana
  • Snow-capped Kilimanjoro
  • Six African Melodies for Western Instruments
  • Valse Galante
  • Koronga
  • An Evening Procession

See also

Lexical entries

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Sowande, Fela
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Şowándé, Olufęlá
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Nigerian composer, organist and music educator
DATE OF BIRTH May 29, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Oyo (Nigeria)
DATE OF DEATH March 13, 1987
Place of death Ravenna (Ohio)