Alaba in London: (with segnotation and translation) full vocal and instrumental score

Oyewale, Ayoade

Abstract

Preface
The Opera: “Alaba in London'' is the performance and notation cum transcription section of the overall project towards a Phd in Music Composition from the University of Salford, Manchester, which is titled: "Yoruba Opera: A practice-based research enquiry into the idea of vocal composition in a non-European cultural framework". Before the Covid era, this work was intended and written for stage performance. I had in mind that students of the University of Salford will be invited to audition and some of them will volunteer alongside a few Yòrùbá people of Greater Manchester and other Yòrùbá indigenous professional traditional musicians and performers in the UK.

I wrote most of this work in Salford, Greater Manchester, although a few were from my personal composition repository. But the story itself is a retelling of the Biblical: “Prodigal Son '', which is now set in the contemporary world in the countries of Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Libya. The inspiration for this story came as some Nigerian Youths were sold as slaves in the open slave markets of Tripoli, Libya. And, ever since I began this programme, I concluded alongside my main supervisor that I want to write an Opera that will demonstrate Yòrùbá traditional music, heritage and culture and their process and methods of composition. So, I knew I would be collaborating with a few Yòrùbá traditional professional musicians and performers from diaspora. These traditional professional performers and musicians only followed my Solid Sketch with explanations and narrations sent to them electronically. So, we never met for once nor had any rehearsal before they went to the studio to perform and record their best shots on the work. With the nature of my collaboration and the excellent result that we have in the audio performance recording, therefore these are some of the implications. There are slight differences in the intended bigger picture and desired outcome which borders on pronunciation and accent, instrumentation and instrumental arrangement, harmony, dynamics and general aesthetics.

The text of this work draws from my in depth understanding and use of the language from primary and secondary source materials. Local ideas and foreign concepts were both arranged in a contextual communal life of the characters in this music drama. So, the main stream of the story is kept cohesive in the light of divergent lines that sheds more relevance, heightens the tension and contrast or/and supports the main story-line and characters. The text ascent is mainly Yòrùbá, as used or spoken in major Yòrùbá cosmopolitan cities. But we also have snippets of Yòrùbá-Ibadan/Oyo ascents and a small Ijesha tonation in a few places. But the Yòrùbá pronunciation is still clear enough and efficient for purpose. And asides from the Yòrùbá text, we also have Pidgin and English in this Opera. So, I provided translations as necessary for my English audience in the appendix of the main thesis.

This work is divided into 8 scenes. Each scene is a build up to the tragedy that befell Alaba and others as they undertook the hazardous journey to Europe through the Sahara Desert. Other characters in the work compliments the ongoing struggle for survival, the complexities of life and the need for fidelity at all levels of life and relationship. Alaba at the end of the story merely escaped with his life by the skin of his teeth because of the versatility of the scrupulous Father Gbajue.

In this score, I basically have two main sections; the vocal and the percussion. Transcription is not given for the few Western instruments used in the actual recording but the main chord progression of the vocal section is given. So, for the first time ever at any terminal degree level, this work in the percussion section uses Segnotation. Segnotation is my new hybrid notation and transcription system which is dedicated to the Dùndún drums but transferable to other Yoruba percussion. This work also demonstrates the collaborative and role play method of the professional traditional Yoruba musicians and further explores their speculative theory of performance, as they make music together.

Ultimately, I hope this work in any format will serve the purpose of saving lives from perishing on the perilous journey to a phantasmagorian promised land in Europe.

July 2021

Citation

Oyewale, A. Alaba in London: (with segnotation and translation) full vocal and instrumental score

• Other Type: Composition
• Deposit Date: May 12, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: May 12, 2022
• Additional Information: Composition Type : Segnotation and Transcription