Joseph Hanson Kwabena Nketia

Joseph Hanson Kwabena Nketia ( born June 22, 1921 in Mampong, Sekyere West District ) is a Ghanaian ethnomusicologist and composer.

Life and work

Nketia was from 1937 to 1941 at the Presbyterian Training College in Akropong. He studied at the University of London from 1944 to 1949, for two years Linguistics at the School of Oriental and African Studies and then began a three -year degree at Birkbeck College, University of London and at Trinity College of Music in London, he in 1949 with the a BA graduated. In 1952 he joined the staff at the University of Ghana. In 1958 he was awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship Scholarship, which allowed him to travel to the U.S., where the Columbia University ( where he studied with Henry Cowell ), the Juilliard School and Northwestern University to visit and study musicology and composition. After returning from the United States, he became in 1962 a senior fellow at the University of Ghana, soon associate professor to be appointed a full professor there around 1963.

Nketia has been dealing with the traditional music of the Ewe and generalized his knowledge of traditional African music in several monographs. His book, The Music of Africa is regarded as a standard work and was in several languages, including German, translated. In German, two articles in the edited by Erich Stockmann anthology musical cultures in Africa ( 1987) are included.

His concept and interpretation of the rhythmic time and rhythmic schemes in Ghanaian and other African folk music were revolutionary and have become standard for researchers and students around the world. For example, Nketia has to use the more readable 6/8 measure introduced in his compositions, as an alternative to the dual 2/4 time with triplets, which was used in front of his teacher and promoter of Ephraim Amu ( 1899-1995 ). Although this notation Amus theory of the constant rhythm or basic shock undermines, and caused academic dispute, Nketia insisted on the position that the exclusive use of triplets in a two- clocking was misleading. Today, many students have convinced the world of the usefulness of Nketias theory and tranksribieren in this way African music.

He taught as a professor also at the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Pittsburgh. As an emeritus he heads the International Centre for African Music and Dance ( ICAMD ).

In Ghana, Nketia is also known as a composer. In addition to numerous choral works that can be placed in the tradition of Ephraim Amu, he composed for both Western and African instruments.

Works

  • African Music in Ghana. Northwestern University Press, Evanston 1963
  • The Music of Africa. WW Norton, 1974, ISBN 0393021777, ISBN 9780393021776 German. , The music of Africa. 1979
  • African Art Music / The Creative Potential of African Art Music in Ghana. Companion book to the ICAMD CD recordings ( ICAMD - DMVI - ICAMD - DMV4 ). Afram Publications ( Ghana) Ltd.. , Accra 2004

Bibliography

  • Eric A. Akrofi: Sharing Knowledge and Experience: A Profile of Kwabena Nketia. Afram Publications, Accra 2003, ISBN 9,789,964,703,424th
Mampong Municipal District SOAS, University of London Rockefeller Foundation Name Authority File
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