(b Oyo, 29 May 1905; d Ravenna, OH, March 1987). Nigerian composer and organist. After receiving early musical training from his father and from Ekundayo Phillips, he went to London in 1934, where he studied the organ privately with George Oldroyd, G.D. Cunningham and Rubbra; he subsequently became a fellow of the Royal College of Organists and Trinity College of Music. Sowande studied at the University of London (BMus 1941), then became organist and choirmaster of the West London Mission of the Methodist Church. His lecture-demonstration series for the BBC’s Africa service, West African Music and the Possibilities of its Development, in which he focussed on his own works, aided the growth of his compositional career from about 1940. His profound interest in the indigenous and popular music of Nigeria as resources of intellectual and compositional importance was the motivation behind his collection of this music. The influence of indigenous material is evident in Six Sketches (1953), while in the well-known African Suite (1955) this is combined with the influence of popular music, particularly highlife.
Sowande became music director of the colonial film unit of the British ministry of information and then in 1953 of the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. He was commissioned in 1960 to compose a national anthem to mark Nigeria’s independence; the resulting Folk Symphony, which did not in fact become the anthem, was performed in 1962 by the New York PO in Carnegie Hall. Organ works, occupying much of his total output, are the most complex in terms of harmonic, motivic and contrapuntal organization. His dual Yoruba and church backgrounds are evident in the titles and texts of his choral works, in which indigenous elements such as call-and-response, heterophony, pentatonicism and complex rhythmic constructions are emphasized; some, for instance De Angels are Watchin’, Roll de Ol’ Chariot, also derive partially from black American spirituals and gospel music. Among his awards are an honorary doctorate from the University of Ife (1972) and grants from the Ford and Rockefeller foundations. Sowande held professorships at the University of Ibadan, where many of his manuscripts are deposited, and in the USA at Howard University, Washington, DC, and the University of Pittsburgh.
(selective list)
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Org: Jesu Olugbala, 1955; Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho, trad., 1955; Kyrie, 1955; Yoruba Lament, 1955; Gloria, 1958; Oyigiyigi, 1958; Prayer, 1958; Responses, A, 1959 |
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Vocal: 3 Songs of Contemplation, T, pf, 1950; Because of You, 1v, pf, 1950; 3 Yoruba Songs, 1v, pf, 1954; Roll de Ol’ Chariot, trad., SATBB, pf, rhythm combo, 1955; Steal Away, trad., SATBB, 1955; De Angels are Watchin’, trad., SATB, 1958; Oh Render Thanks, SATB, org, 1960 |
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Orch: 6 Sketches, 1953; African Suite, str, 1955; Folk Sym., 1960 |
E. Southern: ‘Conversation with Fela Sowande, the High Priest of Music’, The Black Perspective in Music, iv (1976), 90–104
H. Roach: Black American Music: Past and Present (Malabar, FL, 2/1992)
B. Omojola: Nigerian Art Music (Ibadan, 1995)
B. Omojola: ‘Style in Modern Nigerian Art Music: the Pioneering Works of Fela Sowande’, Africa, lxviii (1998), 455–83
DANIEL AVORGBEDOR