• Nene Narh Sings : Soulful Praise – Audio CD

    01

    Tracks in this album:

    1. I will just say Yes
    2. Mope ji Mawu
    3. Maja Mo
    4. My Heart will trust in You

     

  • Sharing Knowledge and Experience: A Profile of Kwabena Nketia – Scholar and Music Educator

    Kwabena Nketia was a renowned scholar, linguist, composer, poet, researcher, teacher and musicologist in Ghana. His writings have become standard reference works on African musicology, and his work spanned many countries and interests. Nketia maintained a strong interest in Afro-American concerns, African musical traditions and Africans and blacks in the diaspora; and he worked tirelessly on establishing a theoretical framework of African music; consciousness of African identity in music; and to produce publications representing his own musical culture.

    This biography concentrates on the educational and research aspects of Nketia’s work, assessing the importance of his contribution to African musicology, thought on music education, and practical application of ethnomusicology and composition in teaching method, and exercises in African rhythm.

  • The Creative Potential of African Art Music in Ghana: A Personal Testimony (Companion Booklet to ICAMD CD Recordings)

    This booklet on the Creative Potential of African Music in Ghana: A Personal Testimony is dedicated to the memory of Professor Albert Mawere Opoku for his unique contribution to Dance Theatre in Ghana, his close collaboration with colleagues in artistic research projects, and his enthusiastic and encouraging interest in the creative work of artists in cognate fields. Nothing would have pleased him more than to be part of the launch of the four volumes of CD recordings of a selection of my musical works, for he was always making cassette dubbings of my music for his friends. I believe that this Companion Booklet will be of interest not only to his circle of friends but also to other music lovers, students and the general public.

    With this readership in mind, the scope of the booklet has been limited to a few personal observations. It does not tell the complete story of African Art Music in Ghana or Africa in general, something I hope our younger scholars will work on as scores and other sources of data become available. It is simply the story of an individual composer and his works, his reflections and comments on his experience as an African composer, which he presents in conjunction with the CD recordings of his works as testimonies of the creative potential of African art music. For a fuller and more objective account of my life and work, I would like to refer readers to Eric Akrofi: Sharing Knowledge and Experience: A Profile of J. H. Kwabena Nketia (Afram Publications 2003) and Akin Euba: Creative Musicology: A Study of J. H. Kwabena Nketia, Centre for Intercultural Studies, Berkeley.

  • Ethnomusicology and African Music: Modes of inquiry and interpretation Vol 1

    The volume in hand deals with modes of inquiry and interpretation broadly organised into sections on theory, and historical and creative studies. The section on theoretical issues comprises papers on: the problem of meaning in African music; musicology and African music; the juncture of the social and the musical; integrating objectivity and experience in ethnomusicological studies; the aesthetic dimension in ethnomusicological studies; universal perspectives in ethnomusicology; and contextual strategies of inquiry and systematisation.

    The section on creative and historical topics covers the following: the history of music in African culture; history and the organization of music in West Africa; historical evidence in Ga religious music; processes of differentiation and interdependency in African music; African musical roots in the Americas; and developing contemporary idioms out of traditional music.

  • African Pianism: Twelve Pedagogical Pieces

    “African Pianism refers to a style of piano music which derives its characteristic idiom from the procedures of African percussion music as exemplified in bell patterns, drumming, xylophone and mbira music. It may use simple or extended rhythmic motifs or the lyricism of traditional songs and even those of African popular music as the basis of its rhythmic phrases. It is open ended as far as the use of tonal materials is concerned except that it may draw on the modal and cadential characteristics of traditional music.

    “Its harmonic idiom may be tonal, atonal, consonant or dissonant in whole or in part, depending on the preferences of the composer, the mood or impressions he wishes to create or how he chooses to reinforce, heighten or soften the jaggedness of successive percussive attacks. In this respect the African composer does not have to tie himself down to any particular school of writing if his primary aim is to explore the potential of African rhythmic and tonal usages.”

    Although I have felt the need for this kind of material even in the 1950s, most of the Twelve Pedagogical Pieces in this volume were written when the school of Performing Arts at the University of Ghana was established in the 1960s in order to give the African piano student being nurtured on simplified and original versions of Western piano repertoire something with African rhythmic and tonal flavour that may enrich his experience, shapes his orientation, sense of timing and coordination of rhythmic and tonal events.

    As the titles of the pieces indicate, I have used a variety of traditional and popular sources as the basis of the compositions. Each source establishes a framework of rhythmic and tonal configuration from which a few idiomatic derivatives are made and used in the inner and outer structures of the piece in such a way as to create a perpetual feeling of propulsive motion. Each piece is sustained by a particular quality of motion created in this manner.

    As in traditional African practice each piece can be repeated once or twice except where a definite closure is indicated by a retard. The pianist can also select a number of them and play them as a suite. A few of them such as the Volta Fantasy and Meditation can stand on their own as concert pieces and have been presented in that manner by both African and Western pianist. It is my hope, there- fore, that some of the pedagogical pieces will be of general interest. – J. H. Kwabena Nketia

  • The Methodist Children’s Hymnal (Hardcover)

    The printing of the Children’s Hymnal became necessary when the Church saw that our children and the young people were more in tune with the singing of the choruses than the Methodist Hymns. As a result, the Christian Education Division was mandated by the Board of Ministries to select some of the hymns which could be conveniently sung by the children. The publication was to be handy and attractive for the children.

    Moreover, it was meant for the children to appreciate and know the worship setting and culture of the Methodist Church, so that they could grow with it. The Church also realised that unlike the olden days where hymns were taught in schools, there was the need to print the hymns in smaller booklets to assist worship in our Methodist Schools.

    It is the hope that the children would be inspired by this hymnal, and their faith will increase and be strengthened in God as they sing and memorise the lines of the stanzas. The hymns, we believe, will enable them to draw close to God and to relate well with other people.

  • Asempa Hymns (Words)

    Asempa is the Twi word meaning “Good News”. Here is an English language hymn book with a difference. It not only includes 200 of the most popular British, German and American hymns, but it also brings together a similar number of compositions from Africa, Asia, and the rest of the world.

    Produced in Ghana, Asempa Hymns contains some 90 items from that country including 28 “Ghana spirituals” traditionally sung by the Pentecostals but now gaining popularity in all churches. In many of these, there is a distinctive Ghanaian flavour, which this book and the companion music collection Ghana Praise make available for the first time to Christians in other lands.

    The Western tradition of hymnody has served Africa well for many years, but the rich traditions of other countries have failed to spread, held up by barriers of language, denomination and communication. The appearance of Asempa Hymns, with its wide choice of hymns, from nearly all the continents, will help brothers and sisters in Christ in many lands to realise a new fellowship in song and will shorten the distances that divide us.

  • A Complete Course in Senior High School Oral English (with Audio CD)

    This material shows teachers and students how to recognise and produce the sounds of the English Language with specific attention to sounds that are problematic for speakers of English in West Africa.  The exercises at the end of each level accompanied by some suggested answers helps students to self-evaluate their understanding.

  • Asempa Hymns: Children’s Edition (Hardcover)

    Asempa is the Twi word meaning “Good News”. Here is an English language hymn book with a difference. It not only includes 200 of the most popular British, German and American hymns, but it also brings together a similar number of compositions from Africa, Asia, and the rest of the world.

    Produced in Ghana, Asempa Hymns contains some 90 items from that country including 28 “Ghana spirituals” traditionally sung by the Pentecostals but now gaining popularity in all churches. In many of these, there is a distinctive Ghanaian flavour, which this book and the companion music collection Ghana Praise make available for the first time to Christians in other lands.

    The Western tradition of hymnody has served Africa well for many years, but the rich traditions of other countries have failed to spread, held up by barriers of language, denomination and communication. The appearance of Asempa Hymns, with its wide choice of hymns, from nearly all the continents, will help brothers and sisters in Christ in many lands to realise a new fellowship in song and will shorten the distances that divide us.

  • Ghana Praise: Tunes from Ghana, Africa and the World

    African churches have inherited a rich tradition of hymnody from the West, but for too long the musical heritage of Asia and even of Africa itself has been neglected. Ghana Praise is a first step towards correcting this situation.

    It contains 144 tunes by Ghanaian composers: 4 songs from Northern Ghana and 28 spirituals from Ghana’s Pentecostal churches. For the first time, the wealth of music by present and past generations of Ghanaian musicians is available in print for all to use; the geographical and denominational barriers which have discouraged the spread of hymn tunes in the past are breaking down.

    In addition, Ghana Praise brings you 19 tunes from the rest of Africa and 33 from other parts of the world.

    Ghana Praise is accompanied by a words book, Asempa Hymns, which contains words to fit the new tunes, as well as a selection of the most well-known Western hymns.

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