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Sustaining Our Musical Heritage: Towards an Anthology and the Archiving of Indigenous Nigerian Catholic Liturgical Songs

Received: 18 July 2021     Accepted: 23 November 2022     Published: 8 December 2022
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Abstract

With the linguistic and musical liberalisation of Catholic worship occasioned by Vatican II, there was a shift from the total application of the plainchant and the exclusive use of Latin in the liturgical celebrations globally. This development gave rise to music compositions in the indigenous languages of the locations of these Catholic Liturgical Celebrations. The same scenario is also applied to the Nigerian Catholic Liturgical Setting. However, while the traditional Catholic Latin liturgical songs were lucky to have been anthologised and archived, the post-Vatican II Nigerian counterparts, especially the earlier ones, have not been so fortunate. This paper, therefore, attempts to uncover the factors responsible for the non-preservation of these songs and proffer solutions to the notable absence of the preservation and archival modules for the indigenously composed Nigerian Catholic liturgical songs. The main finding was that there is a dearth of both anthological and archival modules for liturgical music compositions in Nigeria. The paper recommends that to preserve our musical heritage, concerted efforts should be made toward the collection, documentation, and archival of indigenous liturgical compositions in Nigeria.

Published in Social Sciences (Volume 11, Issue 6)
DOI 10.11648/j.ss.20221106.17
Page(s) 395-398
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Preservation, Indigenous, Nigerian, Liturgy, Catholic Songs

References
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[2] Anderson, B., 1991. Imagined communities. London: Verso.
[3] Violyta, M. and Pesulima, F. (2021). Offerings Dance as A Medium of Socializing Religious Values in The Catholic Church, Ganjuran, Yogyakarta. Journal of Contemporary Issues in Business and Government Vol. 27, No. 5, 2560-2563. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/db57/fdfbb4e87b37f41514d181e731a44bf26a16.pdf?_ga=2.86294481.851996591.1669088106-108193628.1669088106
[4] Beall, S. (1996) Translation and Inculturation in the Catholic Church. Adoremus.http://www.adoremus.org/1096-Beall.html.
[5] BBC Music Magazine. What is Gregorian Chants? Retrieved November 21, 2022, from https://www.classical-music.com/features/musical-terms/what-is-gregorian-chant/
[6] Kanu, I. A. & Kanu, C. (N.d). Inculturation of Catholic Liturgical Music: Challenges and Prospects for the Church in Nigerian. Retrieved November 21, 2022, from https: //acjol.org/index.php/bodija/article/view/2137/21
[7] Umezinwa, E. (2012). Lee nnukwu ukochukwu. Ezenduka’s musical experiments and tradition. Nimo: Rex Charlse and Patrick Ltd.
[8] Akpakpan, J. (2018). Toward Standardising Indigenous Liturgical Music Compositions in Catholic Diocese of Ikot Ekpene, Nigeria. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 6, 57-68.https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2018.65005.
[9] Chukwuneta, R. I; & Agu, D. C. C (n.d.). The Evolution Of Liturgical Music In The Catholic Archdiocese Of Onitsha From 1887 To 2010. Retrieved, November 19, 2022, from Https://Phd-Dissertations.Unizik.Edu.Ng/Onepaper.Php? P=272.
[10] Ayorinde, O., Talabi, G & A. Okunade, A. (2020). Documenting and Archiving the Nigerian Musical Arts: Notes on Methods, Processes and Practices Journal of the Association of Nigerian Musicologists, 14: 78-91, 2020.
[11] Jayeola, F., Akintunde, O. and Ugwu, A. (2019). Archives, Documentation and Ethnomusicology in Nigeria. International Journal of English, Literature and Social Science (IJELS) Vol 4, Issue-5, Sep – Oct 2019, 1606 -10.
[12] Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Anthology. In the Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved January 25, 2021, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anthology
[13] Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Archive. In the Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved January 25, 2021, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/archive.s
[14] Ellis, J. (ed.) (1993) Keeping Archives, 2nd edn, Melbourne: D. W. Thorpe.
[15] Agbo, B. N. (2017) "Inculturation of Liturgical Music in the Roman Catholic Church of Igbo Land: A Compositional Study," Journal of Global Catholicism: Vol. 1: Iss. 2, Article 2. p. 6-27. DOI: 10.32436/2475-6423.1013. Available at: https://crossworks.holycross.
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  • APA Style

    Johnson Akpakpan, Ime Dan Ukpanah. (2022). Sustaining Our Musical Heritage: Towards an Anthology and the Archiving of Indigenous Nigerian Catholic Liturgical Songs. Social Sciences, 11(6), 395-398. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ss.20221106.17

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    ACS Style

    Johnson Akpakpan; Ime Dan Ukpanah. Sustaining Our Musical Heritage: Towards an Anthology and the Archiving of Indigenous Nigerian Catholic Liturgical Songs. Soc. Sci. 2022, 11(6), 395-398. doi: 10.11648/j.ss.20221106.17

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    AMA Style

    Johnson Akpakpan, Ime Dan Ukpanah. Sustaining Our Musical Heritage: Towards an Anthology and the Archiving of Indigenous Nigerian Catholic Liturgical Songs. Soc Sci. 2022;11(6):395-398. doi: 10.11648/j.ss.20221106.17

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ss.20221106.17,
      author = {Johnson Akpakpan and Ime Dan Ukpanah},
      title = {Sustaining Our Musical Heritage: Towards an Anthology and the Archiving of Indigenous Nigerian Catholic Liturgical Songs},
      journal = {Social Sciences},
      volume = {11},
      number = {6},
      pages = {395-398},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ss.20221106.17},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ss.20221106.17},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ss.20221106.17},
      abstract = {With the linguistic and musical liberalisation of Catholic worship occasioned by Vatican II, there was a shift from the total application of the plainchant and the exclusive use of Latin in the liturgical celebrations globally. This development gave rise to music compositions in the indigenous languages of the locations of these Catholic Liturgical Celebrations. The same scenario is also applied to the Nigerian Catholic Liturgical Setting. However, while the traditional Catholic Latin liturgical songs were lucky to have been anthologised and archived, the post-Vatican II Nigerian counterparts, especially the earlier ones, have not been so fortunate. This paper, therefore, attempts to uncover the factors responsible for the non-preservation of these songs and proffer solutions to the notable absence of the preservation and archival modules for the indigenously composed Nigerian Catholic liturgical songs. The main finding was that there is a dearth of both anthological and archival modules for liturgical music compositions in Nigeria. The paper recommends that to preserve our musical heritage, concerted efforts should be made toward the collection, documentation, and archival of indigenous liturgical compositions in Nigeria.},
     year = {2022}
    }
    

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    AU  - Johnson Akpakpan
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    AB  - With the linguistic and musical liberalisation of Catholic worship occasioned by Vatican II, there was a shift from the total application of the plainchant and the exclusive use of Latin in the liturgical celebrations globally. This development gave rise to music compositions in the indigenous languages of the locations of these Catholic Liturgical Celebrations. The same scenario is also applied to the Nigerian Catholic Liturgical Setting. However, while the traditional Catholic Latin liturgical songs were lucky to have been anthologised and archived, the post-Vatican II Nigerian counterparts, especially the earlier ones, have not been so fortunate. This paper, therefore, attempts to uncover the factors responsible for the non-preservation of these songs and proffer solutions to the notable absence of the preservation and archival modules for the indigenously composed Nigerian Catholic liturgical songs. The main finding was that there is a dearth of both anthological and archival modules for liturgical music compositions in Nigeria. The paper recommends that to preserve our musical heritage, concerted efforts should be made toward the collection, documentation, and archival of indigenous liturgical compositions in Nigeria.
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Author Information
  • Department of Music, University of Uyo, Uyo, Nigeria

  • Department of Music, University of Uyo, Uyo, Nigeria

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