MEANI NG AND COMMUNI CATI ON I N YORUBA MUSI C

By
Dr. Olabode Omojola

ABSTRACT
The principal objective of any musical performance is to communicate. Just how
does a musical work communicate has however been a somehow controversial
issue in music scholarship with opinions ranging within such schools of thought
as represented by the structuralists, Expressionists and Referentialists. Against
the background of such disparate view, this paper examines the issue of
meaning and communication in traditional Yoruba music using selected musical
examples from the tradition. The paper concludes by advocating for an eclectic
method in approaching the concept of meaning in Yoruba music. Such an
approach is seen to be more relevant considering the artistic and ethno-artistic
dimensions of musical performance in Nigeria.

INTRODUCTION
Music as part of a multi-media experience is fundamental to the Nigerian culture. The
association of music with language (words), dance, religions, social and other extra-musical ideas
and activities is a common feature of musical performances in Nigeria. A corollary to this principle
is seen in the manner in which music is conceptualized, for example, among the Igbos and the
Yorubas. In Igbo culture, music is not defined in absolute terms. Indeed, the Igbos have no word
for music as it is understood in Europe. Thus, the word Egwu (or Nkwa or Uri) refers not only to
the phenomenon of sound but also to features such as drama, poetry and dance. A musical
performance is therefore a multi-dimensional activity which involves not only singing or
instrumental playing but also features dance, drama and poetry. Thus, among the Igbo,
The musician is not just the originator of the harmonious sounds or the vocalist
that sings the piece. No, the musician is .not even the dancer who lends dramatic
vigour to the whole art nor the contingent of artists whose instruments are the
sine qua non of music. To us all these are (the) musicians; for the word music
means Egwu, and the goodness who orders harmony, rhythm, sounds
movements into a hair-raising unity. It is that unity that we call Egwu or music.
(IFIONU, 1979.. 207)
A similar principle exists among the Yorubas. Although music is often verbalised as
"song-singing" (orin kiko) or drum-playing (ilu-lilu), the all-embracing phrase for a musical
performance is (Ere sise) entertaining, a generic term which encompasses singing, instrumental
playing, dancing, poetry and so on.
One of the most important symbols of the association of music with non-musical
elements is the musico-dramatic genre of West African story-telling - the Alo (Yoruba) and the ofo
(Igbo). The Alo which alternates song and speech is often "set in a mythical time which has
existence only in man's imagination exploring fanciful and poetic protagonists whose activities
involve what may be imaginatively improbable in human experience". (Kubik, 1968:11). As an
educative medium, Alo, "by means of symbols... (often) shows how one can cope with the powers
of one's own soul" (kubik, Ibid: 11). These powers are personified in the stories whose moral
lesson often establishes what is and what is not acceptable in yoruba society.
The Ala idiom exemplifies the educational significance of musical performances in
Yorubaland. As we have stated elsewhere (omojola, 1992: 43), music in traditional Nigerian
societies provides an efficient means through which community-shared values and skills are
transmitted from one generation to another. As an educational forum, the idiom of music presents
its own unique communicational procedures. The aim of this paper is to examine and articulate
the various ways through which musical communication takes place in Yorubaland, focusing on
both vocal and instrumental music. As a prelude to this, we shall briefly examine relevant
theoretical issues.

The Nature of meaning in music
In addition to its aesthetic qualities, musical performance can transmit extra-musical
messages. This belief is based on the position that the factors which govern the selection and the
ordering of structural elements (melody, rhythm) of a piece may be related to cultural values
which often transcend musical considerations. Thus as a means of communication, the meaning
which resides in it may operate beyond the purely structural. As Blacking (1969:33) has stated,
music being
an outward sign of human communication - (its main function) is to enhance in
some way the quality of individual experience and human relationships. Its
structures are reflections of patterns of human relations and the value of a piece
of music as music is inseparable from its value as an expression of human
experience.
The above position stresses the extra-musical dimension of musical communication
thereby disagreeing with the position of structuralists even as wide apart as anslick and
Stravinsky who hold the view that true meaning can only be congeneric - an absolutist view - that
meaning exists mainly within a work, in the perception of the relationships set forth within it.
While it is true that one level of meaning in a musical work can be perceived in the
relationship between purely structural features (a perception which takes into consideration such
elements as variety, coherence and unity), another important level of meaning exists in perceiving
how those structural features reflect social values. Two scholars who have tried to show how
music refers to extra-musical elements are Cooke and Meyer. Cooke (1959:272), through
analyses of works by European composers who retain tonality in their compositions, states that
the mysterious art known as music... is primarily and basically a language of the
emotions through which we directly experience the fundamental urges that move
mankind without the need of falsifying ideas and images - words or pictures.
Like Cooke, Meyer's view is characterised by a structuralist-expressionist principle. He
states that while one level of meaning can exist in the perception of structural relationship, music
can also arouse connotative responses in the listener. Thus
Unlike literature or the plastic arts which generally cannot be understood apart
from the designative symbols they employ, most musical experience is
meaningful without any experience to the extra-musical world. Whether a piece
of music arouses connotations depends to a great extent upon the disposition
and training of the individual listener and upon the presence of cues, either
musical or extra-musical, which tend to activate connotative responses (Meyer,
1956: 264)

Referential Communication in Yoruba music
Although the basic elements of the arguments of Cooke and Meyer are applicable to
examples of Yoruba music, the main cultural premise for their ideas is European. In traditional
Yoruba music, social meaning is communicated when structural elements are interpreted withing
social situations in which they are performed. Even when they are not performed within specific
social situations, musical performances in Yorubaland still arouse specific feelings and reinforce
social values usually associated with their traditional contexts of performance. The yoruba Bata
music provides a typical example of the nature of musical communication in yoruba land, Bata
music is rituo-context derived. It is a performance which is strongly tied to the worship of Sango,
the yoruba god of thunder, and what Bata drummers play usually constitutes instrumental
abstractions of certain underlying texts. In other words, Bata drummers also "talk" with their
instruments and members of the audience who are familiar with the textual and vocal basis of
Bata music automatically decode messages which operate beyond the musical. This is because
the language texts which the drummers imitate on their drums have extra-musical, religious and
social significances.
In addition, Bata music like many Yoruba instrumental ensembles, communicates
extensively through dance. Thus, Bata dancers compliment the communicative force of the
music by transposing its message into culturally decodable body gestures. Even in a de-
contextualiaed performance (such as we have when Bata musicians are made to perform in a
modern stage of a modern concert hall to a "listening" rather than a "participating" audience) the
complementary role of the dancers often serves to underline the extra-musical messages of the
performance as well as reinforce the ethno-aesthetic dimension of Bata through evocative
references to the ritual origin of the music. In such cases musical communication is referential as
patterns, of sound textures are interpreted and appreciated in conjunction with relevant social or
religious contexts, values and beliefs. In such situations, "the extra-musical social meaning is
conveyed (not only) by the music itself (but also) by the direct association of sound patterns with
specific social contexts" (Blacking op, cit: 46).

Yoruba Musical Instruments as Symbols
Musical instruments in Yoruba traditional societies also perform extra-musical functions.
In very many cases, they are conceived of as objects of religious significance or symbols of royal
and political power. As Akpabot (1986:98) has observed:
An African musical instrument probably presents the most diversified source of
information on the artistic values, religious beliefs; family life and the general
social structure of a society: for every standardized procedure in an ethnic group
is an element of its culture.
The numerous Yoruba traditional ensembles demonstrate, in various ways, how musical
instruments symbolise and communicate different socio-cultural value and beliefs of extra-
musical significances.
The Igbin drums are typical of the ritual-symbolic nature of many Yoruba drums. The
Igbin drums, which are single-headed, cylindrical drums are ritually exclusive to the worship of
Obatala the Yoruba god of fertility. In view of this, Igbin drums are usually housed within the
shrine of Obatala where they are played regularly by devotees. As a result of the strong
association between yoruba instrumental ensembles and yoruba divinities, many yoruba
drummers are devotees of the gods to which their drums are associated. For example, many
players of Bata drums are also devotees of Sango, the god of thunder, to which the drums are
associated.
Yoruba ensembles which are strongly associated with royalty include the Gbedu
ensembles and the Kakaki both of which are widely used. The gbedu which is also a one-sided
cylindrical drum is often performed as an exclusively royal music in such different yoruba regions
as Oyo, Ekiti, Owo, and Ijebu. The Kakaki is often used to announce the arrival of Yoruba kings at
important occasions as well as to welcome visitors to the palace.
These are only few examples of the use of musical instruments to communicate extra-
musical ideas, a practice which is common all over Nigeria. The performance of such functions in
addition to musical roles by instruments once again underlines the yoruba conception of music
from both the artistic and utilitarian perspectives.

Song Texts as Culture indicators
Most Yoruba musical performances are word oriented. In other words, apart from
musico-aesthetic communication, musical performances generally tend to emphasise the
messages embedded in the words. This does not apply to vocal compositions alone. As we have
mentioned earlier, instrumental compositions are also often conceived as abstractions of texts.
The primacy of words in yoruba music cannot therefore be overemphasised. In very many cases
musical performances (both instrumental and vocal) actually tell stories in strong poetic language.
The wordings of these performances, that is song texts are of different categories and they
provide educative insights into different aspects of the yoruba culture. Song texts thus generally
provided effective media through which music communicates to yoruba audiences. This
tendency is not peculiar to the yoruba culture. As Akpabot (1983:39) had noted
Song texts are culture indicators from which we can test the pulse of any given
section of the Nigerian society; for a complex song reflects, a complex society
since it is an adaptation of the trait of any given society.
As culture indicators, yoruba song texts provide one of the most effective means through
which new and young members of the society are tutored on different aspects of the culture.
Yoruba song texts are or different categories. These include songs of historical narratives, songs
of praise, philosophical songs, funeral songs and songs of social control. In Yoruba society, it is
not uncommon for members of an audience to rate some singers poorly not because of their
musical (singing) ability but as a result of their Inability for compose powerful, expressive and
convincing song texts. Yoruba singers are therefore acknowledged poets whose performances
are rich in philosophical, historical and literary Ideas. As poets, historians and philosophers, they
are usually regarded as fountains of knowledge from which people come to draw. The following
examples illustrate the educational values of yoruba song texts.

LA'AYE OLUGBON
la'aye Olugbon
Mo ro 'borun meje
E o ma fiwe lorin
La'aye Aresa,
Mo ro 'borun mefa
E o ma fiwe lorin
La'aye Atanda
Mora koko mo raran
Mora sanyan Baba aso.

English translation:
In the time of Olugbon
I used seven Iborun
I hope you are following the story
In the time of Aresa
I used six Iborun
I hope you are following the story
In the time of Atanda
I bought cocoyam, aran
and sayan, the father of clothes
It is only a lazy person who will say
our town has not been prosperous.

Aye la bo'la
Aye la bola
Baba wa Atanda opo
Be eyan o fi to ba se, yio te
La toyo ile awa la ni iluuwa) 2ce
English translation:
Our father, Atanda has been wealthy for
a very long time
A person who fails to honour the king will
end up being disgraced
we migrated from old Oyo
In the first song "Laye Olugbon", names of three past Oyo kings featured. These are
Olugbon, Aresa and Atanda. Olugbon was the king of Ile Igbon (a village in Oyo kingdom) while
Aresa was the king of Iresa, also in Oyo kingdom. Atanda was the former king of Oyo township.
The song thus provides historical information on Oyoland stating how these leaders ruled and
reigned successfully. Evidence of the success of these leaders is here portrayed in the peaceful
and prosperous nature of their times. Hence the people were wealthily enough to buy such
expensive dresses like Aran, Iborun and Sanyan.
The second song provides historical information on the migration of the Oyo people from
Old Oyo (Oyo-Ile) to their present settlement. These two songs thus reflect on and provide an
illuminating insight into some of the significant historical epochs in Yoruba land.

Linguo - musical communication
Yoruba vocal music (or any type of vocal music for that matter e.g. Igbo or Hausa)
presents, simultaneously, two different modes of communication -language (speech) and melody
(music) - which operate in different ways: speech names what we distinguish, while music does
not. Music is a semiotic system in which, as we said before, a level of meaning resides in the
relationship which exists among the signs. This endosemantic quality also exists in language (the
interdependence of subject-action, action-object) but enriched by lexical references. Thus
language, unlike music, "lexicialises its end semantic relations (Hill and podstarvsky, 1976:535).
In Yoruba music, when melodic patterns reflect rhythmic and inflectional features of language, it
(the music) assumes a quasi-referential status. In some cases however, melodic patterns are at
variance with the phonological character of the Yoruba words to which they are set. In such
cases, the Words acquire a quasi-musical status.
The above, shows that communication in Yoruba vocal music takes place within the
context of the interaction between language (words) and music. It is as a result of this that
traditional Yoruba musicians often make sure that musical logic and coherence as well as
language inflection and rhythm are respected and reflected in their performances. In other words,
while emphasising and maintaining musical aesthetics, they often also make sure that the
meaning of poetic qualities of the wordings of the music are preserved and projected. Listeners
are therefore expected to focus on both the aesthetic as well as the linguistic meanings of
musical performances.

CONCLUSION
We have in the above discussion, shown how yoruba music (both vocal and instrumental)
communicates meaning to people who listen to it. Such communications take place through (a)
purely structural features such as melody, harmony, rhythm and form; (b) the association of
music with immediate as well as remote extra-musical contexts of performance for referential
meanings; (c) the conception of musical instruments as symbolic reinforcements of specific
community-shared values; (d) the functioning of song texts as culture indicators and; (e) the
dialectical discourse emanating from the rapprochement between music and poetry. A recurring
feature of the discussion is the fact that both musical and extra-musical meanings are germane to
a balanced appraisal of most Yoruba performances. In conceiving an appropriate theoretical
framework for understanding the nature of meaning In Yoruba music (an indeed Nigerian music in
general) an integrative approach is therefore imperative. Such an approach will appropriately
reflect the true nature of Yoruba music as a socio-artistic idiom in which aesthetics and social
dynamics are combined.
REFERENCES
Akpabot, S, (1983). Cultural Heritage of Nigerian Musical Forms in Cultural Heritage in Nigerian
Education National Commission for Museum and Monuments and Institute of Education,
University of Ibadan.
Akpabot, S, (1986) Foundation of Nigerian Traditional music, Ibadan: Spectrum Books.
Blacking, J (1969) Yearbook of the International Folk music council
Cooke, D (1959) The Language of Music, Oxford: O. U. P.
Hill, C. A. and podstarvsky, S. (1976) The interfacing of language and music in Hausa praise
singing Ethnomusicology Vol. 20, part 3.
Ifionu, A (1979) Ofo a study of an Igbo vocal genre unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of
London.
Kubik, G (1968) Alo - Yoruba story songs African music Vol. 4 part 2.
Meyer, L. (1956) Emotion and Meaning in music, Chicago Omojola O. (1992) Music Education in
Nigeria: Historical Trends Ilorin J ournal of Education Vol. 12.