A Great Igbo Liturgical Music Composer: The Lives and Works of Very Rev. Msgr. Cyril Ezenduka

Abstract

The Catholics deem that he who sings once prays twice. To Very Rev. Msgr. Ezenduka (Late), it was he who sings well and meaningfully. As a great Igbo liturgical music composer, he composed over; eighty liturgical music colossally, for Catholics throughout the Igbo speaking dioceses of Nigeria, through which the devout lives of millions of people were transformed. The Vatican II (1962 1965) which carried enormous modifications in Divine Worship, including the sacred music concurred with Msgr. Ezenduka's priestly ordination in 1964. Consequently, he devoted his pastoral ministry to explore practical ways to contextualize and implement the conciliare declarations. This work is significant because it will expose his personality and showcases his original compositions which demonstrated how Igbo tonality, sensibility and rhythm could virtuously express the spirit of the liturgy and even enrich it as disparate to Igbo hymns that were adapted to western metrical tunes, while not respecting the native Igbo tonality, affronted the language.