Towards the documentation and archiving of selected Esan Musical Instruments, Edo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The focus of this paper is to examine the etymology of some Esan musical instruments, their nature and musical/extra musical functions so that they could be properly documented and archived. This is in tandem with the paper’s title which tries to talk beyond sound to the objects of sound creation. There is a gradual wilting of information relating to some Esan musical instruments. This development is caused by the strong factors. First of all is the penchant for western musical instruments as new sources of sound generation and secondly the new thinking of the indigenous people who feel that their musical instruments are no longer fashionable and are now ersatz when put side by side foreign ones. The craze for alien musical instruments and modern life styles has made it possible for the natives to source for new sounds and at the same time put away their traditional ones. In eliciting data for this presentation, a mixture of research methods was employed and they are: library search for relevant literature, interviews and active participant observation. In the course of this investigation, it was discovered that there is a plethora of musical instruments in this locale which are under-reported either due to some of the factors already mentioned above or as a result of certain social taboos and human made restrictions. In order to preserve some Esan musical instruments before they vanish into the oblivion, this study pilots a preliminary survey of some of them whose information on their documentation and archival procedures are captured and disseminated. It is therefore reasoned that this effort is a way of enhancing our knowledge in ethno-organology.