The Tonal Inflection of Igbo Language and Its Influence on Indigenous Music Composition

Abstract

African language is a tonal language and Igbo language is not an exception. Although the advent of Christianity had much influence on the language of the Igbo as regards indigenous church music, composers seem to make some efforts towards bringing the meaning of the language as near as possible to the music. However, in spite of the efforts, there are still glaring and nagging problems that face the Igbo language as a means of communication in the area of composition. The writer discusses some compositional techniques with a view to highlighting some of the nagging problems of tonal inflection of the language in the area of composition.

LWATI: A Journal of Contemporary Research8(1), 184-193, 2011