Musical Arts Composition and Performance-composition as Indigenous Knowledge Systems in Okpe Culture: The Poetic Essence

Abstract

Okpe is an ethnic nationality in the central district of Delta State, Nigeria whose culture is rich in heritage that includes many musical arts creativity and dance forms, which serve as indigenous knowledge systems and are associated with religious beliefs, ritual and social observances for satisfying and fulfilling certain philosophical requirements and socio-moral obligations. Musical arts composition in the culture is a system by which indigenous knowledge is packaged poetically in symbolic forms and crafted into musical communication directed to an audience, in order to impart certain relevant knowledge and to store same in reflective and enduring manners for posterity. Performance-composition, in this context refers to any musical piece composed and performed extempore as performance is in progress, usually influenced by the characters of objects or subjects and developments in the immediate environment. It has never really occurred to many African music educationists that it is necessary to integrate and apply the musical arts indigenous knowledge systems of the society to the dynamics of educational psychology and teaching-learning. The primary objective of this paper is to examine how musical arts composition and performance-composition poetically function in the society as indigenous knowledge systems and the necessity of emphasizing it in music education curricula.