title: Music in selected play productions of Wole Soyinka and Femi Osofisan
Creators: name: Sotimirin, Olatunji Samson
Publisher: name: Goldsmiths, University of London
Year: 2020

description: Despite the existence of a robust scholarly attention on African plays and performance practices, not enough attention has been given to music, a unique art form, as a performance element in African theatre. This study investigates the use of music in African drama in selected play productions of Wole Soyinka and Femi Osofisan’s plays. Data for this study were gathered from primary and secondary sources. The primary sources included the use of structured interviews and non-participant observation methods. The playwrights whose plays are case studies, namely Wole Soyinka and Femi Osofisan, were interviewed. The researcher was on ground at the rehearsals of the selected plays and noted the methods of teaching the songs and the importance attached to the music of the plays during the rehearsals. The texts of the plays were critically studied in relation to the lyrics of the songs. Significant primary data arose from informal interactions with the cast and crew of the selected performances. Recordings of the performances were critically evaluated. The secondary source of data collection consisted of a robust library search and review of related literature. Comparative and descriptive analysis served as analytical tools for the discourse. The results show that music is used to reflect the subjective underpinnings and compositions important for the essence, character and statements in Soyinka and Osofisan’s plays. As a method of preserving their culture, histories, and identity, Soyinka and Osofisan exploit the oral performance traditions from their Yoruba culture, combining music and dance to achieve total theatre dramaturgy. The study opens new vistas of academic investigations into cultural studies. The study also contributes to scholarship of music in the theatre through the transcription and orchestration of some of the pieces, transcribed for indigenous instruments and Western symphonic orchestra. It was discovered from the study that as components of traditional African theatre, music is an artistic cultural index that Soyinka and Osofisan utilise predominantly in their plays. This study concludes that music is not, and should not be treated as an ordinary complimentary piece or a mere aesthetic embellishment. African theatre is incomplete without music, they both collaborate in the dramatic narrative process. Music in Soyinka and Osofisan’s plays (both in the form of literary drama and in realisation as performance), functions as a narrative device. Both Soyinka and Osofisan draw their music from Yoruba culture. (Culture both in its popular and pristine forms). Their use of music certainly goes beyond the bounds of embellishment. The various songs used in their works take some steps further into the metaphysical and spiritual consciousness of their people. It is through the concerted determination of theatre artistes in Nigeria and other African countries that traditional African theatre can take its rightful place amongst the theatres of the world. It also concludes that Africans should construct expressions that could suitably describe their music and give profound meaning.