Life is short, art and scholarship are long: a tribute in memory of Professor Willie Oscar Anku.

Authors

  • George Dor Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Dar es Salaam

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21504/amj.v8i4.1870

Abstract

This tribute, which memorializes Professor Willie Anku, is in two parts. While Part II offers insights from his scholarship on African rhythm, Part I is modeled on a typical Ghanaian eulogy, because I think it appropriate to honor an Africanist with a tribute that draws on elements of his own African culture.

References

Agawu, Kofi 1995 African Rhythm: A Northern Ewe Perspective, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2003 Representing African Music. Postcolonial Notes, Queries, Positions, New York and London: Routledge.
2005 "Analyzing Gospel Music: Notes on the Rev. James Cleveland's Rendition of 'What a Friend We Have in Jesus'" in Bode Omojola and George Dor (eds) Multiple Interpretations of Dynamics of Creativity and Knowledge in Africa Music Traditions, Point Richmond, CA: Music Research Institute Press, pp. 153-164.
Anku, Willie 1986 Rhythmic Procedures in Akan Adowa Drumming, M.A. Thesis, University of Pittsburgh.
1988 Procedures in African Drumming: A Case of Akan/Ewe Traditions and African Drumming in Pittsburgh, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
1992 Structural Set Analysis of African Music, vol. 1, Bawa, Legon, Ghana: Soundstage Production.
1993 Structural Set Analysis of African Music, vol. 2, Bawa, Legon, Ghana: Soundstage Production.
1995a "Towards a Cross-Cultural Theory of Rhythm in African Drumming", in Cynthia Tse Kimberlin and Akin Euba (eds) Intercultural Music, Vol. 1: 167-202, Bayreuth, Germany: E. Breitinger.
1995b "Creative Processes in African-American Drumming in Pittsburgh and its Relationship to Jazz", International Jazz Archives Journal, i(3):4-27.
1997 "Principles of Rhythmic Integration in African Drumming", Black Music Research, i7(2):2ii-238.
2000 "Circles and Time", Music Theory Online 6, www.smt.ucsb.edu/mto/ issues/mto.oo.6.i.anku.htl.
2007 "Inside the Master Drummer s Mind: A Quantitative Theory of Structures in African Music", Transcultural Review 11, www.sibertrans.com/trans11/arto5.htm.
Anyidoho, Kofi 1983 Oral Traditions of Verbal Art in Africa, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Texas at Austin.
Arom, Simha 1991 African Polyphony and Polyrhythm: Musical Structure and Methodology, translated by Martin Thorn, Barbara Tuckett, et al, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Benjamin, Walter 1969 "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", in Hanna Arendt (ed.) and H. Zohn (trans.) Illuminations, New York: Schocken Books.
Chernoff, John Miller 1979 African Rhythm and African Sensibility: Aesthetics and Social Action in African Musical Idioms, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Cohn, Richard 2010 "Brahms the African, Kwashie the German", Unpublished Paper presented at First International Analytical Approach to World Music, February 19- 21, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Cuthbert, Michael Scott. 2006 "Generalized Set Analysis of Sub-Saharan African Rhythm? Evaluating and Expanding the Theories of Willie Anku", New Music Research, 35(3):2ii-2i9-
Dor, George W. K. 2004 "Communal Creativity and Song Ownership in Anlo Ewe Musical Practice: The Case of Havolu", Ethnomusicology, 48(i):26-5i.
Euba, Akin 1990 Yoruba Drumming: The Dundun Tradition, Bayreuth and Lagos: Bayreuth African Studies and Elekoto Music Centre.
Hood, Mantle 1971 The Ethnomusicologist, New York: McGraw Hill.
Jairazbhoy, Nazir 1977 "The 'Objective' and Subjective View in Music Transcriptiton", Ethnomusicology, 2i(2):263-273.
Jones, A. M. 1954 "African Rhythm", Africa, 24:26-47.
1959 Studies in African Music, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Joseph, Jess 1967 The Physics of Musical Sound, Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand.
Kauffman, Robert 1980 "African Rhythm. A Reassessment", Ethnomusicology, 24(3):393-4i5.
Koetteng, James 1970 "Analysis and Notation of West African Drum Ensemble Music", Selected Reports in Ethnomusicology, i(3):ii5-i46.
Locke, David 1982 "Principles of Offbeat Timing and Cross-Rhythm in Southern Ewe Dance Drumming", Ethnomusicology, 2.6(2):2iy-2^6.
Nketia, Kwabena 1974 The Music of Africa, New York: W.W. Norton.
1985 "Integrating Objectivity and Experience in Ethnomusicological Studies", Worlds of Music, 27(3):3-22.
Reti, Rudolph 1961 The Thematic Process of Music, London: Faber and Faber.
Sowande, Fela 1966 "Nigerian Music and Musicians: Then and Now", Composer, 19:25-34.
Waterman, Richard 1952 "African Influence on the Music of the Americas", Acculturation in the Americas (Proceedings of the Twenty-Ninth International Congress of the Americanists), Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Downloads

Published

2010-11-30

How to Cite

Dor, George. 2010. “ Art and Scholarship Are Long: A Tribute in Memory of Professor Willie Oscar Anku”. African Music : Journal of the International Library of African Music 8 (4):110-23. https://doi.org/10.21504/amj.v8i4.1870.