African Suite

Composer: SOWANDE, Fela
  • Published in 1955, this suite makes use of Nigerian indigenous and popular music styles.1
  • Four of the suite’s five movements are based on preexisting African melodies. Movemens 1 and 4 are based on songs by Ghanaian composer Ephraim Amu. Movements 3 and 5 are based on Nigerian folk songs.2

“This Suite consists of five pieces for String Orchestra and Harp, representing five varying moods. Two of the themes used in the Suite, ‘Joyful Day’ and ‘Onipe,’ are melodies from the pen of Mr. E. Amu, of Achimota College, Gold Coast, West Africa, to whom the composer is indebted for permission to use them. ‘Lullaby’ and ‘Akinia’ are folk-melodies from Southern Nigeria, while ‘Nostalgia’ is based on an original theme, and represents the nostalgic memories of ‘an African in England.’”

Fela Sowande, from the liner notes to a 1952 Decca recording of his African Suite3 

Movements

  1. Joyful Day 
  2. Nostalgia 
  3. Onipe 
  4. Lullaby 
  5. Akinla 

Sources

  1. Daniel Avorgbedor, “Sowande, Fela,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed August 12, 2021,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000026327. 
  2. Bode Omojola, “Black Diasporic Encounters: A Study of the Music of Fela Sowande,”  
  3. Black Music Research Journal 27 No. 2 (Fall 2007), 150, accessed August 12, 2021, https://www.jstor.org/stable/25433787. 
  4. Quoted in William K. Zick, “‘African Suite’ by Fela Sowande Digitally Remastered from 1952 Decca LP,” AfriClassical (April 11, 2008), https://africlassical.blogspot.com/2008/04/african-suite-by-fela-sowande-digitally.html 

Cut IDs

12438