GYAMKABA: AN ORIGINAL COMPOSITION DERIVED FROM ASAFO SONGS OF ABOAKYER FESTIVAL OF WINNEBA

ABSTRACT 

The study is a by-product of an acculturation of music that uses the creative dynamism mode, and deliberately searches the musical elements of the Aboakyer festival of the Effutu of Winneba in the Central Region of Ghana. It integrates these elements with the Western compositional techniques to create a relatively unique hybrid atonal programmed music of the African. The research adopted the aesthetic functionalism theory on social functions wherein meaning of music is derived from the role music plays in the lives of those who make it. Additionally, the research pivots on the culture information (CI) theory in which creativity is a product of the interplay of environment and knowledge. A field study design was used for the data collection and twentieth century compositional techniques applied to create a hybrid novelty called Gyamkaba. The novelty was analyzed and a definitive analysis which leads the listener and the reader through the piece was presented. The study resolved the controversial provenance date of Effutu settlement as 1515 and not 1530 which was confirmed by the branding of the 2015 Aboakyer Festival as its 500th celebration. The study also revealed that the name of the animal in the hunt should have been a bushbuck and not a deer. Finally, it also uncovered the modal scales used by the Effutu Asafo companies as ionian, dorian and phrygian. It is hoped that this original work will provide a platform for future art composers to research into the other ethnicities in Ghana and use their elements to recreate new hybrid musical forms to augment the 21st century classical repertoire.