The Musicality of Olu Obafemi’s Illuminations: Songs, Dances, from the Belly of Time as a Performance Poetry
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Date
2021
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National Theatre, Lagos, Nigeria and Alpha Crownes Publishing Ltd, Rochester, United Kingdom
Abstract
Poetic compositions and its performative realities through music are in tandem. Hence, poetic compositions especially in Africa are best performed in sine qua non with music. Olu Obafemi‟s Illuminations: Songs, Dances, from the Belly of Time exemplifies a collection of poems embedded with musical aesthetics. Therefore, this study reviews and analyses selected poems in the collection from the perspective of a musicologist. This study reflects on the musical and realistic performance aesthetics of Illuminations: Songs, Dances, from the Belly of Time as illustrated by Olu Obafemi in his writing. This study reveals that, the collection is unarguably a performance poetry. The literary piece creates an ambience of different creative explorations for a willing music director. Obafemi draws his compositional tools, devices and materials in the collection from his immediate socio-cultural environment. The poetic lines create dramatic, historical and nostalgic images in the minds of readers which give a directorial clue for a holistic musical and artistic interpretation. This study concludes that the structure of the poems creates an atmosphere for experimental musical expression and it is best interpreted and enjoyed as a performance poetry.
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10. Ibitoye, O.J. (2021). The musicality of Olu Obafemi’s Illuminations: Songs, dances, from the belly of time as performance poetry. In D. Oni & S.E. Ododo (Eds.), Larger than his frame II: Further critical studies and reflections on Olu Obafemi (pp. 578-586). Rochester, United Kingdom: Published by Alpha Crownes Publishing Ltd. ISBN: 978-0-9935781-5-1.