Kofi Agawu
Biographic Data
| ID | 111609 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kofi Agawu |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kofi |
| FAMILY NAME | Agawu |
| SIGNATURE | AGAWU K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Princeton University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 40 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 120 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 39 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1991 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Music Studies in Crisis? Notes and Queries on Reframing Music Theory
Some version of the claim that music studies are in crisis today has been circulating in the academy recently. For example, a 2021 issue of the flagship journal of the Society for Music Theory, Music Theory Spectrum , featured articles based on a 2019 SMT plenary session that identified deficits in how theorists have addressed race, gender, nationality and disability, and urged members to work towards reframing theory and analysis. Ongoing conver…
Whose Decolonization? Prospects for Decolonizing African Art Music
Although they date back to the 1960s—the decade of African independence—decolonization discourses have gained a new visibility in today’s academies and social media. Targets of decolonization include universities (and numerous practices within), archives, museums, political and economic systems, and individuals from previously colonized nations. Questions remain, however, about what, why, and how to decolonize. This article explores the prospects…
On African Music: Techniques, Influences, Scholarship
On Responses to The African Imagination in Music
K. Agawu (2016). The African imagination in music. Oxford University Press, 372 pp. I’m grateful to the editors of Ghana Studies for the honor of publishing a forum on my book, The African Imagination in Music . My thanks to Kwasi Ampene for organizing the forum, and to Ingrid Monson, Bode
O tonalismo como força colonizadora na África
No ensaio, Kofi Agawu aborda a relação entre o tonalismo – entendido como “sistema hierarquicamente organizado de relações entre alturas” – e a música africana. A partir de diferentes exemplos e em diálogo com contribuições dos estudos decoloniais e da etnomusicologia, Agawu desenvolve uma interpretação crítica que busca compreender como aspectos da imaginação musical africana responderam à violência colonial imposta a partir de uma linguagem har…
The African imagination in music
The African Imagination in Music offers a fresh introduction to the vast and complex world of Sub-Saharan African music. Through close readings of traditional music and references to popular music, Agawu considers topics including the place of music in society, musical instruments, language and music, and appropriations of African music
Tonality as a Colonizing Force in Africa
Appropriating Said
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Representing African Music: Postcolonial Notes, Queries, Positions
The aim of this book is to stimulate debate by offering a critique of discourse about African music. Who writes about African music, how, and why? What assumptions and prejudices influence the presentation of ethnographic data? Even the term "African music" suggests there is an agreed-upon meaning, but African music signifies differently to different people. This book also poses the question then, "What is African music?" Agawu offers a new and p…
Trends in African Musicology: A Review Article
Book Review| February 01 2012 Trends in African Musicology: A Review Article Female Voices from an Ewe Dance Drumming Community in Ghana: Our Music Has Become a Divine Spirit. James Burns. 2009. Farnham, Surrey, England: Ashgate Publishers. SOAS Musicology Series. vii, 215 pp., figures, diagrams, tables, glossary, maps, music examples, photographs, bibliography, index, DVD. Cloth, $59.95.Fiddling in West Africa: Touching the Spirit in Fulbe, Haus…
The Challenge of African Art Music
This essay offers broad reflection on some of the challenges faced by African composers of art music. The specific point of departure is the publication of a new anthology, Piano Music of Africa and the African Diaspora, edited by Ghanaian pianist and scholar William Chapman Nyaho and published in 2009 by Oxford University Press. The anthology exemplifies a diverse range of creative achievement in a genre that is less often associated with Africa…
Response to Rice
Research Article| July 01 2010 Response to Rice Kofi Agawu Kofi Agawu Princeton University Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Ethnomusicology (2010) 54 (2): 326–329. https://doi.org/10.5406/ethnomusicology.54.2.0326 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Kofi Agawu; Response to Rice. Ethnomusicology 1 January 2010; 54 (2): 326–329. doi: https://doi.org/10.5406/ethnomusicology.54.2.0326 Dow…
Commentary
1] It would appear that the once antithetical disciplines of music theory and ethnomusicology are entering a new phase of cooperation.Put differently, music theorists are showing an increasing interest in non-Western (and non-canonical) music.Publications and conferences attest to this.For example, in February of 2010, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst hosted a conference on the subject, Analytical Approaches to World Music.This unpreced…
Communication in Eighteenth-Century Music
Written by ten leading scholars, this volume assembles studies of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century music under the broad rubric of communication. That such an impulse motivates musical composition and performance in this period of European musical history is often acknowledged but seldom examined in depth. The book explores a broad set of issues, ranging from the exigencies of the market for books and music in the eighteenth century throu…
Meki Nzewi and the discourse of African musicology: A 70th Birthday Appreciation
This article offers a critical appreciation of the contributions of Nigerian ethnomusicologist, composer and scholar, Meki Nzewi, to the scholarly discourse on African music. It identifies a number of recurring themes in Nzewi's work (notably the human-centredness of African music making), comments on Nzewi's language, method and manner (including the Africa-centredness of his overall stance), and points to the resonance of Nzewi's ideas and form…
Interpreting Musical Gestures, Topics, and Tropes: Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert. By Robert S. Hatten
Conceived as a complement to his well-received 1994 monograph, Musical Meaning in Beethoven, Robert S. Hatten's new book presents a web of theories centred on the idea of musical gesture. The contents are grouped in three parts. Part I—which also establishes the most direct link with the previous book, and indeed generously recapitulates some of its central concepts (including markedness, style types, strategic tokens, topics, expressive genres, …
How We Got Out of Analysis, and How to Get Back In Again
An African Understanding of African Music
African Music: Theoretical Content and Creative Continuum: The Culture Exponent's Definitions, by Meki Nzewi. Oldershausen, Germany: Institut für Didaktik populärer Musik. 84 pp
African Music as Text
In so far as they constitute complex messages rooted in specific cultural practices, the varieties of African music known to us today may be designated as text. While performing practice and audience participation vary according to genre, the activity of meaning construction remains essential to all participants. We only have to listen to the elaborate vocal polyphony of BaAka Pygmies, the polyrhythmic dance-drumming of Fon, Anlo-Ewe, or Yoruba, …
Response to 1999 SMT International Plenary Session
Music and Meaning
African Rhythm: A Northern Ewe Perspective
African Rhythm: A Northern Ewe Perspective
African Rhythm: A Northern Ewe Perspective. By Kofi Agawu. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. [xx, 217 p. and 1 compact disc. ISBN 0-521-48084-1. $64.95.] Kofi Agawu's stimulating and provocative book African Rhythm: A Northern Ewe Perspective, presents a model of rhythm in northern Ewe (Ewedome) music from seven Ghanaian towns--Peki, Matse, Ziavi, Klefe, Avenut, Kpando, and Ho--and in music of their Akpafu neighbors. Juxtaposed with a f…
African Rhythm: A Northern Ewe Perspective
Perspectives on Schubert's Songs
Representing African Music: Postcolonial Notes, Queries, Positions
The aim of this book is to stimulate debate by offering a critique of discourse about African music. Who writes about African music, how, and why? What assumptions and prejudices influence the presentation of ethnographic data? Even the term "African music" suggests there is an agreed-upon meaning, but African music signifies differently to different people. This book also poses the question then, "What is African music?" Agawu offers a new and p…
How We Got Out of Analysis, and How to Get Back In Again
The Invention of African Rhythm
African rhythm" was invented in the 1950s when, thanks to pioneering research by A. M. Jones, Alan Merriam, Gilbert Rouget, Erich von Hornbostel, and John Blacking, among others, "African music" was construed as an essentially rhythmic phenomenon. Motivated by an ideology of difference (between "Africa" and the "West"), these early studies overlooked crucial aspects of African musical experience. This essay reinvents "African rhythm" by engaging …
Analyzing Music Under the New Musicological Regime
Research Article| July 01 1997 Analyzing Music under the New Musicological Regime Kofi Agawu Kofi Agawu Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Journal of Musicology (1997) 15 (3): 297–307. https://doi.org/10.2307/763911 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citatio…
Theory and Practice in the Analysis of the Nineteenth-Century 'Lied
In spite of its ubiquity, and its singular claim to represent a natural mode of musical expression, song has had a less than decisive influence on the development of music theory and analysis in the twentieth century. Our canonical techniques of analysis have emerged primarily from considerations of instrumental music, not vocal music. And although nothing in principle precludes the application of such techniques to non-instrumental works, song a…
Meki Nzewi and the discourse of African musicology: A 70th Birthday Appreciation
This article offers a critical appreciation of the contributions of Nigerian ethnomusicologist, composer and scholar, Meki Nzewi, to the scholarly discourse on African music. It identifies a number of recurring themes in Nzewi's work (notably the human-centredness of African music making), comments on Nzewi's language, method and manner (including the Africa-centredness of his overall stance), and points to the resonance of Nzewi's ideas and form…
African Rhythm, a Northern Ewe Perspective
An African Understanding of African Music
African Music: Theoretical Content and Creative Continuum: The Culture Exponent's Definitions, by Meki Nzewi. Oldershausen, Germany: Institut für Didaktik populärer Musik. 84 pp
African Music as Text
In so far as they constitute complex messages rooted in specific cultural practices, the varieties of African music known to us today may be designated as text. While performing practice and audience participation vary according to genre, the activity of meaning construction remains essential to all participants. We only have to listen to the elaborate vocal polyphony of BaAka Pygmies, the polyrhythmic dance-drumming of Fon, Anlo-Ewe, or Yoruba, …
Music and Meaning
Perspectives on Schubert's Songs
John Blacking and the study of African music
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Round Table V: Musical Analysis: Systematic versus Historical Models
Representing African Music
Theory and Practice in the Analysis of the Nineteenth-Century 'Lied
In spite of its ubiquity, and its singular claim to represent a natural mode of musical expression, song has had a less than decisive influence on the development of music theory and analysis in the twentieth century. Our canonical techniques of analysis have emerged primarily from considerations of instrumental music, not vocal music. And although nothing in principle precludes the application of such techniques to non-instrumental works, song a…
African Music: A Bibliographical Guide to the Traditional, Popular, Art, and Liturgical Musics of Sub-Saharan Africa
African Musicology: Current Trends, Volume II. A Festschrift Presented to J. H. Kwabena Nketia
Schubert's Sexuality: A Prescription for Analysis
Research Article| July 01 1993 Schubert's Sexuality: A Prescription for Analysis? Kofi Agawu Kofi Agawu Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar 19th-Century Music (1993) 17 (1): 79–82. https://doi.org/10.2307/746782 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Kof…
"Playing with "Playing with Signs: A Critical Response to Kofi Agawu
The Invention of African Rhythm
African rhythm" was invented in the 1950s when, thanks to pioneering research by A. M. Jones, Alan Merriam, Gilbert Rouget, Erich von Hornbostel, and John Blacking, among others, "African music" was construed as an essentially rhythmic phenomenon. Motivated by an ideology of difference (between "Africa" and the "West"), these early studies overlooked crucial aspects of African musical experience. This essay reinvents "African rhythm" by engaging …
Music and the Origins of Language: Theories from the French Enlightenment
African Rhythm, a Northern Ewe Perspective
The Amu Legacy
Ephraim Amu, 1899-1995, was the leading Ghanaian composer of 'art music' (the music of concerts, churches, schools and formal performance). This article is both a brief appreciation of the man as his ideas, personal practice and musical style developed over the years, and an account of the influence Ephraim Amu exercised over Ghanaian musical life
African Rhythm: A Northern Ewe Perspective
African Rhythm: A Northern Ewe Perspective. By Kofi Agawu. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. [xx, 217 p. and 1 compact disc. ISBN 0-521-48084-1. $64.95.] Kofi Agawu's stimulating and provocative book African Rhythm: A Northern Ewe Perspective, presents a model of rhythm in northern Ewe (Ewedome) music from seven Ghanaian towns--Peki, Matse, Ziavi, Klefe, Avenut, Kpando, and Ho--and in music of their Akpafu neighbors. Juxtaposed with a f…
African Rhythm: A Northern Ewe Perspective
Perspectives on Schubert's Songs
African Rhythm. A Northern Ewe perspective
African Rhythm: A Northern Ewe Perspective
Analyzing Music Under the New Musicological Regime
Research Article| July 01 1997 Analyzing Music under the New Musicological Regime Kofi Agawu Kofi Agawu Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Journal of Musicology (1997) 15 (3): 297–307. https://doi.org/10.2307/763911 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citatio…
John Blacking and the study of African music
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Music and Meaning
African Rhythm: A Northern Ewe Perspective
Response to 1999 SMT International Plenary Session
An African Understanding of African Music
African Music: Theoretical Content and Creative Continuum: The Culture Exponent's Definitions, by Meki Nzewi. Oldershausen, Germany: Institut für Didaktik populärer Musik. 84 pp
African Music as Text
In so far as they constitute complex messages rooted in specific cultural practices, the varieties of African music known to us today may be designated as text. While performing practice and audience participation vary according to genre, the activity of meaning construction remains essential to all participants. We only have to listen to the elaborate vocal polyphony of BaAka Pygmies, the polyrhythmic dance-drumming of Fon, Anlo-Ewe, or Yoruba, …
How We Got Out of Analysis, and How to Get Back In Again
Interpreting Musical Gestures, Topics, and Tropes: Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert. By Robert S. Hatten
Conceived as a complement to his well-received 1994 monograph, Musical Meaning in Beethoven, Robert S. Hatten's new book presents a web of theories centred on the idea of musical gesture. The contents are grouped in three parts. Part I—which also establishes the most direct link with the previous book, and indeed generously recapitulates some of its central concepts (including markedness, style types, strategic tokens, topics, expressive genres, …
Art (31 works) · Music History and Culture (22 works) · Diverse Musicological Studies (21 works) · History (18 works) · Visual arts (18 works) · Musicology and Musical Analysis (17 works) · Literature (14 works) · Musical (12 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Aesthetics (11 works)