Origin and Development of Yoruba Native Airs in Christian Liturgy

Abstract

Yoruba Native Air (YNA) tradition in Christian liturgy evolved as a result of the conflict between European and Yoruba Indigenous music traditions at the inception of Christianity in Yorubaland. The growing body of scholarship on Nigerian music has, so far, partially made reference to YNA in spite of its being the foundation of Yoruba church music. This paper, therefore, explores the origin and development of Yoruba Native Airs in Christian liturgy. The activism and advocacy of the early YNA composers were manifestations of the cultural nationalism of the late 19th/early 20th centuries. They produced works in a danceable style, in which singing in Yoruba, according to the tonal and rhythmic inflections of the words, is accompanied by the organ and drumming in a traditional Yoruba rhythmic style. Hence, YNA developed as a bona fide church music tradition with sizeable number of composers whose compositions satisfied the musical, liturgical and spiritual needs of Yoruba Christians for that period.