- Presenter: Anna Picard
- Producer: Natalie Steed
- Contributors: Stephen Bourne, Melissa Doody, Julius P Williams, Allyson Devenish, Tuffus Zimbabwe
Performers
A couple of weeks ago, a social media post by the renowned South African composer Bongani Ndodana-Breen alerted me to a musician I hadn't heard of before – Jessie Margaret Soga (1870-1954). I've now added her to the timeline.
Since beginning this research, I've been really struck by how few historical South African musicians I've been able to identify in Britain, particularly given the connections that existed with South Africa during this period so it was great to hear about all the amazing things she did. It's also very interesting to note that she was so heavily political (in the Scottish suffrage movement) at a time when a more well-known Afro-British musician – Samuel Coleridge-Taylor – was very involved with Pan-Africanism. Both used their musical skills to raise funds and awareness in support of their respective sociopolitical activities.
Jessie M. Soga was a Xhosa-Scottish singer born in South Africa. Shortly after her father Tiyo's death in 1871 when she was still a baby, the remaining family moved to Scotland where she became involved in singing from childhood initially as a performer, and then as a teacher.
She studied singing and music at the Royal Academy of Music in 1894-5, and later gaining further qualifications from there as her career progressed in the early 20th century. During this period, Soga featured as a soloist in several large scale concerts with choral societies across Scotland while also becoming very involved in women's suffrage campaigns and organising multiple fundraising events for the cause.
Despite the rest of her family returning to South Africa over the years, Jessie Soga remained in Scotland and died in Glasgow at the age of 83.
Thanks to Bongani for bringing Jessie Soga to my attention. I strongly recommend listening to his work, if you haven't already!
Sowande brothers updates at BFI
Among Fela Sowande’s compositions are soundtracks that he wrote for films including The Plainsmen of Barotseland (1943) and African Awakening(1962). He also makes an appearance as a pianist in the 1946 wartime drama The Lisbon Story. All of this means he has featured in the British Film Instituted archives. While doing the research for my last blogpost, I realised something that had confused me in the BFI archives previously – a reference to Olu Sowande as narrator in the documentary Nigerian Harvest (1962) took me to Fela’s page. I assumed that someone had mistakenly made a reference to Fela’s full name (Olufela) and ignored it. When I realised that one of his brothers was called Olu, I got in touch with the BFI and after providing evidence that Olu was a different Sowande, they not only updated the link but created new pages for the remaining brothers so they can be referred to if any one find them in old films or footage.
Mistakes happen with names – especially non-European ones – so much in archives. There must be so many other Black musicians that are lost within them because someone has made what looks like a small mistake that can bury their work for a long time.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor violin repertoire
Schott Music have recently reprinted Suite de Pièces by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor for violin and piano. It has been available as download only for a while but if, like me, you prefer to perform from printed scores, this is a welcome addition. Thanks to Ian Mylett at Schott for telling me about this.
There are several other works by Coleridge-Taylor that were originally published by Schott but are no longer available. Hopefully, more of these Schott editions will be reissued soon… I’m updating the plainsightSOUND database as this information comes in, so get in touch if I’ve missed anything!
Listen to Suite de Pièces performed by Maria Ioudenitch (violin) and Sahun (Sam) Hong (piano). Maria Ioudenitch performs on the on the Joachim-Ma Stradivarius
Timeline additions
Four new people have been added to the plainsightSOUND timeline – Yinka Sowande, Olu Sowande, Meki Nzewi and Christopher Oyesiku. There are so many more people to add to the timeline and I’m looking for other ways to display this data too. Let me know if you have any more ideas!
Image: Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos Yellowcrunchy, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Within musical families, creative interest among several siblings is pretty much expected. When we look back in history though, it is not unusual to find individual siblings who become more well-known within specific genres or fields. A while ago, I wrote about Frederick Bridg(e)tower who - as well as his child prodigy brother George - excelled and remained in music throughout his short life. We also have the Aldridges - Luranah, Amanda and Ira - who were the children of the African American actor Ira Aldridge (Alex Ross wrote an interesting article on the elder Aldridge back in 2013). Added to these are the Sowande brothers, of which Fela Sowande (1905-1987) is probably the most well-cited among British musicians today. The brothers - Fela, Yinka, Olu and Tunji - all received their initial choral training at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos. Fela and Yinka were also organists at the church. I've previously written about Fela, but his brothers were pretty interesting too.
Yinka Sowande (1910-1993)
Williams Olayinka Sowande also studied music in England and later held various positions as organist at Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos in Nigeria during his lifetime. Unfortunately, I don't have a huge amount of information on Yinka yet, but I'm hoping more is coming soon.
Tunji Sowande (1912-1996)
While Fela initially studied economics, Tunji Sowande studied Law at Kings College, London while also sustaining himself with a successful career as a jazz drummer and saxophonist. Like Fela, he was associated with high profile musicians including Rita Lawrence, Ronnie Scott, Johnny Dankworth and Paul Robeson. Unlike his eldest brother, however, he eventually decided to focus on his career as a barrister - having been called to the bar in 1952. From there, he became the first Black Head of Chambers at a major set in 1968 and in 1978 was appointed the first Black Deputy Circuit Judge in the UK. The play Just an Ordinary Lawyer by Tunji Aluko explores his life through words and music. Take a look at the trailer below:
Olu Sowande (1916-1968)
Olubunmi Jonathan Sowande was the youngest of the four musician brothers. His received his initial voice training from his mother and his first piano lessons from eldest brother Fela. On April 3, 1956, he travelled to England to study operatic singing at Guildhall School of Music & Drama. As a member of the London International Choir, he introduced his peers to Nigerian folk songs. Olu returned to Nigeria in 1960 - around the same time as bass singer and music educator Christopher Oyesiki - and took up a post as a Senior Program Assistant at NBC. Through his weekly program Olu Sowande's Show he showcased several important musicians including the now famous Fela Kuti (an alumn of Trinity College of Music, London).
Special thanks
This post was inspired by a fantastic Olu Sowande biographical Facebook post by Professor Godwin Sadoh in 2020. Professor Sadoh writes extensively on Nigerian musicians and ethnomusicologists, including in his book The Centenary of the Cathedral Church of Christ choir, Lagos available in paperback and ebook formats.
All four of the brothers now appear on the plainsightSOUND timeline.
With everything that’s been going on this very weird year that is 2020, more people have shown an interest in the research I’ve been doing that goes into this site, my PhD and Decus Ensemble. It’s been extremely busy but, after passing my MPhil to PhD upgrade in June (YAY!), I blocked out some time to get the next chunk of my project done – the plainsightSOUND database.
This week, I heard the sad news that the respected Nigerian composer, ethnomusicologist and pianist Professor Akin Euba passed away on April 14th. The work of Professor Euba has featured in many aspects of this project, particularly through collaborations with Decus Ensemble where I have been able to programme both his 5 Pieces for English Horn and Piano and his String Quartet.
Among the many tributes shared in the days since his passing, was one by Professor Godwin Sadoh who has been a great supporter of the plainsightSOUND project. I am sharing it below with his permission.
Akin Euba: Foremost Nigerian Musicologist and Composer Dies at 84
Akin Euba was born on April 28, 1935, in Lagos, Nigeria. He had his early musical training in Lagos before proceeding to England for advanced studies. In four years at the Trinity College of Music, Euba earned three diplomas:
Associate of the Trinity College, London (Piano Performance) 1954; Licentiate of the Trinity College London (Teacher’s Training Diploma) 1955; and Licentiate of the Trinity College London (Piano Performance) 1956. At UCLA, Euba graduated Cum Laude with a B.A. degree in Music in 1964 and completed his Master’s degree also at UCLA in 1966. In 1967, he registered with the University of Ghana as a Ph.D. student in ethnomusicology under the supervision of late Prof. Kwabena Nketia, and subsequently graduated in 1974.
In the area of academic position, Euba has been a lecturer, Visiting Fellow, and External Examiner at a variety of universities in Africa and North America. His first position as Lecturer at the University of Lagos in Nigeria extended from 1966-68. From 1968-75, he was a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Ife in Nigeria, where he served as the Founding Head of the Department of Music. He spent the Summer of 1969 at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Assignments as External Examiner involved both the University of Ife and Makerere University in Uganda. Euba was a Professor at the University of Lagos from 1978-81. Among other appointments, he was Director of the Center for Intercultural Music Arts in London, which he founded, in 1988. He was also Honorary Visiting Professor, Department of Music, City University, London. Other academic appointments include Research Scholar and Artist-in-Residence at the IWALEWA House, the African Studies Center of the University of Bayreuth in Germany, between 1986 and 1992. He was the Andrew Mellon Professor of Music at the University of Pittsburgh between 1993 and 2011. Until his death on April 14, 2020, exactly two weeks before his 85th birthday, Akin Euba was the Andrew W. Mellon Professor, Emeritus in music.
While in the employ of the University of Pittsburgh, Euba taught several courses including Music in Africa, Introduction to Ethnomusicology, Field and Lab Methods, World Music, Creative Ethnomusicology, and Intercultural Musicology. He was well known for pioneering various theories, including those of African Pianism, Intercultural Musicology, and creative ethnomusicology.
Selected Activities
- Azusa Pacific University, School of Music’s first World Music Scholar-in-Residence, 2004.
- Composer-in-Residence, Ensemble Noir, Toronto, 2003.
- Organizer, 1st and 2nd biennial international symposium and festival on the theme “Composition in Africa and the Diaspora,” Churchill College, University of Cambridge, 2001 and 2003.
- Organizer, International symposium and festival on the theme “Towards an African Pianism: Keyboard Music of Africa and Its Diaspora,” University of Pittsburgh, 1999.
- Overseas Fellow, Churchill College, University of Cambridge, 2000-1.
Selected Honors/Awards
- Biography in New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2d ed., 2001
- Biography in International Dictionary of Black Composers, 1999
May his soul rest in peace.
Prof. Godwin Sadoh
Former student of Akin Euba
October is Black History Month in the UK and this year, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance have let me do a plainsightSOUND Instagram takeover!
This is an opportunity to highlight the musicians that feature on this site. It will hopefully encourage some new visitors too.
If you have an Instagram account and would like to join in the conversation, head over to https://www.instagram.com and search #plainsightsound. Don't worry, if you don't have an account, you can still see the pictures during Black History Month and after. Don't forget, you can use the same hashtag on Facebook and Twitter to keep up with the latest news.
Everyone who appears should already be shown in the Timeline. Let me know if there's anyone missing...
Message from a reader
A couple of weeks ago, I was pleasantly surprised to receive a really nice email from Emma Price in Australia who had come across my website while researching her own project.
Through her work, Emma had compiled some material about ‘F. Bridgetower’ – cellist, composer and younger brother of George Bridgetower. The elder Bridgetower is better remembered as a former friend of Beethoven and the original violinist that the ‘Kreutzer’ Sonata was dedicated to.
Hearing from Emma was great because most of the references I’d found for George don’t mention any siblings at all. Even those that do, can’t agree on the possible younger brother’s name, with mentions of his death based on guesswork. These also assume that he was the same Frederick Joseph Bridgetower who died in Liverpool the mid-1800s. Today though, modern technology and online tools like digitised historical newspapers make this kind of information much easier to research.
New information
Emma was kind enough to pass on some material including newspaper scans and photos of scores that she’d found at the National Library of Ireland, Dublin.
Teaching advertisement for Frederic Bridgtower
MR. BRIDGTOWER,
Professor of Music, and Teacher of the Violoncello and Piano-forte,
HAVING at the earnest solicitation of many respectable friends, determined to fix his future residence in Dublin, has taken the house No. 2, Exchange-court, near Dame Street, where he will receive Pupils on the Violoncello, and respectfully attend to any commands he may be honoured with to teach abroad on either of the above instruments.
Title page for 'A Pastoral Rondo' by Frederic Bridgtower
I was also pointed towards other recent work that filled some of the gaps in the brothers’ life stories including New Light on George Bridgtower (Hart, 2017). The relatively recent paper includes lots of new details and reminders, like the different spellings that the family used (Bridgetown/Bridgetower/ Bridgtower), which was a big help. A lot of other research materials end up regurgitating the same old myths and made-up stories, so it was great to see something where the author was able to use original sources and newspapers of the day. Using this new information, I’ve been able to update Frederick’s entry on the timeline.
Updated timeline - still no image of Frederic/k though!
Future additions
Huge thanks to Emma for sending over this material. I set this page up to share my research with other people who find it useful or are just interested in this topic. In the short time since it launched, it’s been great to get messages from people who are keen and willing to share their own work. If you can think of anyone who might be missing from the project, please get in touch using the contact page.
NB. It turns out there was also a third brother, Johannes Albertus, who was born in Mainz in 1787. If anyone has any information on him, please pass it on!
It hasn't been very long since my last post about Winifred Atwell, but I couldn't resist this opportunity to plug something else I've written her. This time, I've been writing about archival recordings by and about Winifred Atwell at The British Library, as part of my Edison Fellowship there.
The blog post focuses specifically on recordings that you can find in the British Library's catalogue. As well as Atwell's performances, you can also hear interviews with some of the people who had met her. I've included clips of all of these in the Sound and vision blog post.
Have a read, listen and let me know what you think!
It's much easier than it used to be to do your own research at the British Library. Or you just visit one of the free or ticketed exhibitions that they regularly have. More information is on the British Library website https://www.bl.uk and I highly recommend a visit.
For more information on other musicians in this project, take a look at the plainsightSOUND Timeline.
Those of you who have been following the progress of this site over the last few months will be pleased to see that the timeline is now working properly!
There are still a few little bugs to work out with how it displays but you can now scroll through to see details of most of the musicians who have been researched so far in this project.
It would be great to be able to include images for all of the musicians (not everything on Wikipedia is public domain) so if you happen to own an original photograph of anyone featured in the project and would be happy for it to be used, please get in touch. In the meantime, take a look at the timeline of Black musicians in British classical music (up to the mid-20th century) in all its glory.
Happy scrolling!