Ìgunnukó Music in Àwórì Land: An Ethnographic Study of Indigenous Compositional Techniques

Abstract

This study investigated the compositional techniques in Ìgunnukó music, an indigenous genre in Àwórì land, Lagos, Nigeria, amidst concerns of cultural erosion and modernisation. Despite the prominence of Ìgunnukó music in Àwórì ritual life, its compositional logic remains under-documented in Yorùbá music scholarship. The study identified the compositional techniques utilised in Ìgunnukó music with a view to examining their cultural significance and documenting the genre’s musical characteristics for preservation and future consultation. The study contributes a structured and analytical account of Ìgunnukó musical creativity, offering new insight into how Yorùbá linguistic and rhythmic systems shape indigenous composition. The study employed an ethnographic qualitative design, combining participant observation, semi-structured interviews with 20 purposively selected Ìgunnukó practitioners, and a targeted literature review. Findings show that Ìgunnukó musicians draw on Yorùbá speech-based rhythmic and melodic systems, responsorial structures, and improvisatory practices to generate distinctive melo-rhythmic patterns rooted in communal performance aesthetics. The study demonstrates that Ìgunnukó music embodies a coherent indigenous compositional system that remains central to Àwórì cultural identity. It underscores the need for sustained documentation and further analytical research on Yorùbá traditional genres.