Continuities and Discontinuities: Social Signification in ‘Tòkunbọ̀ ', a Yoruba Art Music Composition

Abstract

‘Tòkunbọ̀’ can be described as an art musical composition that engages with ethical and cultural issues in a didactic way, specifically to fashion a critique on the purchasing of products or items used by white people from overseas, and the implication that even the second-hand products of white people are better than new local products or similar products that do not signal white cultural attachments. The story told in the composition extends beyond the signification of ‘used wares’, and develops to Yorùbá cultural values or expectations imposed by traditional beliefs and ideologies as regards morals and ethics. ‘Tòkunbọ̀’ deals with a very problematic subject that reveals the austere economic conditions in Nigeria, as well as the tension between modern living conventions and traditional expectations. In this paper, I observed and conducted a close reading of the narrative (video recording and musical score) from the choral composition vis-à-vis the concepts of continuity and discontinuity, extending this to its implications for art music scholarship in Nigeria. This study suggests that continuities and discontinuities are binaries based on perception, and perception of social change itself can be confusing as it has both the negative and positive aspects which take different connotations at different periods to people with varying ideologies in a society.