Professional Accomplishment of Rev. ‘Femi Adedeji

I pioneered Ife Mass Choir in 1994 and also pioneered and directed ‘Gospel Music Extravaganza’, a Quarterly Music concert held in Lagos, between 1998 and 2004. The Institute of Christian Music and Research Centre, a self-sponsored research outfit was established since 1998. I organized and directed ASAPH National Christian Music Workshop/Concert (an Annual event) between 2001 and 2007. In 1992, I composed the popular ‘A! ni ipinle Osun’, a Yoruba song waxed as a track, still  played on Osun Radio till date. Lastly, some of my song compositions are being used for performance and teaching purposes both in and outside the academia.

Positions and Services held the Department of Music of Obafemi Awolowo University

a.   Coordinator, Nigerian Music Review             2001-2008

b.   Editor-in-Chief, Nigerian Music Review       2007-2008, 2013 to date

c.   Acting Head, Department of Music               2007/2008 & 2008/2009 Sessions

d.   Acting Head, Department of Music               2013, 2014.

Positions and Services held the Faculty of Arts of Obafemi Awolowo University

a.   Faculty of Arts Research Committee                                                                 2002-2004

b.   Member, Faculty Review Panel                                                                          2004-2008

c.   Dean’s Representative; Board of Management, Natural History Museum    2007

d.   Member, Faculty Admission Committee                                                           2013

Positions and Services held within my University

a.   Associate Lecturer, Department of Educational Technology, O.A.U.             2009

b.   Organized and Directed Campus ‘Peace’ Concert                                          2008

c.   Facilitator, Living Spring Music Festival:                                                         1995-2008

d.   Assistant Editor, ODU: A Journal of West African Studies                              2013

Positions and Services held outside my University

a.   Adviser, Bola Are School of Gospel Music, Ibadan                                          1997-2012

b.   Editor, Nigerian Christian Music Guide                                                             2001-2012

c.   Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Nigerian Music Education                                     2010-2013

d.   Auditor, Conference of Music Educators in Nigeria                                           2002-2004

e.   JAMB Examiner & Moderator                                                                             2005-2009

f.    Member, Editorial Board, African Musicology Online                                      2007-2012

g.   Reviewer, Journal of Religion and Popular Culture                                           2008

h.   Member, Editorial Board; Journal of the Association of Nigerian

Musicologists                                                                                                   2006-2012

i.    External Moderator, Ekiti State College of Education, Ikere Ekiti                    2007-2012

j.    External Examiner, Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos                                     2009-2012

k.   External Examiner, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra

State                                                                                                                 2009-2011

l.    Consultant, Joseph Ayodele Babalola University, Ikeji Arakeji                         2008-2010

m.   PGMAS Moderation, Nigerian Universities Commission                                 2009

n.    External Examiner, University of Lagos, Akoka                                               2012

o.   External Examiner, University of Ibadan                                                          2012

p.   Adjunct professor, Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary, Ogbomoso.          2012-1013

q.  Consultant, Life Bible College (Music Programme)                                          2012-2013

r.   Member, Accreditation Team, Ikere Degree Programme                                  2013

s.  National Secretary, Association of Nigerian Musicologists                              2008-2012

t.   President, Association of Nigerian Musicologists                                            2012-2014

u.  Adjunct Lecturer, Christ Apostolic Church Theological Seminary                  2014

Co-Curricular Activities 

a.   Training singers

b.   Composing, Performing and Producing Music

c.   Directing, Recording and Promoting Music

d.   Choral training and Conducting

e.   Organising Concerts and Workshops for Christian musicians

f.   Counselling, Charity and Humanitarian Works

g.  Priestly Functions

Contributions to Knowledge of Rev. ‘Femi Adedeji

My areas of specialisation are ‘African Musicology’ and ‘Music Theory and Composition’. My contributions to African Musicology have been in the area of Religious Music, which constitutes a wide spectrum of musical genres in Nigerian music scholarship. I have studied in-depth the traditional Ifa and Christian music in which I have documented and analyzed both the song-forms and their performance-practices. The studies apart from supplying useful academic information on the two musical types, have opened ways for meaningful comparative musicology between them.        

One of the most sacred religious musical forms in Nigeria is the hymn. Although hymns in African idioms have been composed from time immemorial, they are yet to have their place as a genre in the academic study of Religious music in Africa. In order to develop African hymnology meaningfully, a study of preliminary concepts and usage, and the analysis of performance-practices by ancient cultures are indispensable as a solid theoretical and historical foundation. These have been extensively dealt with in my research. Also, Nigerian gospel music, another prominent stylistic form of religious music which today constitutes 50% of the total number of musical genres consumed in Nigeria and which at the same time ‘has exerted a broad influence on more than one facet of our contemporary culture’ as asserted by Boyer, did not receive enough attention in Nigerian music scholarship before now. As a result, I have researched and still researching on various aspects of the genre with a view to systematizing the theories that underlie its performance-practices and developing the genre to serve as machinery for national development.

In the area of music theory and composition, I have made some significant contributions. Firstly, I have propounded two new theories – Theological (Bibliological) Musicology and Transformative Musicology.  Theological Musicology has its place in the theory and methodology of studying various Religious Music in Africa. The ethnomusicological method, which encompasses various approaches such as sociology, anthropology, philosophy, musicology and leaves out theology in the study of Religious Music, has been found to be inadequate.  Since Religious Music (be it Ifa, Christian, Islam or Hindu) is a theological-musical fabric, its theology is imperative.  The methodology combines theology with the existing approaches.  This has been successfully argued in one of my publications.  

The new perspective probes into the theological basis and contextual-textual interpretation of Religious Music with the view to revealing the socio-political import of the music to contemporary Nigeria and the World. Transformative Musicology, which is a development on Intercultural Music, focuses on making musicological studies relevant to the search for global peace, harmony, stability, security of lives and educating the human mind against crimes and other social vices. It also gives answers to questions left out in already existing theories.

Secondly, apart from the theoretical analyses of New Testament and traditional Yoruba hymns, I have attempted to solve two major problems in theory of African music; notably that of pitch/tonality and the notation of African music with computer technology. In addition, my research on theory and problems of analysing African music has resulted in the publication of study/reference materials for scholars and students of African music theory. These include ‘Metric Organisation and Scale Structure in African Music’, ‘Melodic Analysis of African Music’ and ‘Harmonic Analysis of African Music’.

Since my last promotion and as follow up to the contributions above, I have engaged in rigorous research on the theoretical, theological, and stylistic dimensions of Nigerian Gospel Music on the one hand, and on the other, I have focused on various salient problems facing Nigerian music education, scholarship and ‘art’ music, while at the same time exploring the meta-musical dimension of African ‘art’ music composition. In addition, my recent research has exhumed the theoretical, aesthetic and pedagogical principles underlying indigenous and African ‘art’ music composition and performance. The assertions made in the research are germane to the development of African Musicology as a field.