Compositional Exoticism in Selected Nigerian Literary Vocal Music: Explicating the Figurative-Sound Idioms

Abstract

Despite the fact that musical idioms are compositionally efficacious in arousing aural imageries and effects, especially in their enhancement of Nigerian literary music identity and nationalism, there is a dearth of scholarly studies on them. This paper, via score reading and sampling of relevant literary nuances, theoretically explicates the compositional utility and rationale of figurative-sounds in the vocal music of some eminent Nigerian composers. It argues that the idioms creatively permeates sonic-imagery, sonic-reference, and sonic-allusion of replicated phenomenon as Nigerian contemporary composers in their search for indigenous sonic materials stylistically indulge in utilizing figurative-sounds in their vocal music.