Music Union urged to ensure members compose decent songs
Accra (Greater Accra) 22 July 2002- The Pan African Orchestra (PAO) on Saturday treated classical music lovers with authentic neoclassical African repertoire that left the large audience at the British Council hall gasping for more at the end of the show.
The performers displayed great artistic masterly on the various African musical instruments of "Atentenben (Flutes), Gyile (Xylophone), Gonje (African violin), Drums (Percussions), Menson (Horns), which kept the audience applauding and cheering while others could not help but had to respond with gestures to the infectious effect of the rhythms in their seats all through the show.
The concert dubbed "See and Hear" witnessed the performance of re-arrangements of the orchestra's working and pieces by the late Nigerian music star of the 1970s, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, the Afro-Rock group Osibisa, traditional soprano from Anecho in South-Eastern Togo, the Kpanlogo rhythms of the Gas and a recreational traditional music from the Dagara, gyile xylophone of North-Western Ghana.
Fela's repertoire, "Water no get enemy: the Explorations," Ga Kpanlogo rhythms, the Ehugya of the Anecho's, the Sisala Extension of the Dagara and
"Fontomfrom" music of the Akwapim of eastern Ghana received deafening applauses from the audience made up of a cross section of Ghanaians, the Diplomatic Corp, the academia and chiefs.
Nana Danso Abiam, PAO Director, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said the concept of the orchestra was to draw inspiration from the Pan African ethos and to eliminate all artificial boundaries within the continent through music.
He said the orchestra had explored fundamentally new direction in African music composition advanced its orchestral innovations to the classical level and expanded the scope of permissible harmony with a change in the rate of harmonic version of contemporary African music.
Nana Abaim said the orchestra had developed afro-centric systems of orchestrating African music, exploiting indigenous sound sources and musical concepts as a framework of reference. He noted that, "the new style of symphonic music that the orchestra is developing is a formalization of Pan African consciousness in concrete musical terms."
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Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 22 July 2002- The Centre for Moral Education (CEMED), a non-governmental organisation concerned with the promotion of good morals, on Saturday urged the Musician Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) to give priority attention to the monitoring of the musical works of its members to ensure that such works were devoid of any abusive and indecent language.
Mr Opoku-Agyemang Prempeh, Executive President of the CEMED, said this was imperative since the worth of the MUSIGA would be measured not by the number of talks and lectures they hold on music, but also their ability to monitor and ensure that their members composed music which promoted and respected Ghanaian values.
Mr Prempeh made the call at a meeting in Kumasi of executives of the CEMED to deliberate on the continual spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and to evolve a campaign programme that would be employed by the CEMED in fighting the AIDS menace.
He attributed the spread of the HIV/AIDS in the Ghanaian society in spite of the numerous educational campaigns to the proliferation of profane music, which easily found their way on the airwaves and on television screens.
He said since these musical works had contributed greatly to "spoiling the youth, it is morally prudent for the MUSIGA to step in or intervene and help check the trend before its members saturate society with such indecent music."
Mr Prempeh also appealed to the government and the AIDS Commission to collaborate with identified Ghanaian musicians and assist them in the composition of music that would instil in the people the affection for leading decent and upright lives. "Such an approach is the surest guarantee to helping to check and minimise the spread of the disease in our society today," he added.
Mr Prempeh expressed optimism that music was a powerful tool and one of the main sources of indiscipline and immoral acts adopted by the youth and that "it can equally be used to change the behaviour pattern of the youth for the better."
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