Joseph Hanson Kwabena Nketia Bio
Born in 1921 in Mampong, Sekyere West District, Ashanti Region, Ghana, J. H. Kwabena Nketia was his parents' only child. He attended the University of London from 1944 to 1949, beginning with two years of study in linguistics at the School of Oriental and African Studies. In 1949 he began three years' study at Birkbeck College, University of London, and Trinity College of Music, London, obtaining a B.A. degree. In 1958 a Rockefeller Fellowship allowed him to come to the United States, where he attended Columbia University (studying with Henry Cowell), the Juilliard School, and Northwestern University, studying musicology and composition.
Awards
International awards he has received include the Cowell Award of the African Music Society; the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award, for The Music of Africa (1975); the IMC-UNESCO Prize for Distinguished Service to Music; the 1997 Prince Claus Award; and the Distinguished Africanist Award of the African Studies Association of the USA (2000)
Books He wrote
Quote
"Because of the use that music is put to in African societies, its meaning is not restricted to the intrinsic value of music but includes extramusical values as well. Hence it's not always enough to hear music or to pay attention only to its formal features. One must also evaluate its terms of their meaning associated with it"
JOURNAL ARTICLE
The Musical Heritage of Africa J. H. Kwabena Nketia
What I'm learning
Music is a cure to a lot of social difference in African.
Resouces