|
Ashenafi
Kebede
 Dr.
Ashenafi Kebede, one of Ethiopia's greatest cultural treasures--composer,
conductor, ethnomusicologist, historical musicologist,
music educator, novelest, and poet. Dr. Kebede received
degrees from the University of Rochester (B.A. from Eastman
School of Music in 1962) and Wesleyan University (M.A.
in 1969 and Ph.D. in 1971, both degrees in ethnomusicology).
He
founded the National Saint Yared School of Music in Ethiopia,
served as its first director from 1963 to 1968. In 1967
he was designated as a "National Composer" by
Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I, and was awarded the
Haile Selassie I Foundation Grant for Outstanding Achievement
in Cultural Affairs, the youngest artist to ever receive
that award. Shortly thereafter he began his graduate study
in the United States, and became a doctoral student of
David McAllester at Wesleyan.
There he received the distinction of being the first Ph.D.
in ethnomusicology to graduate in that program. Ashenafi
had always held Dr. McAllester in his highest regard,
and was proud to be counted among a handful of scholars
who were part of that important school for the history
of ethnomusicology. Included as his colleagues in those
formative years for the discipline were Genchi Tsuge (Japan),
Jon Higgins (Canada), Héctor Vega (Puerto Rico),
and Vishwanathan (India). It was truly a multicultural
mix of international scholars.
After several years teaching at Queens College and Graduate
School of The City University of New York and Brandeis
University, Ashenafi Kebede joined The Florida State University
as Director of the Center for Black Culture (later to
become the Center for African American Culture). He also
became a tenured professor in the School of Music. His
accomplishments as Director of the CBC and CAAC were many,
ranging from achievements in academia to music and art.
He developed the Communiversity which brought university-level
coursework to Tallahassee residents. He sponsored a multitude
of dramatic presentations, concerts, and art exhibits,
all receiving excellent reviews and often characterized
by standing-room only attendance.
Some of the most memorable musical events were concerts
by Sarah Vaughan, Paul Berliner and Ephat Mujuru (music
from Zimbabwe), Djimo Kouyate (music from Senegal), Africa
Oyé, From The Blues To Broadway, Saturday Night/Sunday
Morning, and many others. Ashenafi was a prolific writer,
and his works include a novel (Confession, published in
1964), articles in ethnomusicology journals, a book entitled
Roots of Black Music, and numerous articles in The Chronicler
(the magazine of the Center for African American Culture,
which he edited). He was also awarded numerous grants
which enabled the Center to sponsor many events, including
the highly successful 1993 Ethiopian Research Council
Convention.
As a composer, Ashenafi Kebede has received high esteem
in international circles. Hailed as "The
Black Kodaly" in Hungary, after conducting
his orchestral piece entitled "The
Shepherd Flutist"
[click here to download the music] in 1967, he
has also written numerous chamber works that have an international
flavor. One of his favorite techniques was to join Ethiopian
and Japanese musical ideas--Koturasia is one of those
masterpieces, written for flute, clarinet, violin, and
Japanese koto. Born in 1938 in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia,
Ashenafi learned about life and its creative potential
from his mother, a very compassionate and artistic person.
As he explained to his colleague, Dr. Fikre Tolossa, in
the early 1990s (Ethiopian Review), "[My mother]
wrote beautiful semi-sacred verse and poetry, and recited
from memory several of Saint Yared's melodies. She chanted
Praises to [the] Virgin Mary every day, and sang for [me]
the Psalms of David playing Begena [a stringed instrument]
every night.
She had a great influence upon [my] soul." His mother
died when Ashenafi was nine years old, creating in him
a great sadness, as he explained: "I am now over
fifty and I have not yet overcome my sadness from her
death. I am still heart-broken. That is undoubtedly why
everything that I compose is melancholic." Those
of us who knew and worked closely with Ashenafi Kebede
are saddened over his untimely and early death. He was
a kind, considerate, and loving person who always had
a smile for his friends. He gave much and had much to
offer. Dr. Ashenafi passed away on Friday, May 8, 1998
at the age sixty.
Source:
Dale A. Olsen
Kodály, Zoltán
Kodály,
Zoltán (1882-1967), Hungarian composer, folk music
collector, and music educator, born in Kecskemét,
and educated in Budapest. Beginning about 1905 he and
the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók collected
and popularized Hungarian folk music, which had been forgotten
for centuries by the educated classes. In his compositions
Kodály quoted or imitated the forms, harmonies,
rhythms, and melodic shapes of Hungarian folk music. His
finest works include the Psalmus Hungaricus (1923), for
tenor, chorus, and orchestra; the opera Háry János
(1926); Dances of Galánta (1933), for orchestra;
and the Missa Brevis (1945). After 1945 he developed a
system of music education for the public schools of Hungary.
His method, which emphasizes the singing of songs either
borrowed from or based on folk music, has been adopted
by many schools in the U.S. and elsewhere.
|
Back to History | Back
to Top |
|
