# African Composers



## macgeek2005 (Apr 1, 2006)

I'd like to listen to classical music composed by Africans. Could be African Americans... African Germans... whatever. I'd be particularly interested to hear works in pre-20th century style, either written in that time period or later.

There's a list of African composers on Wikipedia, but all they are is names.. no pages or information about them. I didn't click them all though.. I figured maybe some of you could quickly point me in the direction of some who have recorded works.


----------



## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Still, several discs of his symphonies available on Naxos.


----------



## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

I wonder if Ethiopia, the oldest under-sahara civilization has any significant comoser in 19th/20th centuries. Poor guyz don't have oil, so they're ignored most of the time in every aspect.


----------



## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor is a famous example of a composer with African roots.


----------



## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

Which American president was it who said that there should be no such thing as a hyphenated American? Funny how we forget...


----------



## cjvinthechair (Aug 6, 2012)

Augustus Hailstork - available on Naxos, therefore free on their music library, to which access isn't too difficult.


----------



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

I've sometimes wondered if, throughout the history of the classical tradition spanning more than 6 centuries, any western influenced music was being written in Northern Africa or colonial South Africa or other such places.


----------



## principe (Sep 3, 2012)

Traveling and having lived for some years in Africa, I can tell you there is a minimal but genuine interest in Classical Music, particularly in the small rich closed societies, but no composers, or, at least, nothing to be worth mentioning, much more listening to.
When they develop their economies, we may see something quite interesting...(They have voices, talent, stamina. They lack knowledge, exposure to this Music and a basic essence of tuning an instrument, in classical terms). So, not now!

Principe


----------



## ScipioAfricanus (Jan 7, 2010)

Scott Joplin who is known mainly for Rags, wrote the opera Tremonisha


----------



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

I'm glad I found the recording below, although it's transposed a step down from original for some reason . Some of my favorite S.C. Taylor.


----------



## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

clavichorder said:


> I've sometimes wondered if, throughout the history of the classical tradition spanning more than 6 centuries, any western influenced music was being written in Northern Africa or colonial South Africa or other such places.



View attachment 8884


Link (highly recommended by the way).


----------



## kinzopiano (9 mo ago)

macgeek2005 said:


> I'd like to listen to classical music composed by Africans. Could be African Americans... African Germans... whatever. I'd be particularly interested to hear works in pre-20th century style, either written in that time period or later.
> 
> There's a list of African composers on Wikipedia, but all they are is names.. no pages or information about them. I didn't click them all though.. I figured maybe some of you could quickly point me in the direction of some who have recorded works.



You can check out this video recording of popular music compositions by Akin Euba - Scene from Traditional life


----------



## kinzopiano (9 mo ago)

macgeek2005 said:


> I'd like to listen to classical music composed by Africans. Could be African Americans... African Germans... whatever. I'd be particularly interested to hear works in pre-20th century style, either written in that time period or later.
> 
> There's a list of African composers on Wikipedia, but all they are is names.. no pages or information about them. I didn't click them all though.. I figured maybe some of you could quickly point me in the direction of some who have recorded works.


You can also check out this video by Kingsley Otoijamun 👉 African Pianism on YouTube.

I am pretty sure you would like it.


----------



## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Isn't the griot tradition in much of West Africa a classical tradition, albeit not a _western_ classical one?


----------

