CHAPTER 45 : A MUSICAL AND DIDACTIC APPRAISAL OF FIVE FOLK SONGS IN AMUNDI VILLAGE OF EHA-ALUMO , NSUKKA L.G.A, ENUGU STATE NIGERIA

Abstract

This research studied and appraised five folk songs in Amundi Village of Eha-alumona from the points of view of their musical features (music genre) and their moral values. Amundi is a village in Eha-Alumona town in Nsukka in the North East part of Igboland. This study was necessitated following the need to document some folk songs that reveal a lot about the cosmology, mentality and philosophy of Amundi people which are now under the danger of extinction due to dearth of documented information. Through field work involving, observation, interviews, actuality recording, and analysis of the five samples using musical and hermeneutical tools, the researchers were able to portray these folk songs in their respective lights. The outcome of the study has provided awareness and documentation on Amundi folk songs which will continue to serve a didactic cum moral need that can inform a contemporary society and furnish more knowledge on the repertoire of African folk songs in general. It is hoped that further studies from lyrical, anthropological and linguistic points of view can still be done to extract more values of the Amundi songs and the Igboland at large and that more of these songs should also come under musical and scholarly review. The research strongly recommends that our traditional folk songs be widely appraised and documented to make the future generation be abreast with the necessities that will enable them be more rooted in their cultural identity through music practicum cum musicology.

Keywords: Music genre. Didactic appraisal, folk songs, Moral values and Amundi village.