A critical semiotic analysis of Amiso Thwango’s song “Nitie Nyako Moro”
Keywords:
aesthetics, dualism, narratology, semiotics, teleologyAbstract
This is a study of a Luo popular song track entitled Nitiere Nyako Moro (There is a Certain Girl) by Amiso Thwango. The objectives of the study are to demonstrate the aesthetic effects in music; identify instances of gender discrimination among the Luo society and to analyse the song as a literary narrative. Through qualitative method, the song was transcribed, translated and critically analysed. The investigation was conducted following structuralist and narratological theories. Where necessary, the entailed signs and symbols were given semiotic interpretations. Broad narrative structures were identified and examined in order to bring forth their creative significance in the text. The study revealed that the Ohangla musician used signs, symbolism and metaphors as motifs that emphasized how beautiful Akoth is. Moreover, the musician employed divergent linguistic and literary techniques to make music a creative art exhibiting fictional features of the narrative. Through this song, a complete story that develops characters that grow in attitude from naive infatuation with the love for Akoth to mature appreciation that love is perceived as something that can impair one’s judgement and can therefore not be trusted is brought to perspective.
Downloads
References
Adedeji, O. (2006). Aesthetics on African Theory and Educational Implementation in Pan African Society of Musical Arts and Education. Compress Pub: South Africa
Allis, M. (2017). Reading Music through Literature: Introduction. Journal of Musicological Research Volume 36 (1)
Appel, N. (2014). ‘Ga. Ga. Ooh-la-la’: the childlike use of language in pop-rock music Popular Music. Vol 33 (1) , 91-108 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Babb, G. (2002). Where Bodies Are Buried: Cartesian Dispositions in Narrative Theories of Character Narrative: Vol. 10 (3) 195-221 . The Ohio State University Press, Columbus.
Dodgson, L. (2018). Insider journal: Why We Give Our Partners Pet Names. Businessinsiderafrica.com Accessed from: https://africa.businessinsider.com/tech/tech-there-are-scientific-reasons-why-we- give-our-partners-pet-names-and-they-can-say/py8e2yg
Elbow, P. (1993) The Uses of Binary Thinking . Journal of Advanced Composition Vol. 13 (1) accessed from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20865892#metadata_info_tab_contents.
Eyre, L. (2007). The Marriage of Music and Narrative: Explorations in Art, Therapy and Research; in Voices, A World Forum for Music Therapy. Accessed from: https://voices.no/index.php/voices/article/view/1738.
Fenk-Oczlon, G. & Fenk, A. (2014) Musical Pitch in Nonsense Syllables: Correlations with the Vowels System and Evolutionary Perspectives; University of Klagenfurt, Austria.
Frankel, D. (2017). Clinging to What We have: Hubert Selby’s Song of the Silent Snow. Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd, U.K.
Gurley, L. & Douglas, A. (2009). Who Let the Dog Out? Bmg Platinum Songs US, Bmg Hyckryck Music Publishing Inc.
Juslin, P. N. & Laukka, P. (2014). Communication of Emotions in Vocal Expression and Music Performance: Different Channels, Same Code? American Psychological Association, DOI: 10.1037/0033-2909.129.5.770
Kalia, A. (2019).‘So flawed and problematic’: Why the term ‘world music’ is dead Pop and rock/The music essay Folk music / Africa / Music industry / womad / jazz /Indie/ features Wiltshire, 25-28 July.
Katz, R. (1974). On ‘Nonsense’ Syllables as Oral Group Notation. Musical Quarterly 60: 187-94 JSTOR
Landa, A. G. (2017). Narrative Contingency and Singularity. Accessed from http://www.garcalanda.net
Lissa, Z. (1964). Aesthetic Functions of Silence and Rests in Music Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. Summer. The American Society of Aesthetics Vol. 22(4) , 443-454.
Mambrol, N. (2016). Structuralist Narratology: Critical Theory Today. Routledge, London.
Margulis, E. H., Wong P.C. M., Simpchy-Gross, R. & McAuley, J. D. (2019) What the music said: narrative listening across cultures. Palgrave Communication, London.
Marinaro, F. (2014). Binary Opposition in Literature: Definition and Examples. University of Florida, Gainesville.
Mathews, S. W. (2021). Semiotics – Literary and Critical Theory . Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Maus, F. E. (1991). Music as Narrative. Indiana Theory Review. Vol 12, 1 – 34 .
Mensah, I. K. & Acquah, E. O.. (2021) Rejection of Indigenous Music? Reflections of Teaching and Learning of Music and Dance in Tamale International School. African Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities Research 4 (2), 74-86. DOI: 1052589/AJSSHR-MUUUIJWV
Mullins, C. E. (2014) ‘Blah, Blah, Blah: Making Sense of Nonsense in Irish Vocal Music,’ Musical Offerings. Journal? Vol. 5(2)
Mullins, C. E. (2014). "Blah, Blah, Blah: Making Sense of Nonsense in Irish Vocal Music," Musical Offerings: Vol. 5: No. 2, Article 2. Accessed from https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/musicalofferings/vol5/iss2/2
Ngcobo, W. (2022). The Significance of Sound and Music in African Culture Wilderness Safaris, South Africa. Accessed from: https://wilderness-safaris.com/blog/posts/the-significance-of-sound-and-music-in-african-culture.
Omolo-Ongati, R.A. (2015). Performance of Traditional Folksongs and Dances at the Kenya Music Festival with Reference to Style, Instrumentation, Movements, Authenticity, Costume and Choreography, in Akuno ,E.A. (ed) Talanta –Yearbook of the Kenya Music Festival Nairobi, Kenya Music Festival Foundation: 62-74.
Omigie, D. (2015). Music and Literature: are there shared empathy and predictive mechanisms underlying their affective impact? Max Planok Institute, Frankfurt.
Onwuegbuna, I. E. (2013). Contending Issues in African Pop Musical Pedagogy, Aesthetics, and Values. Nsukka Journal of Musical Arts Research, Vol. 2, pp. 60-71.
Phelan, J. & Ritivoi, A. D. (2021) Explaining People: Narrrative and the Study of Identity in A Journal of Narrative Studies 2009, Vol. 1 (2009), pp. 25-41, University of Nebraska Press. Accessed from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/25663006.pdf
Plotkin, F. (2012). Operatic Sounds of Silence; Operavore Publishers, Munich.
Priest, E, (2013). Boring Formless Nonsense: Experimental Music and the Aesthetics of Failure. Bloomsbury Publishing, USA.
Robinson, H. (2020). Dualism: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University, California
Rudent, C. (2020). ‘Against the ‘Grain of the Voice’ Studying the Voice in Songs, The French Journal of Popular Music Studies. Volume! Volume 162-171, Issue 1, January 2020.
Soyinka, W. (2002). Death and the King’s Horseman. Norton Publishers, New York.
Ventzislavov, R. (2014). Singing Nonsense. JSTOR, accessed from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24542738#metadata_info_tab_contents
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Jack Ogembo, Cellyne Anudo, Benard Kodak
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
This open-access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.
You are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.
Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.
Under the following terms: Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
No additional restrictions You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
