BOUESTI JOURNAL OF PERFORMING ARTS

This study examines the compositional styles and techniques employed by Ayo Oluranti, with the aim of identifying the musical features that characterize his works and assessing his contributions to Nigerian art music. The study focuses exclusively on selected vocal and instrumental compositions of Ayo Oluranti. Data were obtained through the score analysis of selected compositions, with particular attention to their melodic, rhythmic, harmonic, textural, structural, and pianistic features. The analysis reveals that Oluranti combines African and Western compositional resources in the rhythm, melody/harmonic procedures, texture, structure, and African pianistic features in developing a distinctive artistic style, rooted in Yoruba musical expressions. His music is characterized by the use of modulation, African pianism, unison, repetition, syncopation, sequences, polyrhythm, wide dynamic range, ostinato rhythm, interlocking rhythm, additive rhythm, hemiola rhythm, minimalism, monophonic, homophonic and polyphonic textures, call and response, overlapping of parts, octatonic pitch collection, fourth chords, spoken text and individual improvisation. The study also identifies compositional techniques such as fragmented phrases, broken octaves, murmuring phrases, discordant seconds, pedal points, rapidly changing metres, horse gallop rhythm and tone clusters. The study concludes that his works constitute significant contributions to the development of contemporary Nigerian art music through their stylistic diversity and innovative compositional techniques.

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