Ghanaian international multiple awards-winning recording Hip Hop artiste, Kwame Ametepee Tsikata, professionally known as, M.anifest, has formally and eloquently praised his late grandfather, Prof Joseph Hanson Kwabena Nketia for practically contributing to the genesis of his music career.
The multiple awards winning recording hip hop artiste celebrated the late, Professor Joseph Hanson Kwabena Nketia who has been the monumental forces and master minder of his music profession, stating that, he appreciates his late granpa’s immense contribution towards the success of his career.
Born on June 22, 1921, Prof. Hanson Kwabena Nketia who is professionally known to be a composer, ethnomusicologist and carefully weighed as Africa’s premier musicologist, passed away on Wednesday, March 13 at 97, as his untimely departure from life was confirmed at the Legon Hospital in Accra.
He was a professor of music at UCLA and the University of Pittsburgh, and has lectured in many prestigious universities worldwide, including Harvard University, Stanford University, University of Michigan, City University London, the University of Brisbane in Australia, the University of Kansas, Lawrence, and the China Conservatory of Music, Beijing.
Mr. Joseph Hanson Kwabena Nketia was a professor of music at the University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, where he began teaching in 1952. He directed the International Centre for African Music and Dance (ICAMD).
He introduced, for example, the use of the more readable 6/8 time signature in his compositions as an alternative to the use of duple (2/4) time with triplets that was used earlier by his mentor, Ephraim Amu.
Although this practice undermined Amu’s theory of a constant basic pulse in African music and generated debate, Nketia pointed out that the constant use of triplets in a duple time signature was misleading.
He was called a “living legend” and “easily the most published and best-known author on African music and aesthetics in the world”, with more than 200 publications and 80 musical compositions to his credit.
Celebrating a decent life lived by Prof. Kwabena Nketia in an Instagram post sighted by www.georgebritton.com, the ”God MC” hit maker eulogized his late grandpa for leaving behind an overwhelming legacy for successive generations to employ, adding that, his humanity was his greatest composition.
Rapper Manifest appreciated Ghana’s premier composers Professor Kwabena Nketia, also known to have carefully examine most of short musical composition with words for the positive impact he has had on his life and patrons.
By: Gerrard-Israel
