TRADITIONAL MUSIC IN IGBO SOCIETY: A VERITABLE INSTRUMENT FOR DOCUMENTATION AND ARCHIVING

Abstract

The essence of documentation and archiving is to retain information and prevent it from going into extinction. Music making in Igbo traditional society is event oriented with message laden abilities, which are passed on from generation to generation. On that premise, this paper is an expository study of some Igbo traditional music which performances are reiteration of people’s folk thought, social values, history and belief. The work is based on discographic and ethnographic materials, as a result, information from the following works are found useful: - Ife ndị na-eri ka ndị na-asọ, by Odenigbo Ogididi, Ọzịza maiden dance of Achina, and egwu mbibi of Igboukwu. It was observed that although the information gathered from these sources repositions or consolidates traditional music as a veritable instrument for documentation and archiving even in the midst of re-contextualization, there is still the fear of its continued sustenance and survival in the face of modernity, given the fact that even technological archiving has its own challenges.