ANALYTICAL STUDY OF HARUNA ISHOLA’S COMPOSITIONAL TECHNIQUES IN ‘INA RAN’

Abstract

Haruna Ishola (1919-1983), an acknowledged singer/composer/performer/arranger/music
business mogul is considered to have experimented and brought about revolution in the
sound of apala music of the south west Nigeria. Many investigations have been conducted on
Haruna Ishola’s works, however currently available resources about the stylistic elements in
his compositions are minimal. Among Haruna Ishola’s compositions, we have selected and
scored in staff notation representative ‘songs’ in the track ‘Ina Ran’ to highlight the
structure, form and compositional techniques of the composer. In addition, the significance of
Haruna Ishola’s works regarding how we would be able to understand better apala music.
Therefore, this paper provides an improved understanding of the compositional style of
Haruna Ishola’s songs, as well as their connection to other apala musicians.