SACRED SOUNDSCAPES AND RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY: REFRAMING CHURCH MUSIC AS A FOUNDATION FOR MUSIC EDUCATION AND PRACTICE IN NIGERIA

Abstract

This article discusses church music as having played a major role in giving membersopportunities to come in contact with music thereby laying a foundation for formal music education.It therefore reconceptualized church music in Nigeria as a religious pedagogical system (RPS) andnot just a liturgical devotional and aesthetic practice. Forty articles were selected and analyzed.This analysis combines literature on Nigerian church music, gospel music, Pentecostal worship,hymnody, inculturation, decolonial music education, choir training, informal learning and religiouseducation. It creates the Sacred Soundscape Pedagogy Model, which outlines the five interrelatedways in which church music impacts music education, namely, liturgical participation, informalapprenticeship, doctrinal-musical memory, cultural translation and performative formation. Thearticle argues that the churches in Nigeria function as informal conservatoires where singers,instrumentalists, conductors, composers and worship leaders are trained through the process ofparticipation, imitation, repetition, correction and public performance. Alongside this, it alsoreveals that there are tensions related to the teaching of church music: the dominance of Westernmusic, the lack of a robust curriculum framework, commercialisation, lack of theological depth,generational gap and lack of documentation of indigenous Christian sound. The article makes acontribution to the fields of music education, African Christianity, religious pedagogy andethnomusicology by suggesting that the future of Nigerian music education cannot be oblivious tothe sacred soundscapes in which many musicians are first exposed to music, learn their craft, andimagine music. It concludes from the articles analyzed that Nigerian church music historically andpresently serves as a significant musical learning ground, religious formation, cultural negotiationand professional practice.