Music student preserves decades of traditional African church music for future researchers

GOSHEN, Ind. – Combining his two interests of computers and music, Goshen College senior Solomon Fenton-Miller spent his summer preserving Professor Emerita of Music Mary Oyer’s recordings of traditional African church music onto a computer database as part of Goshen College’s Maple Scholars program.

Maple Scholars is an eight-week program that gives students the opportunity to participate in independent research alongside Goshen College faculty from various disciplines. Each scholar is paired with a faculty member who works with and supervises the individual to help carry out their work.

For 30 years, Oyer traveled to 22 different countries in Africa throughout the summer months. She recorded traditional vocal and instrumental African church music on tape, which caused her to change her theories about what kind of music can be played in church.

“My journeys greatly expanded and enriched my understanding of music. They 
opened my mind to a wide range of hearing and using music, as well as how
 to learn to play and sing it,” said Oyer. She then began to use African music in her teaching, which she taught for 15 years.

Fenton-Miller had some help from Oyer in setting up the process, as well as from his adviser, Professor of Music Deb Brubaker. He recorded each tape to computer, filtered out background noise, divided the program into tracks, burned onto CD and wrote Oyer’s notes for each track onto a music database program, which, using a basic program, he created himself.

“Solomon was very self-motivated and patient, which he needed the first couple weeks with setting up the whole process. And then he had to be able to sit long hours with recording,” said Brubaker. “He stayed positive, and was very interested in Mary’s work.”

Brubaker said her role in the process was minimal. “I helped facilitate and gave direction on what all this will mean, but I’m not a computer person,” she said with a laugh.

As a music major with a composition focus, Fenton-Miller has appreciated the new exposure to African music through his work on this project. “This is the first time I’ve heard a lot of real African music, and there’s a lot I’ve learned by just listening to a whole new variety of music,” he said. “As a composer, it’s important to listen.”

While there are larger African music collections at other universities in Indiana and other states, Oyer’s collection offers a new opportunity for Goshen students and local researchers. “It’s exciting,” said Brubaker, “There are so many different ways these tapes can be used. There’s an anthropological aspect by just looking at all the different tribal music recorded. There’s a musical aspect as African and Western music are organized differently and an instrumental aspect as many of the instruments recorded may or may not be in existence anymore.”

“The collection would be fine for a student beginning to get
 acquainted with African music,” said Oyer, “especially in the recorded instrumental
 lessons I took, in the changes that were taking place in mission music, examples of African Initiated Churches,
 and various styles of music which I happened to collect. I have African
 literature, visual arts and the instruments themselves 
to support such a study.”

With about 85 hours of audiotape total, Fenton-Miller has one-third of the audiotapes copied to CD and written onto a computer database. He hopes to complete the remaining audiotapes next year and to make the database available to researchers through the Music Center on campus.

– By Megan Blank ’07   

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

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Goshen College, established in 1894, is a four-year residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college’s Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron’s Best Buys in Education, “Colleges of Distinction,” “Making a Difference College Guide” and U.S.News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” edition, which named Goshen a “least debt college.” Visit www.goshen.edu.