Comparative Musicology in the 21st Century
International Conference
15. – 17. September 2026
Department of Music
University of Ghana, Legon
Organisation & Contact:
Dr. Eyram Fiagbedzi
Prof. Dr. Florian Heesch
International Conference, organized by the department of music, University of Ghana in collaboration with the CRC “Transformations of the Popular”
The field once known as comparative musicology, later redefined as ethnomusicology, was historically shaped by Eurocentric frameworks that positioned non-European music(s) as sources for reconstructing the prehistory of Western art music. While it is basically productive to work with a comparative approach that is ‘free of centrisms’, postcolonial and decolonial scholarship has long challenged such hierarchies, a pressing question remains: what does it mean to pursue comparative music research in the 21st century, particularly from Africa? This workshop proposes to revisit comparative musicology from the South, grounding it in African epistemologies, collaborative knowledge-making, and the cultural realities of the digital age. Kwabena Nketia’s (1984) call for universal perspectives in ethnomusicology already anticipated the need for comparative approaches that situate African traditions within global conversations rather than at their margins. Building on that vision, the workshop aims to rethink comparison as a dialogic, co-creative, and multi-sited process that emerges through shared musical practices, rather than as a one-directional act of classification. Ghana offers an ideal context for such rethinking. As the birthplace of highlife and a major node in transnational musical exchange, Ghanaian sound cultures, including the traditional and popular, exemplify how African musicians have long engaged in comparative processes through adaptation, translation, and experimentation. From early highlife orchestras and church music syncretism to today’s Afrobeats and digital remix cultures, the Ghanaian experience reveals comparison as a lived, creative act. In the 21st century, digitization, AI-driven listening, and trans-local collaboration further expand the terrain of comparative inquiry. The workshop will therefore explore new frameworks for understanding how musical ideas travel, transform, and acquire meaning across space, media, and ideology. The workshop aims to articulate models of comparison that are reciprocal, decolonial, and future-oriented by bringing together scholars, artists, and early-career researchers to dialogue.
Programm
13:30 – 14:05
Welcome and Opening ceremony
14:05 – 14:15
Abena Osei Korankye
(Legon)
Seprewa Performance
14:15 – 15:15
Keynote
Sylvia Bruinders
(Cape Town)
Comparative Musicology after Decoloniality: Rethinking Comparison in the Twenty-First Century
Panel 1
Comparative Pathways of Musical Change
Chair: Adwoa Arhine
15:50 – 16:20
Olaolu Emmanuel Adekola
(Ibadan)
Comparative process and adaptation in àgídìgbo music among the Yorùbá of Nigeria
16:20 – 16:50
Eyram E. K. Fiagbedzi
(Legon)
Brass, Borrowing, and Becoming: The Trumpet in Borborbor as a Site of Comparative Musical Adaptation
16:50 – 17:20
Maud Enam Ashiabor
(Legon)
Continuity and Transformation of Adowa Performance Practice in Asabea Cropper’s Torwia in Asabea
Panel 2
Comparative Studies in Choral, Sacred, and Art Music
Chair: Eyram Fiagbedzi
09:00 – 09:30
Emmanuel Nii Adjei Sowah
(Legon)
Between the Sacred and the Secular: The Sacralisation of Ghanaian Choral Highlife
09:30 – 10:00
Kingsley Joseph Ennin Kwesi Acheampong
(Legon)
Comparative Musicology and Contemporary Ghanaian Choral Composition: Insights from George Mensah Essilfie’s Yɛdze Wo Kɛseyɛ Maw and Everybody Bring Your Calabash
10:00 – 10:30
Peter Twum-Barimah
(Legon)
Tracing Stylistic Continuity and Innovation in Ghanaian Art Music: A Comparative Musicological Study of First- and Second-Generation Composers
Panel 3
Highlife in Comparative Perspective
Chair: Eric Sunu Doe
10:45 – 11:15
Grace Takyi Donkor
(Legon)
Gender, modernity and social imagination in Ghanaian Highlife Music,1950s and 1980s
11:15 –12:00
Florian Heesch & Theresa Nink
(Siegen)
Comparing Schlager and Highlife with Louis Armstrong
12:00 – 12:30
Michael Ohene Okantah Junior
(Legon)
From Indigenous to Popular: A Comparative Study of osoode and osoode Highlife among the Fante People of Ghana
Panel 4
Archives, Heritage, and Musical Knowledge Systems
Chair: Grace Takyi Donkor
13:30 – 14:00
Stephen Nyanteh Ayesu
(Winneba)
Enabling Comparative Musicology in the Digital Age: Evaluating the Archival Readiness of Ghanaian Traditional Music Collections
14:00 – 14:30
Eric Sunu Doe & Samuel Asare Agyare
(Legon)
Palmwine Music Revitalization and Musical Knowledge-Making in Ghana
14:30 – 15:00
Amélia Mel Matsinhe
(Pretoria)
Wu Munhu as an Indigenous comparative framework for researching the integration of Mozambican music within contemporary music Industry
Panel 5
Decolonial Approaches to Comparative Musicology
Chair: Theresa Nink
09:00 – 09:30
Nana Amowee Dawson
(Cape Coast)
From Artistic Translation to Comparative Musicology: Asɛmpayɛtsia, Kodzi, and Decolonial Frameworks for Musical Comparison
09:30 – 10:00
Helene E. Heuser
(Siegen)
Making way across the gaping hole of the universal – towards a comparative popular music ecocriticism
10:00 – 10:30
Moses Adjei Adjetey
(Legon)
Comparing Ritual-Musical Systems in Hɔmɔwɔ: Indigenous Epistemologies and Comparative Musicology among the Ga of Ghana
Panel 6
Comparative Pedagogies and Musical Transmission
Chair: Florian Heesch
10:45 – 11:15
Abena Serwaa Osei Korankye & Adwoa Arhine
(Legon)
“This Small Thing Speaks”: Gendered Apprenticeship and Comparative Father–Daughter Pedagogies in Seperewa Performance
11:15 – 11:45
Andrew Yinintete Bamongya
(Winneba)
Two Classrooms: Translating Gologo Festival Pedagogy into Formal Schooling as a Comparative Act
11:45 – 12:30
Discussion and concluding remarks