The Transmission of Traditional Music Through Composition in Higher Education in Kenya: Transforming Cultural Expressions

Abstract

Higher music education was concretised in Kenya through the teacher education process initiated in the early 1960s, shortly after independence, to train teachers for the fast expanding secondary school education. Through this initiative, teachers who had shown some initiatives in music, notably through sitting the theory examinations of The London-based Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, were admitted into a Diploma in Education programme that had music as a teaching subject. Today, higher music education has expanded. Issues of relevance have seen that initial curriculum extend to other offerings in the study and practice of music. This article will provide a critical analysis of what and how traditional Kenyan music has to date been experienced in higher education. The treatise will consider both the Kenyan music substance, process and concepts and their bearing on teaching and learning of music in higher education.