Ashenafi Kebede (1938–May 8, 1998) was an Ethiopian composer, conductor, ethnomusicologist, historical musicologist, music educator, novelist, and poet. May 8 is the 128th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (129th in leap years). ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... A composer is a person who writes music. ... Look up conductor in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Ethnomusicology (from the Greek ethnos = nation and mousike = music), formerly comparative musicology, is the study of music in its cultural context, cultural musicology. ... A musicologist is someone who studies musicology. ... A novel is an extended work of written, narrative, prose fiction, usually in story form; the writer of a novel is a novelist. ... „The poor poet“ A poet is a person who writes poetry. ...

Kebede was born in Addis Ababa, and was educated in musicology at the Eastman School of Music (1962) and Wesleyan University (M.A. 1969; Ph.D. 1971). He founded the National Saint Yared School of Music in Ethiopia, serving as its first director (1963–1968). He was designated a National Composer by Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I, in 1967. Shortly after that he began his graduate studies in the United States, and earned the first Ph.D. in ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University. Addis Ababa cityscape Addis Ababa (sometimes spelled Addis Abeba, the spelling used officially by the Ethiopian Mapping Institute; Amharic አዲስ አበባ, Ä€ddÄ«s Ä€bebā new flower; Oromo Finfinne) is the capital city of Ethiopia and the African Union, as well as its predecessor, the OAU. As a chartered city (ras gez astedader... Musicology is reasoned discourse concerning music (Greek: μουσικη = music and λογος = word or reason). In other words: the whole body of systematized knowledge about music which results from the application of a scientific method of investigation or research, or of philosophical speculation and rational systematization to the facts, the processes and the... The Eastman School of Music is the University of Rochesters college and graduate school of music. ... Wesleyan University, founded in 1831, is a private, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. ... Jared (יֶרֶד / יָרֶד, Standard Hebrew Yéred / Yáred, Tiberian Hebrew Yéreḏ / Yāreḏ) is derived from the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament of the Bible), where it appears in the Book of Genesis (Gen. ... Haile Selassie Haile Selassie (Power of Trinity) (July 23, 1892 – August 27, 1975) was the last Emperor (1930–1936; 1941–1974) of Ethiopia, and is a religious symbol in the Rastafarian movement. ...

Ashenafi was a prolific writer. His works include a novel, Confession (1964), articles in ethnomusicology journals, the book Roots of Black Music, and numerous articles in The Chronicler, the magazine of the Center for African-American Culture.

In his own compositions he combined Ethiopian and Japanese musical ideas. "Koturasia" is one such piece, written for flute, clarinet, violin, and Japanese koto. Among his other musical compositions were "Peace unto Ethiopia" and "The Life of Our Nation". The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. ... Two soprano clarinets: a B♭ clarinet (left) and an A clarinet (right, with no mouthpiece). ... The violin is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. ... Masayo Ishigure plays the koto The koto (箏) is a traditional Japanese stringed musical instrument derived from Chinese zithers. ...

In the United States, he was Director of the internationally known Ethiopian Research Council,^[1] consisting of a group of Ethiopian and American scholars and professionals. At the time of his death he was Director of the Center of African-American Culture at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida, The Florida State University (commonly referred to as Florida State or FSU) is a public research university located in Tallahassee, the capital city of Florida. ... Location in Leon County and the state of Florida. ...

Notes

1. ^ Ethiopian Research Council

Selected writings

Articles

• "The Bowl-Lyre of Northeast Africa. Krar: The Devil's Instrument", Ethnomusicology, Vol. 21, No 3 (September 1977), pp 379-395.
• "The Azmari, Poet-musician of Ethiopia", The Musical Quarterly LXI(1), 1975, Oxford University Press.
• Review of "Ethiopia III: Three Chordophone Traditions by Cynthia Kimberlin, Jerome Kimberlin", Ethnomusicology, Vol. 34, No 1 (Winter, 1990), pp 196-198.
• "A History of Music", article in Addis Ababa University Alumni Association Newsletter. Contains "Saint Yared: Ethiopia's Great Ecclesiastic Composer, Poet and Priest", "Sacred Musical Instruments at the Horn of Africa", and more.
• "Zemenawi muzika: modern trends in traditional secular music of Ethiopia", The Black Perspective in Music, Vol 4, No 3., pp 291-301, 1976.
• "Musical innovation and acculturation in Ethiopian culture", African Urban Studies, vol. 6., pp 77-87, 1979.
• "Zur Geschichte der Amhara-Musik in Äthiopien" [tr. "On the History of Amhara Music in Ethiopia"], Musikgeschichte in Bildern ("Music History in Pictures") monograph series, Number 1, Ostafrika [East Africa], edited by Gerhard Kubik, Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig, pp 11-14, 1982.

Dissertation

• The Music of Ethiopia: Its Development and Cultural Setting. Ph.D. Dissertation, Wesleyan University, 1971.

Books

• Confession: the most exciting, heart-breaking story of an Ethiopian in the United States, 1960.
• Roots of Black music: the vocal, instrumental, and dance heritage of Africa and Black America. Prentice-Hall, 1982. ISBN 0137831595.

Selected musical works

• The Shepherd Flutist, 1968.
• The Music of Ethiopia: Azmari music of the Amharas, 1969.

Bibliography

• Kimberlin, Cynthia Tse, "The Scholarship and Art of Ashenafi Kebede (1938-1998)", Ethnomusicology, Vol. 43, No 2 (Spring-Summer, 1999), pp 322-334.

• Kimberlin, Cynthia Tse, "Four Contemporary Ethiopian Composers and their Music: Asnakech Worku, Nuria Ahmed Shami Kalid a.k.a. Shamitu, Ezra Abate Iman, and Ashenafi Kebede", Ethiopia in Broader Perspective: Papers of [the] 13th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Vols. I-III, eds. Fukui, K., E. Kurimoto, and M. Shigeta. Kyoto, Japan: Shokado Book Sellers. 1997.

• Olsen, Dale A., "Ashenafi Kebede is Remembered", Florida State Times, August 1998.