The lowest-pitched flutes are known as ọ ja-igede. The difference between the two styles is that chanting is an extended form of speaking, while singing is purely musical. The sound of both flutes is bright and they are used more for chanting than for singing. The highest-pitched flutes, which are also the shortest, are known either as ọ ja-mmonwu (flutes used for masquerade music) or ọ ja-okolobia (flutes used for ceremonies of men who have attained manhood). The size of an ọ ja determines its pitch and the quality of sound determines the instrument’s function. The biggest ọ ja discovered by this author is about 26cm long, and the smallest about 14cm long. This is because this family of instruments is small in size. The characteristic of ọ ja is the high-pitched sound which the different types produce. The explanation of this survival can once again be found in its deep functionality in Igbo cultural and social life. Of the two types of ọ ja only the wooden one has survived the changing times. The wooden ọ ja is notched and end blown, while the bamboo ọ ja, also notched, is side blown. It is made of wood, usually a light soft wood, and of bamboo. Ọja is the most common of the wind instruments. Left: ‘Man with flute’, Ijebba, June 1909 (NWT 640 RAI 400.15778) Right: man with three flutes strung around his neck, Agolo, 1911 (NWT 2171 RAI 400.16124).In her article ‘Classification of Igbo Musical Instruments’ (1987), the ethnomusicologist, Joy Nwosu Lo-Bamijoko, provides the following account of the ọ ja: Thomas distinguishes different styles of flute music, played in different contexts, for example during wrestling matches, during wall-making and while drinking palm wine (ibid.). In the first volume of his Anthropological Report on the Ibo-speaking Peoples of Nigeria, Thomas notes that, next to the drum, the flute was probably the commonest musical instrument in the region he also observes that there are ‘two or three kinds made of wood’, and another kind ‘made of calabash covered with the skin of a cow’ (1913: 136). Thomas gives the Edo name for these as alele, elele or ulele (depending on dialect) he records the Igbo name as ọ ja. Thomas collected and recorded a number of examples of local flutes. (University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology).ĭuring his anthropological surveys of Edo- and Igbo-speaking communities in Southern Nigeria between 19, N. Flutes collected by Northcote Thomas during his anthropological surveys of Edo- and Igbo-speaking communities, Southern Nigeria, 1909-1913.
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