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CLASSICAL MUSIC PERSONALITIES
Thomas King Ekundayo Phillips (1884-1969)
By Godwin Sadoh
He is the ‘father of Nigerian church music.’ His contribution to the development of art
music in Nigeria is numerable and worthy of mention when writing about this style of
music. Ekundayo Phillips was born on March 8, 1884, in Ondo State, southwest of
Nigeria, into the family of Bishop Phillips. Ekundayo Phillips’s mother, Marian Phillips,
was a devoted and full-time house wife, while the father, Bishop Charles Samuel
Phillips, was one of the early Yoruba bishops. Ekundayo Phillips was born into a musical
family. His father was the first church organist in Lagos, while his mother was one of
the seven musically gifted children of the Ogunsolu Baileys from Igbore, Abeokuta, and
Ilaro respectively—all within the topography of southwest region of Nigeria, now called
Ogun State. Other members of his extended family were violinists, organists, and
singers.
Ekundayo Phillips received his first organ lessons from his father in Ondo State. He
moved to Lagos to further his education and resided with the family of Archdeacon N.
Johnson, at 3, Carrens Street. The Johnson’s family later moved to St. John’s Anglican
Church Personage, Aroloya, where Archdeacon Johnson continued to give organ lessons
to Phillips. Ekundayo Phillips was quite assiduous and ardent with his musical studies,
for he devoted a considerable amount of time as a teenager and young man to
practicing piano and organ.
Ekundayo Phillips attended the Church Missionary Society Grammar School, Lagos,
where he continued his musical tutoring during the era of Rev. J. S. Fanimokun,
Principal of the school at the time. In his early teens, Phillips was already assisting at
the organ of St. John’s Anglican Church, Aroloya, in Lagos, and at the age of eighteen,
Phillips was appointed as the Organist of St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Breadfruit, Lagos,
where he faithfully served for nine years. Even though he was rated as one of the best
organists in Lagos at the time; Phillips was not satisfied with his level of musicianship.
He wanted to improve his musical skills and make a significant contribution to church
music in Nigeria, and he felt the only way to realize this dream was for him to travel
overseas. Hence, in 1911, he proceeded to England to further his music education at
the Trinity College of Music, London, becoming the second Nigerian—after Robert
Coker, to study professionally abroad. He majored in organ and violin at the college.
Upon the completion of his studies in 1914, Phillips received the Associate of the Trinity
College of Music diploma (ATCL) and returned to Nigeria. Twenty years later, in 1934,
Phillips returned to the Trinity College of Music to pursue a study in composition for the
Licentiate diploma. He did so well in the Licentiate examinations that he was awarded
the Fellowship of the Trinity College of Music, London (FTCL), honoris causa.
One of his significant accomplishments was the training of the next generation of
Nigerian composers who were to take the baton from him. His most famous students
include Fela Sowande, Ayo Bankole, Lazarus Ekwueme, Christopher Oyesiku, and
Charles Oluwole Obayomi Phillips, his son and successor at the Cathedral Church of
Christ. Phillips composed primarily sacred music for worship in the church. His works
include hymns, antiphonal chants (versicles and responses), several choral anthems in
Yoruba language and two works for organ solo, Passacaglia on an African Folk Song
and Variations on an African Folk Song. Some of his popular choral works are Emi Yoo
Gbe Oju Mi S’Oke for SATB and Organ, Magnificat in C for SATB and Organ, and
Samuel, a cantata for soloists, chorus and organ. Phillips wrote the first musicological
treatise on African music by a trained African indigenous musician, titled, Yoruba Music:
Fusion of Speech and Music (1953). The book is a thorough documentation of his field
research on Yoruba traditional music, showing how modern composers can utilize
indigenous creative ideas to create contemporary works. Ekundayo Phillips was a multitalented person—pianist, organist, choir director, church musician, composer, teacher,
ethnomusicologist, intercultural musicologist, scholar, editor, music pioneer, chemist,
and optician. In 1964, Ekundayo Phillips was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music
degree by the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, for his contributions to the development of
church music in Nigeria. The award was conferred on him by the then President of
Nigeria, Nnamdi Azikiwe (1904-1996), who was also a visitor to the University at the
time. Phillips was also decorated with the award of Membership of the British Empire
(MBE), by Her Royal Highness, Queen Elizabeth II, during the coronation ceremony of
Duke of Edinburg. Thomas King Ekundayo Phillips departed this world on Thursday, July
10, 1969, at his residence, on 79 Agege Motor Road, Idi-Oro, Mushin, Lagos, at the age
of eighty-five. For further reading on the life and music of Ekundayo Phillips, see
Godwin Sadoh’s book, Thomas Ekundayo Phillips: The Doyen of Nigerian Church Music
(2009).