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Jenn Gould LaRue ‘02 (Music Performance) - Using Ethnomusicology for Music Ministry

When Jenn Gould LaRue ‘02 (Music Performance – Instrument) arrived at Roberts Wesleyan College from Canada her goal was to graduate and to eventually become a performer.  However, God had other plans.  Jenn is currently ABD (all but dissertation) in her Ph.D. studies at the University of Georgia and is studying ethnomusicology with a focus Nigerian classical music.

After completing her degree from Roberts, Jenn originally planned to do a Master of Music Performance at Ithaca College.  The funding didn’t work out and after choosing to take a year off, she ended up taking an 11-year break from her studies.  During that time, she taught flute, was a music teacher in a private school, and worked as a youth director at her church.  However, most importantly, she met her husband and started a family.

It was a winding road that brought her to Georgia, and her love of African music actually started with teaching Vacation Bible School (VBS) in Kenya.  In 2006 Jenn went to Kenya to lead VBS.  All of the things she wanted to do they told her couldn’t be done because of the cultural differences.  Terrified that she was going to be running VBS for 300 children, some of whom didn’t speak any English, Jenn went anyway and had an incredible experience. 

During that time, Jenn fell in love with the Kenyan people and their music.  Everything that she did was “local focus.”  Local craftsmen taught Jenn their music and she began to understand that, for good and for bad, the music was deeply intertwined with work that had been done decades and centuries earlier by missionaries. 

That experience led her to do a Master of Arts in Ethnomusicology at Liberty University where she studied with Dr. Katherine Morehouse.  That in turn, led the opportunity to study at the University of Georgia with the Kenyan scholar, Dr. Jean Kidula.  Jenn and her family were living in Virginia where her husband was a Presbyterian minister, and they decided to move to Athens, Georgia so she could continue her studies and complete her Ph.D. 

While she was at the University of Georgia, she shifted from Kenyan to Nigerian music.  She attended a seminar led by Professor Kofi Agawu who talked about Dr. Akin Euba, a Nigerian composer, musicologist, and pianist.  After learning more about the rich musical tradition of Nigeria, Jenn decided to shift from studying Kenyan popular music to Nigerian classical music. 

When missionaries (primarily from England) first came to Nigeria they took their European hymns and tried to translate them into local languages.  However, there are many languages in Nigeria and they each have unique qualities.  For example, Yoruba is a tonal language, so pitch makes all of the difference.  Consequently, you can’t take a tonal language and use familiar melodies from a different culture and expect the meaning to stay the same.  If you change the tones, you change everything.  Jenn’s work studies this history but also its effects on current Nigerian music. 

Regarding her work, Jenn writes:

“I really believe that ethnomusicology provides Christian musicians a way of considering the impact of culture on worship. Even though my research focuses on African art or 'classical' music, what I've learned through my coursework and research has helped shape the decisions I make as a worship leader, choosing music to help shape a worship service that reflects the songs and lives of the people in the community surrounding congregations.”

Jenn hopes that her work in this area can be helpful not only in the area of musical studies, but also for reaching others with the Gospel.  Music is a powerful tool, but the many different facets of music have to be understood for music to be used effectively. 

Jenn lives in Athens, Georgia with her husband, Donald, and their three sons.  She is on track to graduate in May 2022 and hopes to eventually teach full time at the university level. 

If you would like to hear an example of Nigerian sacred music, listen and watch the singing of “Emi O Gbe Oju Mi Soke Wonni" ("I Lift up my Eyes to You") by T.K.E. Phillips (1884-1969), the early Nigerian composer often called "The Father of Nigerian Church Music."

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