Style as a Man: Analysis of Artistic Signature Tunes in Selected Yoruba Oral Genres

Abstract

There is a popular assumption that all oral poets and poetry say the same thing, may be in different ways which this present study expunges. We identify the signature tunes as one of the four components in literary works that do not only set aside a genre from another but also serve as emblem that identify a literary work, the situation of the text and oral artists. This study substantiates signature tunes as the unique identity of oral artists for indigenous criticism of oral performances. we do the survey of signature tune in selected six oral genres, ij̀álá-o̩de̩, e̩kún-ìyàwó, è̩s̩à-egúngún, ìyè̩rè̩-Ifá, èlè-orò and S̩àngó-pípè which are all classified as chants and secondary data from recorded albums and printed works on Yorùbá oral genres were also instrumental. The work is guided by structuralism from Kerl Buhler (1934) and Roman Jacobson’s (1960) perspectives as theoretical perspective to identify the concept from the pool of other constituents. And in the course of the work, we discover that the surveyed signature tunes have classes, though the classification is done through the kind of function they perform in the context where they are used. The said classes are artistic, contextual, textual, transitional and geographical signature tunes which according to the stylisticians are in tandem with style as a man, style as a situation, style as deviation, style as temporal phenomenon and style as idiolect respectively. Artistic signature tune cum style as a person reveals the identity of artists, their competency, origin and what they are capable of doing, which translates to the emotive function of language. This artistic signature tune is discovered to occur initially, medially and terminally across the stretch of Yorùbá oral performances. The study therefore recommends individual brand recognition contained in artistic signature tunes for the rhetorics, artistes and public speaker so as to have brand recognition and connect them to the audience emotionally.