45The rapid scientific, technological, and industrial progress we witness today has been responsible, to a large extent, for changes and modifications in our modes of apprehending our world system and the cosmos. This progress has redefmed and provided directions for value orientations, beliefs and habits. In some cases, large sections of populations have been displaced or relocated, human health has improved and has been undermined, and mutual interactions at both local and international levels have suddenly and subtly introduced new tastes. These dynamic social phenomena, no doubt, have diverse implications for all disciplines, including ethnomusicology.Rural-urban migration, which is becoming a unique phenomenon in developing countries, constitutes a special challenge in ethnomusicology. Consequently materials, methods, and theory building in ethnomusicology are now being forced to "face the music" in urban areas. 2 It is therefore my purpose to provide a detailed aspect of how rural-urban migration affects musical practice in a particular village in Ghana; and, second, to address specific problems derived from the village situation; and, finally, to explore how a more favourable situation could be created through the implementation of a suggested program of action from the perspective of applied ethnomusicology. The village situation Seva is one of the islands forming the archipelago of the Keta Lagoon (on the S.E. coast of Ghana). It has an area of approximately 2.7 square miles, and there is no precise date concerning the frrst settlement on the island. 3 However, one can reconstruct a possible time frame through the examination of oral evidence and artifacts, especially those about early chiefs, wars and the slave trade. However, settlement must have begun before 1700. 4

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In the past quarter-century, Western art music tradition has seen some major advances in the analysis of the phenomenon of time in music. However, the quantitative and objective approach to time remains a hallmark of Western analytical perspectives. Also, recent radical turns which adopt phenomenological and subjective approaches hardly escape the influence of the myopic and so-called objective approach.1 With regard to the Black African continent, studies relating to musical time have consequently been modelled along the objective and quantitative tradition, although remarkable achievements have been made in the psychological, philosophical, and anthropological studies of time in African cultures in general?The urgency of the need to attend to qualitative and multi-dimensional aspects of musical time cannot, therefore, be overstressed, as demonstrated by Ruth Stone in her new manuscript on time in African music.3 My special concern for the qualitative dimension rests on the assumption that the universal phenomenon of time transcends the qualitative and quantitative modes by which we apprehend and organise our daily activities and experiences, including music-making.The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to investigate in detail how musical time is arrived at, and how it interacts with and is influenced by social events and by the specific context under which the music is performed. The analysis will be based upon examples from Yeve cult music as practised among the Anlo-Ewe of Ghana. In addition, the paper will examine relationships that exist between the individual or composite (musical and extra-musical) temporal structures and participants' affective response. The affective or experiential domain will also include audience response4. The Yeve cultThe Yeve (also known as Xebieso, Hu, or Tohoro) is a thunder-god, a pantheon with historical relations to the Yoruba Shango and the Dahomean Xevioso. The cult is one of the most 'powerful' and most secretive among others that exist in the Ewe society (Anlo-Ewe specifically). Formal initiation rites take place after candidates have undergone prolonged, intense and secret training and instruction in dance, music, and manners of conduct and behaviour. A neophyte (referred to as a Husikpokpo or Sodzemadogo) is often identified by his/ her typical costume, restricted social or secular participation, and the secret language spoken throughout the novicehood.6 Membership in the cult depends upon several factors some of which include unusual event or life crisis, forced membership as a punitive measure for an offence committed, the reincarnation of a dead member, and upon the gods' own free calling.7 The 'separation' and 'secrecy' involved in the Yeve cult are further demonstrated in the specific terms that are used. For example, a member of the cult is