A look at the indigenous philosophy, theory and societal meaning of the African musical arts system via the Igbo conceptual paradigm. The title was created by five articulate Igbo 'mother' musicians and the scholar who studied under them. These five indigenous authorities are composer-performer (performance composition) soloists on three cognate Igbo keyboard mother instruments, the ese, ukom and mgba, which are tuned drum rows. The complex compositional formula and formal principles of each music type encodes, sequences and validates the systematic procedural framework of its event. The creative integrity of the mother musician is then critical for the success of an event occasion that the orchestral type automatically accords human-cultural meaning. The musical arts thus functions as a meta-language in event context as well as an agency that organizes, structures and interprets societal systems and relationships in an African society.