Yokuwela - Contemporary Piano Music from the African Continent
Joshua UZOIGWE (1946-2005)
‘Ukom’ from Talking Drums [7.14]
Godwin SADOH (b. 1965)
Moonlight Dances (1984-5) [7.11]
Three Dances (1994-2001) [6.12]
Stefans GROVÉ (1922-2014)
Nonyana: The Ceremonial Dancer (1994) [6.35]
Haunting Music: Music from Africa No 39 (2005) [18.10]
Michael BLAKE (b. 1951)
French Suite (1994) [8.48]
Girma YIFRASHEWA (b. 1967)
The Shepherd and the Flute, Prelude No 1 (1998) [6.20]
Fred ONOVWEROSUOKE (b. 1960)
Study in African Rhythms No 20 Miners’ Chorus [1.49]
Silvia Belfiore (Piano)
rec. May 2020, JaneStudio, Cagliari, Italy
DA VINCI CLASSICS C00467 [62.21]
This fascinating and enterprising release opens with the sort of music that you might expect from a disc, which describes itself as ‘Music from the African Continent.’ Joshua Uzoigwe is Nigerian and Ukom is full of repetitive rhythmic patterns, often played quite relentlessly, with only a little respite - music in which melody is subordinate to the dance. Although there are ‘themes”, according to the composer these derive from the “cultural and traditional elements of the Igbo people of Nigeria”. You will need a completely new way of listening to piano music; any Western influence seems to be minimum.
Yet the fact that these works are conceived and played on the piano could be considered an anomaly until you remember that by the early nineteenth century the keyboard had been fully introduced into Africa with great success by missionaries and by musicians. Not only was it used for worship but it also introduced the locals to the Western classical favourites of the time - one imagines Mozart or Mendelssohn, for example.
This contradiction is well represented by the Ethiopian composer Girma Yifrashewa in his beautiful The Shepherd with the Flute. He writes that he is “well-versed in the European tradition of Chopin, Liszt and Scott Joplin” but also uses Ethiopian folk songs, so this pastoral piece has “right-hand trills evoking an Ethiopian flute but also referring to the filigree quality of Chopin’s piano textures”.
By his own admission, Nigerian composer Godwin Sadoh listened mostly to classical music as a young man “becoming interested in popular and traditional music as a student”. He is represented by two works: two sets of dances. The first, Moonlight Dances, three in all, written when he was a student, has as its basic texture a melody in the right hand and accompanimental figures in the left. These melodies tend towards modality and the pentatonic scale, and assimilate well with syncopated, often-repetitive rhythmic patterns. By the time he came to compose the next set of Three Dances, written over a seven-year span, Sadoh was even more inspired by his own culture, the titles of the pieces being ‘Atilogwu Dance’, ‘Beggar’s Chant’ and the more politically inspired ‘Yungbayungba’. His style, which now emphasises more of a linear quality, has here become more contrapuntal.
South African composer Stefans Grové is also represented by two works. He was in his sixties before he started composing his ‘Music of Africa’ series. His Nonyana: The Ceremonial Dancer, the twelfth number in the set, is a highly successful blend of African inspiration, using typical scales and rhythms, and a Western technical virtuosity aligned with much that was going on in Europe in the 90’s.
Grové’s other work, Haunting Music, is marked as ‘Music of Africa No 39’ and was written for Silvia Belfiore. I cannot imagine another pianist taking on this repertoire with such assured confidence and understanding. She also clearly has all the technical qualities needed to convey this exceptional music. Haunting Music is in three movements: first is ‘Strange Valley of Mists’. I have never visited South Africa but this impressionistic picture captured my imagination and took me to that country effortlessly. ‘Wandering through an Enchanted Forest’ bases itself around a rhythmically repeated pedal C, but its counterpoint becomes increasingly entangled by adding differing focal points and crossing part writing. The last movement, ‘Hobgoblin at Midnight’, is a curiosity. I cannot think of hobgoblins in African myths but perhaps, as the booklet notes imply, the composer is thinking more of European folklore. It is certainly witty and unpredictable. This entire work is fascinating, original and captivating.
Also from South African is Michael Blake, who has written the booklet notes. On the surface, his title French Suite may seem odd. He explains that its two movements derive from the instrumental writing found in 18th century French harpsichord music but he also quotes from the Cambridge ‘History of 20th Century Music’ that the work is an understated translation “of African music into Western idioms that deftly negotiate the borderline between quotation and abstraction”. For me, there is nothing understated here; this piece, with its almost relentless melodic repetitions, ranks as the hardest on the disc for my European ears to fully appreciate.
Although Fred Onovwerosuoke now lives in America, he has made a deep study of the music of Ghana, his own land, and of elsewhere on the continent. These have filtered into his Twenty-four Studies in African Rhythms. Number 20, recorded here, is called ‘Miners’ Chorus,’ and its curious syncopations make it feel more like an early form of jazz. It’s a pity that space could not have been found for another of these studies.
I found myself wondering if these composers have also written for ensembles or voices; it would be good to find out more about their work. The booklet notes are useful and not over-technical. My only gripe is that the piano sound can be rather ‘boomy’ and lacking in space at climaxes, so that one needs to adjust the volume regularly. This is worth searching out.
Gary Higginson
