YOKUWELA : New Sounds from Africa - Fred Onovwerosuoke (b.1960) Twenty-Four Studies in African Rhythms : Miner’s Chorus, Girma Yifrashewa (b.1967) - Prelude No 1: The Shepherd with the Flute, Godwin Sadoh (b. 1965) - Moonlight Dances : Three Dances, Joshua Uzoigwe (1964-2005) - Talking Drums (i); Ukom, Michael Blake (b.1951) - French Suite, Stefan Grové (1922-2014) - Nonyana, the Ceremonial Dancer, ‘Music from Africa No 39’ : Haunting Music. Silvia Belfiore, piano

Description: The Western piano was introduced by Christian missionaries to various African countries during the nineteenth century, and was probably heard in hymn accompaniments as well as Western classical music of the 18th and 19th centuries. The coexistence of regional traditional music and instruments resulted in an intercultural interchange and led to a new tradition of synthetic fusion of styles, resulting in a definable style of African Pianism. Its predominant features, as exemplified here by composers representing Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, and South Africa, include thematic repetition; direct borrowing – or alluding to rhythmic and tonal motifs – from traditional sources; percussive treatment of the piano; and emulation of African instruments. Some pieces have a greater melodic dimension (Sadoh and Yifrashewa), while others focus more particularly on rhythm (Uzoigwe, Blake and Onovwerosuoke). Stefans Grové’s ‘Music of Africa’ project, on the other hand, paints what he himself describes as a romanticised vision of Africa. This disc continues the concept of the CD that we offered a year ago, 02X068, which similarly showcased the varied output of this unique compositional school. Uzoigwe's Ukom is the first movement of a larger work, Talking Drums (1992). As the title suggests, the piece is strongly rhythmic, with pentatonic melodic content. Sadoh's Moonlight Dances are permeated by reminiscences of Debussy preludes, and of Gershwin, in their bluesy, pentatonic, syncopated ragtime rhythms. The later Three Dances are the lively Atilogwu Dance; Beggar's Chant, which refers to a poem by Andalusian ‘Abd al-Rahman, so popular in the 16th-century that beggars chanted it; and Yungba-Yungba, a vigorous dance with a drumming accompaniment. Grové started composing his ‘Music of Africa’ series in 1984, following an “epiphany” when he heard a roadworker singing a traditional work song.His engagement with African music is more one of evocation than emulation – he has said “I think in terms of images” – though he does use certain African scales and his textures sometimes imitate bow music, drumming, and African birdsong. Nonyana, the Ceremonial Dancer (1994) is a study in sonority, highly atmospheric and employing ingenious pedal resonance effects. A fast, motoric central section emerges, syncopated and frantic, and then the music returns to echoing calls across the plains. The three movements of Haunting Music evoke mythical and legendary traditions worldwide, in Africa and elsewhere: Strange Valley of Mists is atmospheric and sinister, full of strange cries and unsettling apparitions; in Wandering Through an Enchanted Forest a constant rhythmic ostinato on one note accompanies rich, dark, increasingly stifling chords. Hobgoblin at Midnight is a disjointed, lopsided, frenetic dance. Yifrashuwa is thoroughly well-versed in the European tradition; a pianist -composer whose recitals regularly incorporate Chopin, Liszt, Scott Joplin and his own music. He explains that his pieces "are based on Ethiopian folk songs, but the European development techniques were so firmly in place that it was often hard to hear the East African elements”. His pastoral The Shepherd with the Flute is very Impressionistic, with pentatonic melodies, rather reminiscent of Debussy’s Pagodes. A middle section has a modal melody over a rippling arpeggiated accompaniment, followed by the recapitulation of opening section. Blake’s Suite has only two movements, and both owe their musical genesis to Africa rather than the Baroque. The First Dance is underpinned by a chaconne-like pattern of little repeated gestures accompanying fragments of modal melodies, with variations in continually changing metres, interrupted regularly by a short refrain derived from Zimbabwean mbira music. By contrast, the Second Dance juxtaposes and sometimes overlays material derived from a wide range of sources including mbira music again. The instrumental writing derives from both 18th-century French harpsichord music and early 20th-century French piano music. Onovwerosuoke developed a deep love of indigenous African music from an early age. After completing his studies in the United States, he went on to conduct extensive field research in 30 African countries, as well as the American Deep South, Caribbean and South America, fusing elements of both in his own music. The Twenty-Four Studies in African Rhythms, Volume One (2007) emerged from his African research, each study inspired by a song or a dance from a different country in Africa. The twentieth in this collection, Miner’s Chorus (2008) accompanies a bluesily harmonised melody with an ostinato in syncopated jazz -waltz rhythm.