african chamber music program from

African Chamber Music Program from Vancouver New Music in March 2000

Every so often, I'm privileged to play a concert that resonates with

me for years afterwards. One of these took place in early March of

2000, in a concert for Vancouver New Music entitled "The Wanderer:

Chamber Music of Africa". The online program info for the concert is

either inaccessible to search engines or has been removed over time.

Nevertheless, I still have the concert program, and following are the

works and performers from that evening (I've added hyperlinks to the

composers' biographical info).

[Program design note: the front cover of the program featured the 3 of

Wands card from the Rider-Waite Tarot deck, pictured at left]

The Wanderer

Vancouver New Music

March 5, 2000

Vancouver East Cultural Centre

This concert featured special guest composers Akin Euba and Gyimah

Labi [Euba was unable to attend for some reason, but Gyimah Labi

worked extensively with the performers and was the evening's master of

ceremonies]

The Wanderer (1960) by Akin Euba

Sue Round, cello

Christopher Foley, piano

Four Nigerian Dances (1976) by Joshua Ozoigwe

Christopher Foley, piano

At the Immaculate Beehive (1982/98) by Gyimah Labi

Victor Costanzi, violin

Mary Sokol Brown, violin

Andrew Brown, viola

Sue Round, cello

--

Intermission

--

String Quartet No. 2 'Hunting:Gathering" (1987) by Kevin Volans

(same quartet as above)

Tre Toccate per Pianoforte, 3rd movement (1987) by Malcolm Forsyth

Christopher Foley, piano

Antubam (1965) by J.H. Kwabena Nketia

Sue Round, cello

Christopher Foley, piano

Ancient Perspective - 3 (1993) by Gyimah Labi

David Branter, alto saxophone

Julia Nolan, bass saxophone

Nick Coulter, percussion

Vern Griffiths, percussion

Jason Overy, percussion

Robin Reid, percussion

Daniel Tones, percussion

CBC's Two New Hours (now defunct, alas) wasn't there that evening, but

I recall a recording was made of the concert for archival purposes.

---

This was my fifth season playing for Vancouver New Music, and I had

already got a large dose of works by various Canadian, American, and

European composers. However, the works I played on this program had a

sense of stylistic freshness and rhythmic exuberance that were

altogether different than almost anything I had played.

The Euba work was tough rhythmically, and Sue Round and I needed a

fair number of pretty intense rehearsals. Finally it came together,

and Sue and I were glad that Labi, who knew the work well, had time to

coach the work with us. Incidentally, The Wanderer was premiered by

cellist Christopher Bunting and pianist Ernest Lush as part of

Nigeria's independence celebrations in 1960. The three pieces by

Uzoigwe (based on Igbo and Yoruba folktunes) were a lot of fun to

play, and the feedback I got after the concert seemed to indicate that

the audience found them one of the most accessible works on the

program. When I cleaned out my studio last month, I discovered that I

still have the scores for these two works, and I've already started

scheming as to when I can play the Uzoigwe again, although saddened to

read that he passed away in 2005.

The title of the Nketia work was refers to the Ghanian painter Kofi

Antubam, and whom the work was written in memoriam in 1965. This was a

simple, direct, and poignant work, based on Akan music and speech

rhythms. The difficult Forsyth work was based on the xylophone

orchestras of the baChopi tribe of central Mozambique and was

certainly a handful to learn.

Often when I perform new works, I feel that one performance is nowhere

near enough. Although I left the VECC exuberant after the energy of

the evening's works (expecially the concert's final Ancient

Perspective-3 which I heard from the wings), I've felt since then that

I want to spend more time with the unique style of African new music

in order to understand its sophisticated rhythmic sensibility at a

higher level. Although I've got to know national styles particularly

well over the years, and have had the privilege of watching well over

a dozen Canadian operas come to fruition, my foray into African

chamber music, sadly, was a one-time experience. Kudos to Owen

Underhill (artistic director of the Vancouver New Music Society at the

time) for programming this unique concert and introducing the

little-known but complex and rewarding new music of Africa to a wider

audience.