Piano Percussion I

Title.: Piano Percussion I | Subtitle.: Studies in African Rhythms & Melodies for Solo Piano | Author: Emmanuel Tanka Fonta
Edition Number | ISBN: 978-1-894821-76-6 | Instrumentation.: Solo Piano | Duration.: 22:00 min |  Degree of Difficulty: 3-5 | Info.: 5 Scores, CD, 30cm | 52 Pages | Spiral bound

Brief Introductory Notes: 

Piano Percussion I is a collection of five original compositions, composed and written for solo piano performance and study purposes. These body of works encompasses simple and equally challenging works, written in exuberant, expressive, lyrical, lively and rhythmical moods, influenced and rooted in the musical traditions and heritages of Central West Africa.

These compositions are also a thematic expositions on the forms, structures, idioms, themes, rhythms, melodies, harmonies, polyphony, polyrhythms and textural patterns inherent in the musical idiolects of different traditional African plucked and bowed string instruments, vocal chant music as well as the idioms of pitched percussion instruments such as the xylophone, thumb piano and marimba.

These collection of works, are meant to provide a basic but fundamental insight and perspective on Central West African music to the musical student, amateur and professional performer, music teacher, educator and musicologists, who have an interest in exploring, researching, teaching, performing and furthering their understanding of the nature, performance, compositional practices and processes specific to traditional, contemporary and composed music from Central West Africa.

Included Scores:
1. The Call of T'ambu Na Yeneh - 5m 51s
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2. Streaks of the Dawn - 4m 22s
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3. Preludes of a Twilight Dance - 3m 30s
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4. Preludes of a Ceremonious Incantation - 5m 47s
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5. Preludes of a Masquerade Call - 4m 47s
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Piano Percussion II

Title.: Piano Percussion II | Subtitle.: Studies in African Rhythms, Melodies. Motivic & Idiomatic developments for Solo Piano.
Author: Emmanuel Tanka Fonta | Edition Number | ISBN: 978-1-894821-80-3 | Instrumentation.: Solo Piano | Duration.: 22:00 min |  Degree of Difficulty: 4-5 | Info.: 5 Scores, CD, 30cm | 52 Pages | Spiral bound

Brief Introductory Notes:

Piano Percussion II is a collection of five original compositions, composed and written for solo piano performance & study purposes. These body of works encompasses challenging and energetic works, written in moods that are evocative of the idioms of African vocal chant music, with an integral aura of the melodic idioms of the African thumb piano, the expressive breath & rhythmical idiom of the xylophone & the lyrical cadence of the African Zither & Harp-Lute instruments.

These compositions are thematic expositions with emphasis on motivic & idiomatic developments of complex rhythmical & melodic formations, polyrhythms & polyphony. Constructs of lyrical & colorful idiomatic hues via chord progressions, expressive melodic palettes, antiphonal patterns, percussive motifs for rhythmic colorations & patterns which replicates an aura of folkloric & masquerade music. Ingenious use of melodic & rhythmical syncopations, sudden & accelerated crescendos are employed. Thick melodic tangential & cascading accents, glissandos & dramatic rhythmic contrasts, are used for textural effects as well as percussive rhythmic modulations of the left & right hands for interlocking patterns, independent themes & motifs for harmonic ornamentations.

These collection of works, is meant to provide an overall insight & a broader perspective of Central West African music to the student, amateur & professional performer, music teacher, educators and musicologists, who have an interest in exploring, researching, teaching, performing as well as furthering their understanding of the nature, performance, compositional practices & processes specific to traditional, contemporary & composed music from this area in Africa.

Included Scores:
1. Ngemba Improvizations II - 2m 49s
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2. Sketches of the Dusk Dance Stanzas - 3m 56s
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3. Preludes of the Ritual & Incantation Dances - 5m 35s
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4. Preludes & Themes of a Bantu Dance - 5m 56s
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5. Exultation Chants & the Incantation Theme I - 4m 16s
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Music

We publish music for a wide variety and combination of instrumentations, to include small orchestras, chamber orchestras, percussion ensembles, small & mixed ensembles, quintets, quartets, trios & for solo instrument with or without accompaniment. These body of works are written in variegated musical idioms, forms, structures, rhythms and motifs.

Our publications offer a variety of challenging & energetic body of works for small orchestra, complex polyphonic and poly rhythmic works for chamber orchestra, that are pregnant with variegated thematic African motifs & structures, multi-faceted forms & rhythmic structures which will interest the scholar or professional musician interested in detailed analysis, as in the intricacies & structured framework of polyphony in Africanmusic, or the exotic possibilities of structured textures & clusters of dense rhythmic layers innate within pygmy music, a Bulu or a Ngemba xylophone orchestra. The ethnomusicologist or the professional instrumentalist, or music scholar will also be interested in the understanding of such complex forms of orchestration to be found in Bamoum music or a Tikari Masquerade Dance music, where reoccuring clusters of assymetrical rhythmic patterns and multiple aggregates of melodic motifs are simultaneously contained together within a single piece and having a homogenous continuity in form and structure.

Preview - Orchestra Example - Portraits of Nights & Days

Preview - Ensemble Example - Mythological Dreams I

Preview - Solo Piano Example - Exultation Chants & the Incantation Theme I

Brief Notes on African Music

Introduction: Music of Sub-Saharan Africa
:: A Brief Synopsis ::

Africa is a continent with numerous ethnic groups, as well as diverse cultural & linguistic groups. A concise & general description of African music is almost impossible as there are no homogenous continuum of a pan-African musical expression which can be classified as one single unitary system, but there are shared commonalities of musical idioms, forms & structures, & most often an identical treatment of musical units in the articulation & expression of musical ideas.

:: Brief Characteristics & Features ::
:: Rhythm :: Melody :: Harmony :: Scales & Polyphony ::

Polyphony, polyrhythm [ex. Pygmy Music ], are some of the distinguishing characteristics & features that are definitive of African music. The occurrences, use & employment of musical elements are distinctly different to other musical cultures. The use of asymmetrical rhythms, additive rhythms, odd meters are common. Dense, multi layered & complex textures, amorphous ornamentations, ostinato, hemiola, specific tonal-harmonic systems are also some distinctive features. Heterophony & counter melodies are other common textural devices that defines the forms, structures, styles & genres of African music. Language, oral poetry as devices for melodic & rhythmical textures, also for percussive effects are not an uncommon phenomena.

:: Scales ::

Common scale systems are the diatonic & pentatonic scales, but other forms are not uncommon & vary between regions. Intervals are often different. Pitch polyphony in the form of parallel intervals (generally III,IV, & V), is common, overlapping choral antiphony, solo-choral response, ostinato, simultaneous independent counter melodies & other contrapuntal devices are in common.

Musical Instruments

:: Musical Instruments ::

Musical instruments of sub-Saharan Africa have been classified into four categories: Idiophones; these include a wide variety of resonant solids such as rattles, shakers cowbells, stamping tubes. Membranophones or parchment-head drums; such as goblet drums, kettledrums; cylindrical, semi cylindrical, barrel-shaped drums; & hourglass drums with variable-tension heads such as the talking drums. Aerophones; these are flutes; ocarinas; panpipes; horns (animal material) & trumpets such as the huhu trumpet found in the north of Cameroon, Chad & Central African Republic (calabash trumpet); single-reed pipes made from millet stalks; & double-reed pipes adopted from Arabic culture. Chordophones; these include musical bows, zithers, bowed & plucked lutes, harp-lutes, arched harps, & lyres. The body & voice as a percussion instrument are very common, hand clapping, foot stamping & rhythm with foot rattles are common amongst the Masquerade dances & music. Tuned percussions also include; thumb pianos & log xylophones.

:: Other Elements ::

In addition to the above mention characteristics & features; language, speech, poetry, drama, oral literature, theatre, religion are all irrevocably interwoven with music & are musical units which also define as well as determine the idioms, forms & structures.

CWJEF Music Publications

Since 1997 we have been publishing original print music manuscripts & scores on traditional African percussion music, folk music, art & composed music,contemporary music, classical & jazz music for serious study and concert performances.
We publish works for a wide variety and combination of instrumentations, to include small orchestra, chamber orchestra, percussion ensembles, small & mixedensembles, quintets, quartets, trios & for solo instrument with or without accompaniment. These body of works are written in variegated musical idioms, styles, genres, forms & structures & are idealy suited as performance or study scores or as teaching aids & resource materials for educators, teachers,students, professional musicians & ensembles as well as the amateur musician.