Songs Of Africa: 22 Pieces For Mixed Voices

Description: Fred Onovwerosuoke and the St. Louis African Chorus carefully selected the favourite, most requested songs from their workshops, while trying to represent a wide spectrum of Africas regions and cultural practicessongs of spirituality, religion, community, work, and play from Nigeria, Ghana, Congo, Benin, South Africa, Namibia, the Gambia, and others. The result is Songs of Africa, a user-friendly resource that will satisfy the hunger for new, diverse choral repertoire. As a performance aid, this exciting collection also includes a pronunciation guide, notes on performance practice and cultural context, and, where accompaniment is needed or suggested, some accessible percussion charts. Review: Now here's a really interesting book ... And boy is it stimulating ... Many of the arrangements or transcriptions are by Onovwerosuoke himself, and are interesting and ear-opening ... A great collection for doing something different with your choir or, even better, to take to a workshop to work on preoperly and in depth. Jonathan Wikeley, Music Teacher, March 09 From OUP under the editorship of Fred Onovwerosuioke, the west African-born conductor and composer, comes a simply terrific volume of African songs for mixed voices, many with percussion or hand clapping, as well as the occasional instrument. The editor provides essential background information to each item as well as helpfully offering performance guidelines ... The volume is attractively produced and would make a useful addition to the library of any choir looking to expand and refresh its repertory. Warmly recommended. Philip Reed, Choir & Organ, September 09 Published arrangements of songs from Africa have not been uncommon in recent years, but this is the first volume I have seen that is genuinely pan-African in content, and compiled by someone completely immersed in Africa's diverse traditions and languages ... In contrast to our predominant European mentality, what shines through again and again is the music's simplicty, playfulness and joy - one of many reasons to celebrate this unique publication. Matthew Greenall, The Singer, April 09