HISTORICAL NOTES for SOLOS FOR TREBLE INSTRUMENT
ESPECIALLY SOPRANO RECORDER
COLLECTION 11: AFRICAN MELODIES
Arranged/Composed by Clark Kimberling
Arrangement titles begin with the letters A-Y.
Composition titles begin with the letter Z.
The 60 solos in Collection 11 can be accessed by clicking SOLOS 11 - but first, read this: the solos occupy 64 pages and may take a minute or so to download, depending on your browser. (Also, your computer must have Acrobat or some other PDF reader.) If you play recorder, flute, violin, or clarinet, you’ll want to take a look at the music itself. After viewing the solos, you may wish to print them and put them in a notebook. However, before clicking SOLOS 11, you really should browse these Historical Notes.
Collection 11 includes solos based on quite a variety of sources; e.g., Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.
Collection 11 includes arrangements of melodies by Ignatius Sancho, an African composer who lived in England. Sancho's charming melodies represent English popular music of his time. As such, within Collection 11, they provide a nice contrast to the more rhythm-oriented melodies of Africa. The Englishness of these melodies is suggested by these Sancho titles in Collection 11:
Duchess of Devonshire
Just So in the North
Kate of Aberdeen
Kew Gardens
L'Homme et la Femma
Le Douze de Decembre
Le Vieux Garcon
Mungo's Delight
Sanchos' Hornpipe
Sancho's Minuet
Thou Soft Flowing Avon
Josephine Wright writes that Sancho was "apparently the first black composer in history to publish his music." Born on a slave ship and soon orphaned, he was taken to Greenwich, England and placed in the care of three unmarried sisters. In Greenwich, Sancho was "discovered" by John, Second Duke of Montagu, formerly a governor of Jamaica. Under the Duke's patronage, Sancho received an education. See Bushy Park, just below, for further information about Sancho.
Aside from the English music composed by Sancho, there is another contrasting group of melodies represented in Collection 11. These are melodies based on Egyptian folk songs, typified by distinctive Arabic intervals and phrases.
Contents |
A BA BOLEKI NWANA! (South East Africa), in Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Twenty-four Negro melodies, originally published in 1905, and reprinted by Da Capo Press in 1980. The title means "They will not lend me a child."
AMMI YA SHAYEB (Egypt), in Basheega Sidky Rasheed's Egyptian Folk Songs, 1982, page 122. Translation of the lyrics from Arabic:
O you old, old man
You I do not love,
For your beard all white
Scratches my face sore.
AWAY, AWAY, LITTLE GOAT (Ewe, Ghana), folk song in African Songs and Rhythms for Children, A Selection from Ghana, compiled by W. K. Amoaku, Schott & Co., London, 1971. Visit Ewe people.
B’ O SE BABA ELOMIRAN (Yoruba, Nigeria), in Yoruba Song Book, a collection of Yoruba folk songs by P. O. Ogunbowale, published by Evans Brothers, London, 1961. Visit Yoruba.
BA-RONGA CHANT (South East Africa), in Swiss missionary Henri-Alexandre Junod's compilation, Les Chants et les Contes des Ba-Ronga, page 32. This chant was collected from the Ba-Ronga (modern name: Thonga) people living near Delagoa Bay (modern name: Maputo Bay). Visit Maputo Bay, Mozambique.
BAWKU (Kusasi, Ghana), adapted by missionary Tom Colvin, published in Fill Us with Your Love, and Other Hymns from Africa, Agape (a division of Hope Publishing Co.), 1983. Colvin writes in the Preface, "Encouraged by Ghanaian friends, I added to our little collection of hymns by writing some more of the hymns in this collection and setting them to traditional folk-song melodies collected by tape-recorder in Gonja, Dagomba and other villages where dynamic traditional culture is still very strong." Visit Gonja (Wikipedia) and Ghana (Wikipedia)
BEWARE THE SEA (Yoruba, Nigeria), in J. O. Ajibola's Yoruba Songs, University of Ife Press, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, 1974, page 92. A note on page 5 indicates that this is an anonymous secular song.
BUSHY PARK (Ignatius Sancho), in Sancho and Wright (see Sources below). Visit Bushy Park in London, the second largest royal park in England. Visit Ignatius Sancho at Wikipedia and at Brycchan Carey's Website.
CANDLE OF JOY (Egypt), in Basheega Sidky Rasheed's Egyptian Folk Songs, 1982, page 104.
CHA-KÓMBA, KÓMBA (Chindaú, Zimbabwe), a children's song, subtitled "hopping song," in Natalie Curtis's Songs and Tales from the Dark Continent, page 102.
Visit Zimbabwe and Natalie Curtis Burlin.
CHEREPONI (Ghana), adapted by missionary Tom Colvin, published in Fill Us with Your Love, and Other Hymns from Africa. Chereponi is probably the most widely sung hymn tune to find its way from Africa into English language hymnals; visit Jesu, Jesu. The name probably derives from Saboba Chereponi.
CRY OF A BIRD (Akan, Ghana and Ivory Coast), in Akan Songs, compiled and edited by Isaac D. Riverson, published by Methodist Book Depot, Cape Coast, Ghana, 1954. Visit Akan people.
DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE (Ignatius Sancho), in Sancho and Wright. The title refers to Georgiana Cavendish (1757-1806, whom you may visit at Wikipedia.
FOR LOVE OF THE FAIR MAID (Egypt), in Basheega Sidky Rasheed's Egyptian Folk Songs, 1982, page 9. Entitled "A Plaintive Love Song," the first two lines of the lyrics, translated, are "For love of the fair maid, I have lost my reason, She who looks like a peach, and whose kiss is a cure for ills."
GARU (Ghana), in Tom Colvin's Fill Us with Your Love, and Other Hymns from Africa.
GWEIMA NAO (South East Africa), Henri-Alexandre Junod's compilation, Les Chants et les Contes des Ba-Ronga, page 35. See Ba-Ronga Chant.
HI ME WELEWELA! (South East Africa), Henri-Alexandre Junod's compilation, Les Chants et les Contes des Ba-Ronga, page 248. See Ba-Ronga Chant.
IGA'MA LA BANTWA'NA (Zulu, Natal province, South Africa), in Natalie Curtis's Songs and Tales from the Dark Continent, page 135. Visit Zulu and KwaZulu-Natal.
IJO KI MBA JO (Yoruba, Nigeria), in Yoruba Song Book, a collection of Yoruba folk songs by P. O. Ogunbowale, published by Evans Brothers, London, 1961. Visit Yoruba.
IMVULA (Xhosa, South Africa), in Claudine Gunzburg's compilation, Kusasa Sivuka - In the Morning We Wake Up, Saayman & Weber, Cape Town, South Africa, 1990. Visit Xhosa.
ITMAKHTARY (Egypt), in Basheega Sidky Rasheed's Egyptian Folk Songs, 1982, page 80. Rasheed notes that this song "is popular in other counries of the Middle East, though it is over a hundred years old."
JUST SO IN THE NORTH (Ignatius Sancho), in Santos and Wright.
KAMULANGU (Luba, Congo), in Kazadi wa Mukuna's African Children's Songs for American Elementary Children, African Studies Center and Music Department, Michigan State University, 1979.
KAMWONGIA (Kenya), in John Kamenyi Wahome's compilation, Songs of Kenya, East African Publishing House, Nairobi, Kenya, 1970, 1981, page 18. Visit Kenya.
KATE OF ABERDEEN (Ignatius Sancho), in Santos and Wright.
KEW GARDENS (Ignatius Sancho), in Santos and Wright. Visit The Royal Botantic Gardens, Kew and Wikipedia.
L’HOMME ET LA FEMME (Ignatius Sancho), in Santos and Wright.
LE DOUZE DE DECEMBRE (Ignatius Sancho), in Santos and Wright.
LE VIEUX GARCON (Ignatius Sancho), in Santos and Wright.
LET ANYONE WHO KNOWS HOW TO TRADE COME OUT AND DO IT (Yoruba, Nigeria), in J. O. Ajibola's Yoruba Songs, page 108.
LULLABY (Zulu, South Africa), in Pessa Weinberg's compilation, Hlabelela Mntwanami - Sing, My Child!, Zulu Children's Songs, Raven Press, Johannesburg, South Africa, 1984, page 7.
LUNGA'NO (Chindaú, Zimbabwe), in Natalie Curtis's Songs and Tales from the Dark Continent, page 125. Visit Zimbabwe and Natalie Curtis Burlin.
MAMANÉE (South East Africa), a mourning chant in Junod's compilation, Les Chants et les Contes des Ba-Ronga, page 50. See Ba-Ronga Chant.
MANDEELI (Egypt), in Basheega Sidky Rasheed's Egyptian Folk Songs, 1982, page 90. The title is translated as "My Handkerchief," for a six-verse poem expressing a daughter's love of a man, addressed to her mother. The first verse, translated:
My kerchief, Mother dearest
In our alley it has fallen down,
Never will I give up my kerchief.
For 'tis made of rich and lovely silk.
MU-TO-TO-LI’LE (Chindaú, Zimbabwe), in Natalie Curtis's Songs and Tales from the Dark Continent, page 106. Visit Zimbabwe and Natalie Curtis Burlin.
MUNGO'S DELIGHT (Ignatius Sancho), in Santos and Wright. Mungo was a slave character in Isaac Bickerstaffe's 1769 drama, The Padlock. Possibly Sancho played the role of Mungo during his brief career as an actor.
NATOMAH (Ghana), in Tom Colvin's Fill Us with Your Love, and Other Hymns from Africa.
O DEAR BELOVED (Egypt), in Basheega Sidky Rasheed's Egyptian Folk Songs, 1982, page 55. Rasheed notes that this is a song "of the battalion of Egyptian labour conscripts who were taken abroad to dig trenches for the Allied Troops during the First World War, 1914."
OMO OBA SOKOTO (Yoruba, Nigeria), in J. O. Ajibola's Yoruba Songs, page 103.
SANCHO'S HORNPIPE (Ignatius Sancho), in Santos and Wright.
SANCHO'S MINUET (Ignatius Sancho), in Santos and Wright.
STRENGTH OF THE LION (Tanzania), a children's game-song, in Beatrice Landeck's Echoes of Africa in Folk Songs of the Americas. Visit The Official Website of Tanzania and Wikipedia.
THAT DARK-EYED LAD (Egypt), in Basheega Sidky Rasheed's 80 Folk Songs from the Valley of the Nile, page 51. View a map of Egypt, showing the Nile River.
THATA NABANDJI (South East Africa), in Junod's compilation, Les Chants et les Contes des Ba-Ronga, page 249, and in Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Twenty-four Negro Melodies.
THOU SOFT FLOWING AVON (Ignatius Sancho), in Santos and Wright. The title occurs in a poem by David Garrick:
Thou soft-flowing Avon, by thy silver stream
Of things more than mortal sweet Shakespeare would dream
The fairies by moonlight dance round his green bed,
For hallow’d the turf is which pillow’d his head.
Visit River Avon.
TLOGO MAGLETA (Zulu, South Africa), in Our Chalet Song Book II, Our Chalet Committee, Abelboden, Switzerland, 1992.
VUKA MUNGONI (South East Africa), an "incantation des exorcistes" in Swiss missionary Henri-Alexandre Junod's compilation, Les Chants et les Contes des Ba-Ronga, page 52. See Ba-Ronga Chant.
WAKIRI (Kenya), in John Kamenyi Wahome's compilation, Songs of Kenya, East African Publishing House, Nairobi, Kenya, 1970, 1981, page 4. Visit Kenya.
WHERE ARE YOU? (Egypt), in Basheega Sidky Rasheed's 80 Folk Songs from the Valley of the Nile, page 126.
ZABUNZO - ZYTHR, composed for Collection 11 by Clark Kimberling, 2004-2007. Some of these show some African melodic characteristics. A list follows: Za La La La, Zabunzo, Zayesha, Zhilisi, Ziffchiff, Zikkitokk, Zin E Bu Ku Bi Ki Bo,Zin Ta Teeka Teeka, Zunta, Zythr
Chief J. O. Ajibola, Orin Yoruba - Yoruba Songs, University of Ife Press, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, 1974.
Tom Colvin, compiler, arranger, author, Fill Us with Your Love, and Other Hymns from Africa, Agape (a division of Hope Publishing Co.), 1983.
Natalie Curtis [Burlin], compiler/editor, Songs and Tales from the Dark Continent, G. Schirmer, New York, 1920. The songs and tales were recorded from the singing and the sayings of C. Kamba Simango (Ndau Tribe, Portuguese East Africa) and Madikane Čele (Zulu Tribe, Natal, Zululand, South Africa.
Henri-Alexandre Junod, Les Chants et les Contes des Ba-Ronga, Georges Bridel & Co., Lausanne, 1897.
Beatrice Landeck and Milton Kaye, Echoes of Africa in Folk Songs of the Americas, second edition, D. McKay Co., New York, 1969.
Basheega Sidky Rasheed, compiler and translator, Egyptian Folk Songs, second edition, Oak Publications, New York, 1964; third edition, 1982. A reviewer, Seoud M. Matta, writes that Miss Rasheed's work is a significant contribution to the world of folk songs, "possibly the first effort of its kind available to non-Arabic readers in modern times." However, Matta points out that translations of the lyrics (and presumably, titles) often deviate from the original texts, and that the simple music scores do not "do justice to the beauty of the melodies, for the musical notation lacks any indication of microtones so inherent in the Egyptian music." Of importance to performers is Matta's note that "there are many variations...and it should be made clear that solo performers add more ornaments, shades, and tones..." Almost 35% of the Rasheed's collection, Matta writes, "are songs known to almost every Egyptian [and the others] have varying degress of popularity in the two major regions of Egypt, north or south of Cairo." One of the songs, Matta claims, "dates as far back as 896 A.D." Visit Music of Egypt.
Basheega Sidky Rasheed, 80 Folk Songs from the Valley of the Nile, with piano accompaniments, Proizvodstvennogo Kombinaeta Muzfond’ SSSR, Moscow, 1974. The piano accompaniments are quite modern and well crafted.
Igatius Sancho (composer) and Josephine R. B. Wright (compiler/editor), Ignatius Sancho (1729-1780): an early African composer in England: the collected editions of his music in facsimile, Garland Publications, New York, 1981.
Josephine Wright, "Ignatius Sancho (1729-1780), African Composer in England," The Black Perspective in Music, vol. 7, no. 2, Autumn, 1979, pages 132-167
Africa: countries, peoples, languages
Africa (Ethnologue)
International Library of African Music
Ignatius Sancho
Ignatius Sancho: African Man of Letters
Instrumental Resources
American Recorder Society
National Flute Association
The Recorder Home Page
Clicking will take you to Historical Notes, and from there you can download solos as PDFs (except for Collection 2, for which all the solos are published commercially).
Historical Notes for Collection 1: African-American and Jamaican Melodies
Historical Notes for Collection 2: Christmas Carols; click here for access to the carols.
Historical Notes for Collection 3: Irish Melodies
Historical Notes for Collection 4: Americana to 1865
Historical Notes for Collection 5: Americana after 1865
Historical Notes for Collection 6: British Melodies
Historical Notes for Collection 7: Melodies by Women
Historical Notes for Collection 8: Eastern European and Jewish Melodies
Historical Notes for Collection 9: American Indian Melodies
Historical Notes for Collection 10: Latin American Melodies
Historical Notes for Collection 11: African Melodies
Historical Notes for Collection 12: Western European Melodies
From Collection 11
For Love of the Fair Maid (Egypt), tenor recorder
Let Anyone Who Knows How to Trade Come Out and Do It (Nigeria), tenor recorder
Kamwongia (Kenya), tenor recorder
Le Vieux Garcon (Ignatius Sancho, England), soprano recorder
O Dear Beloved (Egypt), tenor recorder
Zayesha, alto recorder
