Egwu Onwa

Description

Egwu Onwa was originally written as a solo work for a countertenor and piano.

This arrangement captures African pianistic, rhythmic, and interactive nuances, and equally explores this musical interaction between the solo/Choral ensemble, and the piano.

Egwu onwa is a piece that represents the reflective expression of traditional tale-telling, folksong, and moonlight dance practices of the Igbo culture.

The moonlight play serves as a bringer of joy to the adults, and also an opportunity for the children to play with their peers and learn from the stories told by the elderly.

The tenor soloist plays the role of the elderly storyteller, who regales the community. with folktales, while reminiscing about the events of the past.

Themed in Igbo Culture, customs, and tradition, this piece explores the idiomatic and folkloric richness of the Igbo people through textual structures.
The Composer has written this work as a response to the nostalgic need to retain, preserve, and sustain intrinsic parts of the Igbo culture which are fast eroding in contemporary modernism, and globalization.

• Egwu Onwa (SATB, Tenor & Piano)
• Sept. 2022
• University of Oklahoma, music Dept.