David Akombo

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AFRICAN CHANT depicts African hunter-gatherers who have thrived for millennia, enduring challenging conditions with remarkable resilience. The legacy of Africa's hunter-gatherers is visible in the magnificent rock art of the Sahara and the southern part of the continent, the widespread remains of ancient sites, and, more subtly, in the click sounds embedded in Zulu and Xhosa, spoken by millions of contemporary South Africans. The hunter-gatherer presence in Africa is also woven into the fabric of life through myths, stories, place names, and in the cultural imagination of the continent's peoples. Using minimalistic tendencies, David Akombo challenges the pianist to reflect the trials hunter-gatherers face and their responses as they work to bring home a kill. The piece opens with a running melody, depicting a swift antelope. This melody is supported by a countermelody representing the trails, with the two juxtaposed melodies imitating the galloping of the antelope and symbolizing its determination to escape from the hunter. The hunter, however, pursues the antelope, finally catching it at measure 6. A celebratory section follows, with children dining at a separate table (in a different key), the women at another, and the men at yet anothereach in a distinct key, in keeping with African social norms.

AFRICAN CHANT

Piano Solo

Wade in de Water is an African American spiritual, its genesis rooted in instructing enslaved individuals to use bodies of water, such as rivers, to evade capture. The song emphasizes both the urgency of the plight of the captives and the clever use of artistry to convey the captives, vital survival information.

WADE IN DE WATER

Brass Quintet

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Kenyan Gloria is based on Kenyan musical idioms. The melodies in this piece are designed to imitate the prancing and singing of birds, using predominant African pentatonic scales to capture the prayerful mood of people yearning for rain. The string quintet strengthens the harmonies while playing a special role, particularly in rendering 'In Excelsis Deo.' Although the violins require some legato playing, the African elements in the piece give the performers latitude to be natural and imaginative, much like traditional African musicians who faithfully adhere to the call-and-response structure, thereby enhancing egalitarianism. The melodies evoke a captivating dance mood with African syncopated rhythms.

KENYAN GLORIA

String Orchestra Score & Parts

Once Upon Our Time expresses an enduring African aesthetic through its kinetic energy, metric drive, and layered antiphonal exchanges. Its textures reflect core sub-Saharan principles, including cyclical form, additive rhythm, and call-and-response structures. Akombo’s approach combines deliberate repetitive contouring with narrative symbolism, inviting the violinists to engage in dialogue and embody a cyclic African performance practice in which meaning unfolds through mimicry and iteration. Motivic cells recur with subtle variation, shaping a sonic landscape aligned with African concepts of communal, process-based time. Through this synthesis of cyclic structure, interlocking rhythm, and cultural narrative, the work meditates on endurance, identity, and Africa’s resonant ancestral pulse.

ONCE UPON OUR TIME

Violin Duet

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AFRICAN CHANT

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KENYAN GLORIA

ONCE UPON OUR TIME