Michael Blake
AFRIKOSMOS Volume 4
Bardic Edition BDE1284
Numbers 43 to 54 of 75 progressive piano pieces.
The idea of writing an African response to Bartok’s Mikrokosmos has a long genesis. I first approached it in 2003 with iKostina for Thalia Myers’ Spectrum 4 (published by the ABRSM). Given that Bartok’s collection also provides a vast and invaluable compendium of compositional techniques, I had the parallel idea of writing a manual for composers of New African or neo-African Music. I chose not to replicate the kind of technical exercises Bartok included for didactic purposes. However, I did follow his method of starting with the simplest pieces and working towards the more advanced pieces in the final volume. And I did explore in as comprehensive a way as possible the vast range of traditional music from sub-Saharan Africa. Each volume roughly follows a similar format, with one or two pieces that fall into each of the following genres: studies, pieces focusing on rhythm and texture, character pieces, dances, pieces exploring a mode or scale, folksong arrangements and variations, transcriptions and homages.
While a few pieces are piano transcriptions of existing music, most pieces are either written in a neo-African style, or reflect my own aesthetic which has drawn on African musical material and aesthetics since the mid-1970s. Michael Blake
The idea of writing an African response to Bartok’s Mikrokosmos has a long genesis. I first approached it in 2003 with iKostina for Thalia Myers’ Spectrum 4 (published by the ABRSM). Given that Bartok’s collection also provides a vast and invaluable compendium of compositional techniques, I had the parallel idea of writing a manual for composers of New African or neo-African Music. I chose not to replicate the kind of technical exercises Bartok included for didactic purposes. However, I did follow his method of starting with the simplest pieces and working towards the more advanced pieces in the final volume. And I did explore in as comprehensive a way as possible the vast range of traditional music from sub-Saharan Africa. Each volume roughly follows a similar format, with one or two pieces that fall into each of the following genres: studies, pieces focusing on rhythm and texture, character pieces, dances, pieces exploring a mode or scale, folksong arrangements and variations, transcriptions and homages.
While a few pieces are piano transcriptions of existing music, most pieces are either written in a neo-African style, or reflect my own aesthetic which has drawn on African musical material and aesthetics since the mid-1970s. Michael Blake
