Professor J. H. Kwabena Nketia as a preeminent composer of Ghanaian and
African intercultural art music has received increased awareness from
the global artistic community through performances of his works.
He is the greatest Ghanaian
composer of chamber works. Hence, there is the availability to gain
access to scores of his chamber works that will increase their chances
of being more frequently performed locally as well as internationally.
Roger Zahab’s creation of the score for this special edition of Nketia’s
Bolga Sonata for violin and piano was published by the Music Research
Institute (MRI) Press).
Roger Zahab’s performance of the Bolga Violin Sonata with Robert
Frankenberry, piano took place during a symposium Professor Akin Euba
organized on intercultural African art music held in Cambridge, UK.
According to Zahab,
it was Euba who encouraged him to complete the transcription of the
sonata, which he started when Nketia was alive, and even though Euba has
also passed on, Zahab was committed to fulfilling his promise, which he
kept.
Availability of transcribed scores of Nketia’s works and those of his
contemporary Ghanaian composers of art music should encourage teachers
and students of compositional techniques to intensify the study,
mastery, and possible exploration of the stylistic idioms idiosyncratic
of these composers and creators of intercultural art music in general.
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