Ravinia 2024 Issue 3

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; and new settings of various works by choreographer Donald Byrd for Nashville Ballet. Montgomery has been recognized with many prestigious awards and fellowships, including the Civitella Ranieri Fellowship, the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, and the Leonard Bernstein Award from the ASCAP Foundation. She is currently visiting faculty at the Vanderbilt Uni- versity Blair School of Music, Bard College, and The New School, and has been affiliated with the Sphinx Organization since 1999. Montgomery holds degrees from The Juilliard School and New York University and is currently a doctor- al candidate in music composition at Princeton University. “My mother named me Nzinga. Jessie Nzinga Montgomery. She thought I should use my giv- en name—‘Jessie,’ after my great-aunt, whom she was very fond of—as she thought it would be easier for me to get along in life with a more American name. But she wanted me to be con- nected to the legacy and power of the African Queen Nzinga. Regretfully, I have treated the name the way a lot of people treat their middle names—as a fun fact, or simply just the “N.” list- ed on my passport. I knew the name had a lot of power, and over the years learned that Nzinga had been a somewhat brutal ruler, and I some- times felt overwhelmed by the meaning. Now, I am grateful for the opportunity in this piece to understand more of Nzinga’s inner conflict as a leader who had to make difficult sacrifices in or- der to free her Angolan people from Portuguese occupation. Her complexity and struggle is part of our story and proud to honor my namesake through this song.” The words by Jay Saint Flono explore Queen Nzinga’s psychological struggle over having to adopt Christianity over her original Kongolese religious beliefs and practices. The music twists and bends, in chromatic and swirling underpin- nings, with the strain of her inner dialogue as she prays for her own relief. Jessie Nzinga Montgomery The non-English text is sourced from Kim- bundu/kiKongo language sources from Chris- tian missionaries in the 19th century who were translating the Holy Bible into the indigenous languages of present-day Angola. Nzambici is a celestial creator goddess, the female half of Nzambi Mpungu (God Almighty), whose di- vine bodies stand at the center of all creation on the Congolese Cosmogram, representing the continual flow of existence through cycles of birth, life, death, and rebirth. Kalunga, the spiritual fire at the center of the world that gives it its structure, is also the watery line between the world of spirit and humanity, which took on new meaning for descendants of enslaved Af- ricans brought across the Atlantic by the Por- tuguese, Spanish, English and other European powers during their ongoing political conflicts with many African states and civilizations. The inclusion of this element represents the world- view of spiritual traditionalists, the Banganga (medicine men), who often served in the court of Nzinga as advisors, many of which were sold into slavery by her machinations as she sought to expand Christianity’s influence into her king- dom for political purposes of maintaining social and economic relations with Spain and Portu- gal. Through this, the poem seeks to explore the possible mindset of someone in her political po- sition, with each stanza representing a different emotional stage of reckoning with the world, beginning with Biblical text written in kiKongo that sings the praises of Nzambici and Nzambi Mpungu and ending, ultimately, in acceptance of what her political career costed her personally and how it impacted the future of Angola and the Atlantic Creole world in centuries to come. –Program note by Jessie Nzinga Montgomery and Jay Saint Flono FRED ONOVWEROSUOKE (b. 1960) Luwah (Bitter Tears) Duniya (Mystic Universe) Born in Ghana to Nigerian parents, multiple award-winning composer Fred Onovwerosuoke grew up in both countries before settling in the United States. “FredO,” as friends call him, has spent time in over 30 African countries re- searching and analyzing some of Africa’s rich music traditions. “I see hidden across Africa a gold-mine of unlimited musical scales and modes, melodic and harmonic traditions, and, yes, rhythms—abundant yet largely untapped,” says Onovwerosuoke of his dominant influenc- es. He also maintains that “my compositions are informed by my travels around the world, and each piece is harnessed and nurtured by an Afri- can sensibility that is unmistakable and genu- ine.” FredO has also traveled in the American Deep South, the Caribbean, and South America for comparative research in what he likes to call “traceable musical Africanisms.” His influences are wide and varied, and he is much at home dis- cussing Beethoven, Debussy, and Stravinsky as well as foremost exponents of various tradition- al musics. In 1994, he founded the St. Louis Afri- can Chorus to help nurture African choral mu- sic as a mainstream repertoire for performance and education in America. Today, the organiza- tion’s mission has broadened to include classi- cal/art music by lesser-known composers, par- ticularly of African descent, and renamed Intercultural Music Initiative. Onovwerosuoke’s works have been featured in audio recordings, films, documentaries, and ra- dio, including Robert De Niro’s film The Good Shepherd , William-Chapman Nyaho’s CD ASA , Hymes/Hollister’s CD African Art Music for Flute , and Hudson/Henderson’s CD Libera , to mention a few. His numerous awards include multiple ASCAP Awards, American Music Center Award, Meet the Composer Award, and Brannen-Cooper Brothers Award. His book, Songs of Africa: 22 Pieces for Mixed Voices pub- lished by Oxford University Press, quickly be- came a favorite among choral directors across the globe, leading to the recent publications for upper voices Songs of Africa for Upper Voices Set 1 and Songs of Africa for Upper Voices Set 2 . Onovwerosuoke’s Twenty-four Studies in African Rhythms (AM Publishers), in two volumes, is one of the most-demanded African-rhythm in- fluenced piano studies known. His Twelve Afri- can Songs for Solo Voice & Piano and Afro-Carib- bean Mass for Mixed Voices & Piano (distributed by AM Publishers) also set a similar pace, glob- ally. Fred Onovwerosuoke serves on the boards of various professional bodies and maintains an active schedule as composer-in-residence, guest conductor, or speaker on the subject of art mu- sic by African descent composers. Luwah is from Cameroon. It’s a dirge. Everyone has a lingering memory of losing a loved one. Duniya taps from griot vocal traditions from the Mali/SeneGambia sub-region of West Af- rica and draws accompaniment ideas from the four-string kontigo and the robust low drones of the also multi-stringed kamelangoni . The song draws from ancient Mandinka poetry about the Fred Onovwerosuoke RAVINIAMAGAZINE • JULY 22 – AUGUST 4, 2024 70 JIYANGCHEN(MONTGOMERY)