Abioueka - 40 years of Joy

For recorder orchestra SnSAAATTBBGGKK
18 pages of score and 14 parts, €24.90

The recorder festival in Stockstadt and later in Bad Kissingen is perhaps the largest in the world, and I have been attending it for many years. So it was a great honour when Maurice Steger and Annabelle Steiger asked me to write a piece for the intrada of the festival's 40th anniversary edition.

The rhythm underlying this piece is called ‘Abioueka’. In Guinea, it is used for cheerful children's dances, so I found it perfectly suited to creating the joyful atmosphere that this occasion deserves. Solemn, cheerful, enthusiastic and rhythmically groovy passages alternate; the rhythm comes from Africa, but the harmonies are reminiscent of a Baroque chorale, and at the end it even gets a little jazzy...
Here you can see Anna Stegmann conducting the premiere with over 100 players:
https://youtu.be/C_9WNqvfN4g?si=aFRC_JyRmg0sG3JF