Karungi
Ten Easier Pieces for Soprano or Tenor recorder and Piano.
1. Karungi
2. Kinyongo
3. Kuagana
4. Die Begrüßung in Djaboué
5. Das Tal von Djaboué
6. Valse Triste
7. Siko siyo mbali
8. Sula inyembezi
9. The Invitation
10. Starry Sky
In my previous works for recorder and piano, I paid little attention to the difficulty of the pieces, because at the premieres I played the piano myself and the recorder part was performed by virtuosos such as Meng-Heng Chen, Chris Orton, Ebba-Maria Künning or António Carrilho. In this collection it is exactly the opposite: I have gone through my now more than 32 African suites in search of pieces that are close to my heart and which I could arrange for solo recorder and piano in such a way that the recorder and the piano part would be rather easy to play. I hope that these pieces can be played in recorder lessons by teachers and students at a fairly early stage.
The pieces are a cross-section of my work: from the two pieces from my very first African suite (The Welcoming at Djaboué and The Valley of Djaboué, 1993) to the slow middle movements from African Suites No. 3 (Kuagana, 2002), No. 4 (Kinyongo, 2008), No. 6 (Starry Sky, 2014), No. 8 (Sula inyembezi, 2015), No. 15 (Siku siyo mbali, 2014) and No. 22 (Karungi, 2017) and the middle movement from the suite grotesque (Valse triste, 1994) to the final movement from the previously unpublished Suite No. 21 Tomo Tomo (Invitation, 2017.) Siku siyo mbali is a mixture of the 2014 version for recorder quartet and the version for piano solo from 2022. These pieces mean a lot to me: Kuagana is dedicated to my grandmother Aenne Paff, who was very close to me throughout my childhood and died far too young in 1984. Kinyongo is about that sweet feeling of nostalgia, knowing that something very beautiful will never come again. The melody of the Djaboué valley seems to hover over this valley. Karungi is an attempt to conjure up a melody expressing pure beauty from just three notes (Karungi means beautiful in Luganda). Siku siyo mbali is inspired by religious confidence in the day of salvation. Sula inyembezi is an attempt to comfort someone who is deeply sad. Starry sky reflects the mystical experience of being lost in the cosmos when looking at the starry sky. The Invitation and The Welcoming in Djaboué are pure African joie de vivre.
I am grateful to the Czech recorder player Martina Komínková, who pushed me to publish this collection for over a year and who videotaped a number of the pieces with me and performed them at one of my house concerts. The pieces can be played on soprano or tenor recorder; the piano accompaniment for the soprano recorder version is in the score, the piano accompaniment for the tenor recorder version is in the enclosed piano part.
I wish everyone a lot of fun with this collection, the next one is already in preparation.