Jaya-Marie Thomas
For centuries, generations of Black musicians have fought racism and its debilitating impact upon life; William Chapman-Nyaho is no different. He’s just one of the freshest virtuosos, perhaps destined to become piano doyen. Already he exhibits the ability to articulate Blackness with Nina Simonesque musical flair and texture. His virtuosity simply transcends melodies.
Yes, indeed Nyaho is a throw-back!
He captures the essence of music originating from countries such as: Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Jamaica, United Kingdom and the USA. The keys are his voice, and the black struggle, his muse. A potpourri of blues best defines his blend.
This is hardly surprising, since Nyaho is a bit of a potpourri himself. He is an American mixture of concert pianist, art teacher and scholar, who specialises in compositions by pianists of African descent. He currently serves as Vice President at the Music Teachers National Association.
Nyaho is well-rounded. He earned degrees from: St. Peter’s College, Oxford University, the Eastman School of Music and the University of Texas at Austin. In addition to which, he studied at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève, Switzerland. His experiences include being a Visiting Artist and Associate Professor of Music at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where he held the Heymann Endowed Professorship. He was the recipient of the Distinguished Professor Award. His music journey clearly complements his academic and artistic endeavours; the piano is his means of expressing resilience and strength when the going gets tough.
Some members of his audience had a lot to say about his performance. For example, Ijeoma Okpokiri said: “To hear pieces from so many different cultures including my own for the first time, was so beautiful, so moving. The experience felt magical…. executed with such grace!”
Nyaho’s performance opened with Nigerian Professor Joshua Uzoigwe’s Ukom, ‘Talking Drums’. Uzoigwe was a Nigerian composer and ethnomusicologist from Umuahia, Nigeria. His music encapsulated Nigerian traditional music. Nyaho then explored various theories of composition, such as: ‘African Pianism’, ‘intercultural musicology’ and ‘creative musicology.’ The fusion of these three theories made way for Uzoigwe’s piano playing craft to emerge as a transformative music genius that conveys narratives of triumph over adversity.
The term ‘African Pianism’ was coined by Akin Euba and emerged in the 20th century. It was a new fusion of Western forms of multi-voiced African accents. A style of piano music that expressed certain features of African traditional music, where each keystroke represents resilience and defiance against injustices faced by Global African Communities today. Nyaho’s genius conveys an understanding of the globality of Black classical music idioms, and spotlights idiomatic strength, beauty and passion of the Black struggle.
The pianist virtuoso also played Four Studies, from “24 Studies in African Rhythm”, composed by Fred Onovwerosuoke, an American born in Ghana from Nigerian parents. These four studies were: No. 3 ‘Udje’, No.1 ‘Okoye’, No.6 ‘Iroro’ and No.12 ‘Agbadza’. ‘Udje’ is a unique type of Urhobo dance or dance songs sung when Udje is being performed with a flute or piano. Okoye is a fusion of a cultural commonality between Uganda and Nigeria. Iroro, draws from the ‘trance- like’ dances of the ‘River Goddess’—spiritual environment protection cults, observed across the West African coast. They are part of The Orishas–Yoruba deities condemned and violated by British colonialism.
Nyaho then interpreted Agbadza — an Ewe music and dance evolving over time, from times of war (Atrikpui), into recreational dance performed by the Ewe people of the Volta Region of Ghana. Onovwerosuoke spent time in over thirty African countries researching and analysing some of Africa’s rich music traditions.
He said: “I see hidden across Africa a gold-mine of unlimited musical scales and modes, melodic and harmonic traditions.”
These African Rhythms are used to harness and nurture African spiritual sensibilities. Each piece is perfectly put together to create stories which take audiences through time with each beat.
Fred Onovwerosuoke travelled the Caribbean and South America for comparative research in what he likes to call ‘traceable musical Africanisms’, such as revolts against enslavement in Haiti and Jamaica. Onovwerosuoke’s works have been featured in audio recordings, films, documentaries and radio, including Robert De Niro’s film, ‘The Good Shepherd.’
Africa is home to more than 3000 ethnic groups, each with their own language, culture and music. Music is an organic and central part of everyday lives. It exists at the core of beliefs and traditions. Nyaho, channels this through Bongani Ndodana-Breen’s, ‘Flowers in Sand’, more specifically the songs: ‘After the Rains and Colours in the Dunes’. Bongani is a South African-born composer, musician, academic and cultural activist whose music contains highly lyrical melodies, which uses complex rhythms accompanied by traditional instruments – expressing people’s joys, sorrows and celebrations. New York Times described his work as, “delicately made music – airy, spacious, terribly complex but never convoluted – has a lot to teach the Western wizards of metric modulation and layered rhythms, about grace and balance.”
Like Nyaho, Bongani’s ability to channel Black struggle (in his case, specifically South Africa’s Anti-apartheid, or more contemporary anti racist struggle) through the piano, sets him apart as a musical activist. He uses his art to spark conversations and inspire change. For example, he composed ‘Winnie’, an Opera based on the life of Winnie Mandela, South-African anti-apartheid activist aka ‘The Mother of Nation’ according to South Africans. To others, Winnie was the strong, brave, long suffering, second wife of Nelson Mandela. Bongani holds a PhD in Composition from Rhodes University. He was awarded the Standard Bank Young Artist Award in 1998 and was one of the Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans of 2011.
Nyaho also performed the ‘January Dance’ by Ghanaian composer, Robert Mahuena Kwami. The ‘January Dance’ for solo piano (1973), is rich in Ghanaian idiomatic traits. It captured great posthumous success for this distinguished composer. Kwami was widely known as Professor in Music at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, previously taught in schools, colleges or universities across Ghana, Nigeria and Britain. He pioneered injecting non-western music education into mainstream British schools. Alas, it’s only since his death, at 49 years old, that his works and compositions received acclaim.
Indubitably, Nyaho’s performance transcended mere ‘aesthetic wokeness’ and entertainment. His piano bridged the African divide. His brilliant musicology broke down barriers and erected edifices for empathy and solidarity. His concert was a delicious immersive experience that gladdens the heart of Black activists. Each composition was a reminder that, despite the challenges, there is strength in unity in the shared stories that bind us all.
Nyaho paid powerful musical tribute to Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s ‘Andante’ from Three-Fours Valse Suite, Op. 71; Deep River from 24 Negro Melodies Op.59, written over a century ago. Coleridge-Taylor’s unfortunate death at the young of 37, in South London, touched him visibly. This was evident to the audience. Nyaho demonstrated that no Black musician can fail to appreciate the qualities of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s genius.
Coleridge-Taylor enjoyed unparalleled success in the early 1900s. He was one of the first African descendants to be honoured by an American President at the White House. His Cantata trilogy Hiawatha enjoyed unimaginable transatlantic success. ‘Andante’ and ‘Deep River’–two Coleridge-Taylor compositions, reveal the depth of his notable creativity. ‘Deep River’ was used thirty years after composition, as the final chorus of Michael Tippett’s great war-time pacifist oratorio, ‘A Child of Our Time’ (1941).
Nyaho paid tribute to the versatile Jamaican composer, Oswald Russell’s, ‘Three Jamaican Dances’. The first dance was replete with strong rhythmic gestures based on typical Jamaica rhythms. It was fused with alternating major and minor harmonies and sudden tonal shifts. The second dance was, according to Russell, a product of his improvisation on the 1964 folk song by Eric Morris ‘Sammy Dead’. The final dance was based on ‘Rukumbine’– a ‘marketplace’ song – utilised in a chiaroscuro fashion before the amusing ‘wrong note’ ending. Nyaho’s works have become highly influential within Jamaican art music.
Hale Smith, the American composer of ‘Breaking Bread with Egbert’ was also featured. Smith was the first African American to win the Cleveland Art Prize in Music. Breaking Bread with Egbert was composed in 1997. Its messianic style is widely considered to have eventually united 20th- century European classical music with Americana.
Hale Smith was charmed by Jazz. He spent much time arranging jazz compositions and performing as a jazz pianist. Nyaho’s interpretation of his music demonstrated the wide and profound art of his music. Its contemplative yet natural pulse drew the listener into a world both rare and deeply moving.
Nyaho climaxed his performance with a rendition of the most widely admired American Pianist of the 20th Century, Margaret Bonds–clearly, and shockingly female. With a triumphant grin on his exhausted face, he played Bond’s ‘Spiritual Suite: No.1 The Valley of Bones, No.2 The Bells and No.3 Troubled Water.’
Sadly, Margaret Bond had to wait until the beginning of the 21st Century to earn the respect and recognition her work deserved. She was heavily influenced by Florence Price–another unheralded female musician.
Florence Price was a pianist and composer– first black woman to have her work premiered by the US Orchestra (1933). Her work was deeply inspired by the African American Church, which she incorporated into her music. Price composed over 300 pieces, including: four symphonies, four concertos, as well as choral works and art songs. Examples are Symphony no.3, ‘The Mississippi River’, Memory Mist and ‘Song to the Dark Virgin’. Bonds was indisputably influenced by Florence Price, who taught her to play the piano, and composition, at a very early age. Price believed in the power of black unity and ensuring that black women would be respected in an environment overwhelmed with the dominant race.
Bond’s ‘Spiritual Suite’ was an allegory of the heritage of spirituals for its melodic inspiration, with deep emotional implications, demonstrating her compositional power and originality alongside her command of the instrument.
Bonds was the first African American pianist to appear as soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1933. Among her pupils was Ned Rorem. The song, ‘Spiritual Suite’ was first published in full in 2021. It reveals a masterly original composition; based on the settings of traditional spirituals. This includes: ‘Dry Bones’, ‘Peter, Go Ring Dem Bells’ and ‘Wade in the Water’. The finale, ‘Trouble Water’ was the only movement to be published during her lifetime.
William Chapman-Nyaho, carries the weight of the history of Blackness. He proves that the piano is more than an instrument. It can be a medium for storytelling, where the keys become his voice, and the black struggle, his muse.