CHORAL - Kpanlongo (1993) Program Notes
A West African dance song provides a highly rhythmic center for this rousing piece. It builds from one part to a dramatic ending in six parts. To be sung in the native language.
Kpanlongo (1993) (a cappella choir)
Moan bilay mi hamyay ayinya yi, Come and hold my child
Moan bilay mi hamyay nya adzo palogo While I dance Kpanlongo
Logo logo, ligi ligi, mawo mawo, palogo It’s the dance
where you shake your body all around
Phanti, the West African language of this piece, is inconsistently
standardized in writing. Richard Na-ile, a Ghanaian friend of the
composer, wrote out the text as it appears above. Another person
might do it differently. Bermel's arrangement has been performed
hundreds of times, by choirs all around the world.