What the Earth Knows: A Musical in a Prologue and Four Acts — Program Book, Libr
What the Earth Knows:
A Musical in a Prologue and Four Acts — Program Book, Libretto & Full Score. Libretto and music by Innocent Okechukwu
Every fourth day in the Igbo village of Umuala, the market opens: Eke, Orie, Afọ, Nkwọ. What the Earth Knows follows one family across more than a century, one market day for each era.
A priest pours palm wine for the ancestors. A missionary walks down a new road carrying a hymn. A son sets fire to the sacred grove to save his father. And in the present day, at the edge of a church car park, an old woman still pours at the roots of the fenced ịroko tree.
Beneath it all sing the Voices of the Earth. They drink the libation and the holy rain alike, and they hold the bones of all who knelt. They know the answer to the only question the story asks: which god was true? They never give it.
Every faith in the story has a sincere voice, and each era has its own music. The ekwe and ogene sound beside Victorian hymnody, and highlife gospel and Afrobeats carry the story into the present.
This volume contains everything needed to study, perform or stage the work:
Program note and synopsis
Characters, voice types and casting guidance
Staging, design, curtains, transitions and the curtain call
Music, band and sound notes
An Igbo glossary and IPA pronunciation guide
The complete libretto
The full score of all 21 musical numbers
Written for soloists, SSAA women's chorus, SATB ensemble, piano and Igbo percussion, with a contemporary band in Act Four. About 50 minutes of music; running time about two hours with an interval.
About the composer: Innocent Okechukwu is a Nigerian composer whose music has been performed internationally and recorded on Navona Records with the Sphinx Organization. His work joins the musical traditions of his Igbo heritage with contemporary concert and theatre music.
