Compositions | Orchestral Works & Other Aurally Notated Forms of Thought

1. Introduction

Photo: Tanka Fonta / Courtesy of the Artist

Tanka Fonta is a composer, artist, author, performer, instrumentalist, poet, researcher, and scholar of African music. Fluent in diverse musical idioms and genres, he integrates themes and motifs from various musical cultures—a converging force in his work that he describes as:

“The mural work at HKW is a picto-sonic composition of nine thematic movements—an artistic, dynamic knowledge system with encoded philosophical, visual, and sonic DNAs that unfold new knowledge forms, different fields of perceptivity and understanding, orchestrated in evocative symbolic languages as visual, sonic, and poetic imprints. It integrates and aggregates the non-verbal languages of different fields of intuitiveness, receptivity, non-visual awareness, and sensitivity—considering the visible and non-visible phenomena beyond the bounds of analytical thought and learned language. We are inviting, proposing, and asking the perceiver to participate, explore, and enter into the immersive language of evocative mysteries and the vibratory murmurs of the cosmos. The mural is artistic storytelling in visual and sonic form, integrating alternative non-Western philosophical inquiries arising from the multi-layered folds of time since the dawn of creation, as well as the collective stories of a shared humanity and its evolving journeys on the existential plains of life and infinite fields of the eternal.”

To fully experience the mural, a live performative activation was commissioned by Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) as part of The Dawn Incantations III. This immersive orchestration brought together the artist’s circular visual score, dancer-choreographer Eden Meier, and kora player Saliou Cissokho—activating the nine thematic movements through gesture, resonance, and embodied motion. Visitors were guided through a perceptual journey that dissolved the imagined boundaries between visual art, aural structures, embodied and unfolding knowledge systems.
The full context and documentation can be viewed here: 🔗 The Dawn Incantations III – HKW

Commissioned Works & Orchestral Premieres

• 🎶 Dodilee, Mississippi – Theatrical Score (2006)
  In collaboration with U.S. author Laura Alliene Baker (pseudonym O. Suz), Composed six original musical pieces for the stage production Dodilee, Mississippi. This work, blending narrative and music, explores themes of identity, memory, and cultural reflection through theatrical storytelling.
  Contributions—music, lyrics, and musical arrangement—were created in 2006 and officially registered with the U.S. Copyright Office.
  

  🔗 Copyright Registration

  To verify the copyright registration of this commissioned theatrical score, please visit the U.S. Copyright Public Catalog and search:
  
  Author: Fonta, Emmanuel Tanka, 1966–
  or
  Title: Dodilee, Mississippi
  
  🔗 U.S. Copyright Catalog – Search Page



• 🎼 Pieces of Eternity – The Forest of The Night (2021)
  Commissioned by SAVVY Contemporary
  A 30-minute orchestral work in five movements, titled The Forest of The Night: Etymologies of A Polyphonic Dialogue, created in homage to Halim El‑Dabh. Presented as part of Here History Began, a multidisciplinary exhibition-performance cycle exploring sonic memory and historical resonance.
  Supported by: German Federal Cultural Foundation, MaerzMusik – Festival for Time Issues, Goethe-Institut, and Deutschlandfunk Kultur.
  Project Partners: MaerzMusik – Festival for Time Issues, Deutschlandfunk Kultur.
  🔗 View Project:
  https://savvy-contemporary.com/en/projects/2021/here-history-began/


• 🌀 Frequencial Reconfigurations – Poetry with Orchestra Works (2022)
  With Oscar Murillo
  A 30-minute commissioned orchestral and poetic collaboration as part of the Frequencial Reconfigurations series by SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin. This project integrated poetry, sonic architecture, and expanded vocality into a sonic-visual experience for public performance.
  🔗 View Event:
  https://savvy-contemporary.com/en/events/2022/frequential-reconfigurations/

A New Compositional Grammar

“A vibratory language shaped by a distinct musical intelligence and compositional grammar—an aural practice that modulates sound frequencies through heightened sensibility and perceptiveness, moving beyond standard musical orthodoxies and prevailing theoretical schools. This is music that elevates the mind toward the transcendent, opening new pathways of aesthetic understanding, inner perceptivity, and emotional depth.”

“There is a compositional grammar at work, but it exists outside the Western matrix. It has its own rules, its own truth.”
— Maestro Carlos W. Moreno, Conductor

This interplay of form and perception was also noted by Berliner Zeitung in their feature on Fonta’s work at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt:

„Im neu gestalteten Innenraum im Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) werden die Besucher eingeladen zu einer Rundreise mit Farben und Klängen.“
(“In the newly designed interior at HKW, visitors are invited on a journey through color and sound.”)

🔗 Read the full Berliner Zeitung feature

Voices from the Orchestra

“My perception of Tanka Fonta’s compositions is guided by deep admiration for his unique and sensitive musical language. It is something so admirably unusual that it asserts itself as a true cultural and musical contribution to the world. At no point does it draw from European or American influences. These are creations rooted faithfully and authentically in the composer’s own culture. A brilliant artistic achievement.”
— Carlos Moreno, Conductor
Theatro São Pedro Orchestra – Musician Directory

“At first glance, the scores seemed incredibly complex—unlike anything I’d seen. But as we worked through the music, I realized the complexity was in my own perception. The pieces unfolded naturally, like a pure and expressive rhythmic celebration. It was a powerful journey through his culture—alive, vibrant, and full of spirit.”
— Jonathan Tavares, Clarinetist, Theatro São Pedro Orchestra

“The Theatro São Pedro Orchestra is truly grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with the composer.”
— Orchestra Management
Official Website

Academic Legacy & Publishing

Through CWJEF Music Publications, Fonta’s orchestral scores and sonic works are archived in over 700 library collections worldwide, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Bayreuth, and MIT. These works are actively used in music departments for global composition studies as well as music pedagogy.

“Fonta has been composing and publishing orchestral works internationally since the late 1990s.”

CWJEF Music Publications is one of the rare publishing initiatives systematically engraving and distributing original orchestral languages—rooted in universal musical thought not overtly influenced by current established orthodoxies.

“The body of work has been presented and archived in institutions across Brazil, Germany, France, South Africa, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, Columbia, Canada, and the USA.”

🔗 View WorldCat Profile

Listen / Watch

These commissioned orchestral works will premiere at the 36th São Paulo Biennial 2025 and have been recorded with the Theatro São Pedro Orchestra. These recordings will also be released as a limited-edition vinyl. Each composition reflects a distinct unfolding aural and vibrational architecture rooted in perceptual intelligence and cultural knowledge systems.

Officially commissioned by the 36th São Paulo Biennial. Brazil 2025

Selected Orchestral Works

These orchestral compositions unfold as vibrational languages—bridging perception, inner memory, cosmological patterning, and the universal field of resonance. Each piece emerges as a dynamic score: a transcription of intuitive and philosophical perception.

The artist, as a finely attuned being, receives and precipitates these vibrational messages into tangible, modulated aural forms—transcribed scores, tones, and movements—so that others may listen, share, and participate. These orchestral works are rooted in perceptual intelligence and our universal musical knowledge systems, expanding orthodox orchestral grammar into newer, unfolding aural fields of perceptivity.

• Three Short Bakongo Poems — Expanded Orchestra — ISBN: 1-894821-59-9
• African Bird Song — Chamber Orchestra — ISBN: 1-894821-49-1
• Ewondo Dance Suite I — Expanded Orchestra — ISBN: 1-894821-44-0
• Ewondo Dance Suite II — Expanded Orchestra — ISBN: 1-894821-45-9
• Juju Dance Suite I — Expanded Orchestra — ISBN: 1-894821-53-X
• Juju Dance Suite II — Expanded Orchestra — ISBN: 1-894821-54-8
• Juju Dance Suite III — Expanded Orchestra — ISBN: 1-894821-55-6
• Mankon Xylophone Dance — Expanded Orchestra — ISBN: 1-894821-43-2
• Onomatopoeia of a Mask Masquerade II — Expanded Orchestra — ISBN: 1-894821-51-3
• Onomatopoeia of Ma-Nfonmusong I — Expanded Orchestra — ISBN: 1-894821-50-5
• Portraits of a Bafut Elephant Dance II — Expanded Orchestra — ISBN: 1-894821-57-2
• The Rainmaker’s Song I — Expanded Orchestra — ISBN: 1-894821-47-5
• The Rainmaker’s Song II — Expanded Orchestra — ISBN: 1-894821-48-3
• Tikar Xylophone Music — Expanded Orchestra — ISBN: 1-894821-52-1

Audio Excerpts – Selected Orchestral & Ensemble Works

This collection offers a curated aural glimpse into the evolving compositional grammar, aural intelligence & precipitated frequency modulated languages—drawing from orchestral suites, chamber ensemble cycles, and newer compositions across decades of practice. Each excerpt is paired with its visual counterpart and instrumentation.

The Exaltation Dance

Instrumentation: Expanded Orchestra + Voice

The Dance of Ecstasy

Instrumentation: Expanded Orchestra

Initiation Dance

Instrumentation: Expanded Orchestra + Mixed Choir

Portraits of Nights & Days

Instrumentation: Expanded Orchestra

Cantos of Manaus

Instrumentation: Expanded Orchestra + Mezzo-Soprano

The Dawn Soliloquy

Instrumentation: 3 Horns, Violin, Cello, Rhythm Section

Dawn of Time

Instrumentation: Small Ensemble

Aftermath

Instrumentation: Flugel Horn, Fretless Bass, Drumset, Congas

Selected Score Previews