Banda - Sheet Music for Soprano Solo, Mixed Chorus and Orchestra Germaine Tailleferre

Instrumentation
Pic 2 1 CA 2 B♭cl 2/4 3 3 1/timp/4perc/2hps/Strings
Rental materials

"Ban'da" was composed in November 1925 in New York during a stay with her mother, before Tailleferre had met Ralph Barton. On the title page of the manuscript, an earlier title can be seen, "Gan'za" – the name of a circumcision festival documented among the Banda in Ubangi-Shari – which was crossed out and replaced with "Ban'da", the name by which the people call themselves.

The work appears to have been inspired by reports of André Citroën's "Croisière Noire" (Black Journey) expedition (1924–25), which traversed Ubangi-Shari and was later filmed by Léon Poirier. Among the preserved expedition records are field notes for a "Chant des Pagayeurs" and a "Berceuse des Petits Éléphants" – the latter corresponding to Tailleferre's own "Berceuse du Petit Éléphant", also from 1925. "Ban'da" was probably an unsolicited diptych, whose "Chœur des Pagayeurs de l'Ouhei" draws on the same material, possibly as an attempt to participate in the later film.

The manuscript also contains an incomplete sketch labeled "Tam-boué" for a small wind ensemble (two flutes, clarinet, bassoon) – an abandoned third idea whose significance has not been handed down. The score was not deposited with SACEM until 1926, after Tailleferre's return to Paris.