Nne Nchi (Mother Grass-cutter)

"Nne Nchi" (Mother Grasscutter) is a choral setting of a traditional Igbo moonlight folktale. It tells the story of a mother grasscutter who warns her children against greed, only to fall victim to it herself. The piece is structured around a narrator and a choir, bringing the village square storytelling tradition directly into a choral performance.

The lyrics recount the mother and child foraging for food. When the child urges them to leave for safety ("Nne m lee... bịa k'anyị la"), the mother insists on staying just a little longer to gather more ("chere tụ ka ya kwụrụ tụ"). The tragic sound of the hunter's gun ("ụda egbe") serves as the moral climax, proving the opening warning that greed leads to destruction ("Onye anya ukwu ga-anwụ n'anya ukwu").

Choirs typically perform this as a concert or cultural presentation piece, often incorporating dramatic spoken narration and background humming. It allows singers to step outside standard liturgical boundaries and celebrate indigenous storytelling, using rich harmonies and solo passages to deliver a clear moral lesson.