Lia Qhomaqhoma

In rural Africa, children customarily look after family livestock, even before and after school, as a way of helping out with the family chores. Lia Qhomaqhoma tells how a child delights in such a chore and becomes very protective of the frolicking lambs. It is without doubt based on Moerane’s own personal experience of growing up on a farm in rural South Africa. The music is very fast, full of staccatos, accents, slurs, and repeated notes, suggesting that the song was written for school use. In order to help choirs learn this song, a free mp3 of the lyrics spoken by Mpho Ndebele is downloadable when the song is purchased along with a rehearsal mp3 of the song at a slow tempo.
Duration: 0’52”

The audio sample below was generated from the Sibelius file of the score and the image on the right shows the first page of the score.