Teacher & Student Resources
Are African Choral Scores Dead? Do People Still Read Staff Notation in 2026?
The short answer is no. African choral scores are not dead, and staff notation has not become irrelevant. In 2026, both remain essential tools for performance, teaching, scholarship and cultural preservation. The more interesting question is not whether one system has defeated another. It is how staff notation, tonic sol-fa and dual notation can work…...
How to Read Tonic Solfa and Staff Notation Side by Side
In the vibrant landscape of African choral traditions, sheet music is more than a mere blueprint for performance; it is a living bridge connecting generations of composers, singers, and scholars. For decades, conductors, church choirs, and musicologists navigating the rich archives of Southern and West African art music have encountered a powerful pedagogical tool: the…...
7 Mistakes You’re Making with African Art Music (and How to Fix Them)
For many musicians and listeners, "African music" conjures a specific, often narrow, auditory landscape: the rhythmic thunder of drums, the communal call-and-response of a village gathering, or the vibrant pulse of highlife and Afrobeat. While these are vital threads in the continent's rich tapestry, there is a magnificent, scholarly, and deeply moving genre that often…...
The Ultimate Guide to Joshua Pulumo Mohapeloa: Everything You Need to Succeed
To encounter the music of Joshua Pulumo Mohapeloa (1908–1982) is to step into a vibrant soundscape where the rugged mountains of Lesotho meet the structured elegance of choral tradition. As a preeminent figure among african composers, Mohapeloa did more than write music; he archived the soul of the Basotho people. For musicians, students, and conductors…...
Staff vs Solfa: Which Is Better For Your African Choral Performance?
For over a century, the hills of southern Africa have resonated with the majestic, four-part harmonies of choral music. From the fertile valleys of Lesotho to the vibrant townships of the Eastern Cape, this sound: often described as a "blanket of greenery" draped over the landscape: is more than just a melody; it is a…...
Acknowledgements
This edition could not have been completed without the generous financial assistance of the Andrew Mellon Foundation, New York and infrastructural support from Stellenbosch University, both of whom I heartily thank. I am particularly indebted to the Director of the African Open Institute for Music, Research and Innovation, Professor Stephanus Muller, for his belief in…...
read more...List of References
Brukman, Jeffrey. 2007. ‘Kárpáti’s “Mistuning” Theory Reconsidered in the Context of Bartók’s “Supradiatonicism” and Friedrich Hartmann’s “Fully Chromaticized Scales.’ Ex-tempore: A Journal of Compositional and Theoretical Research XIII(2), Spring/Summer 2007, [n.p.]. https://www.ex-tempore.org/brukman/brukman, accessed 12 May 2020. De Jager, Mr. 1969. Telex to Yvonne Huskisson, 8 May. Johannesburg: Southern African Music Rights Organisation, Yvonne Huskisson Collection…...
read more...General Introduction
Moerane’s Music and This Edition Moerane’s choral music constitutes the bulk of his output. It belongs to a genre whose beginnings have been ascribed to John Knox Bokwe in 1875 (Olwage 2010/2011), building into a choral tradition that now boasts hundreds of composers (Huskisson 1969; Lucia 2008, 11-12). Like his contemporaries, Moerane was inspired by…...
read more...Preface
This is the first published edition of all the extant compositions by South African-born Sotho composer Michael Mosoeu Moerane (1904-1980). Moerane may have composed as many as 87 works between the 1930s and the 1970s, the majority of them for unaccompanied choir to Sesotho, isiXhosa or English texts. Manuscripts or typescripts of only 51 of…...
read more...List of Sources
List of Sources (download as PDF) African Music Society. [n.d., 1948a]. Form of Application for Membership. Cape Town: University of Cape Town Museums and Archives, P.R. Kirby Collection, file BC750/A. African Music Society. [n.d., 1948b]. List of Members at 30th April 1948. Cape Town: University of Cape Town Museums and Archives, P.R. Kirby Collection, file BC750/A. Ballantine, Christopher. 1993. Marabi Nights: Early South African Jazz and Vaudeville. Johannesburg: Ravan Press. Bent, Ian. 2002. ‘Steps to Parnassus: Contrapuntal Theory in 1725: Precursors and Successors’. The…...
read more...General Introduction to the Mohapeloa Critical Edition
Download this page as a PDF An African critical edition This Critical Edition brings together for the first time most of the music written by composer Joshua Pulumo Mohapeloa (1908-1982).((Evidence exists for more works than are included here, but authentic versions have yet to been found (see the end of the Catalogue of Works by J.P.…...
read more...Pronunciation Guide
Pronunciation Guide to the Sesotho Texts in the J.P. Mohapeloa Critical Edition (download as PDF) This guide is not a definitive document but a ‘rough guide’ to a language that has tricky pronunciation issues and is known to few people outside southern Africa. Sesotho home-language speakers themselves do not always agree about spelling or pronunciation,…...
read more...Lyrics & Translation
Lyrics Mohapeloa wrote his own lyrics (texts), occasionally adapting them from sources such as folksongs, hymns, the Bible, or music by other composers. Aside from Coronation March and Freedom in Unity the lyrics are in his home language, Sesotho. They are beautiful poems in their own right, although by and large he did not leave…...
read more...Editing Process
The process of editing Mohapeloa’s involves two stages that overlap: the first is transcribing a tonic solfa score into staff notation, which means typesetting the basics; the second is editing the transcribed score, which involves some degree of interpretation by the editor. Transcribing The following extract from Mohapeloa’s Tsohang in tonic solfa and a staff…...
read more...About This Edition
This Critical Edition of Music by Joshua Pulumo Mohapeloa collects together for the first time all extant works published or in manuscript, by J.P. Mohapeloa (1908-1982). Download the General Introduction to the Mohapeloa Critical Edition to read about this edition in more detail. See also Mohapeloa: Mohapeloa Biography and African Choral Music: Music’ elsewhere on this website.The…...
read more...Sources of Information on Mohapeloa
Sources of information on Mohapeloa’s music include, most importantly, his own prefaces to the published songbooks (see Mohapeloa: Publications by Mohapeloa), where he explains his approach and aims. Most of these are in Sesotho, but the originals and English translations by Mantoa Smouse can be found below. (See Mohapeloa’s unpublished writings with translations by Mantoa…...
read more...Publications by Mohapeloa
Meloli le Lithallere tsa Afrika I [African Songs and Extemporary Harmonizations book 1]. Foreword by Akim. L. Sello, Preface by J.P. Mohapeloa. Morija, Lesotho: Morija Sesuto Book Depot. 1935; 1853; 1977; 1983; 1988. [32 songs] Meloli le Lithallere tsa Afrika II. Morija, Lesotho: Morija Sesuto Book Depot. 1939; 1945; 1955; 1980; 1996. [32 songs] Meloli…...
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