Ha Ke Balehē

Ha Ke Balehē is one of several songs whose text Moerane attributes to ‘Setsoto’, meaning that he has adapted the lyrics from a traditional source. The music is quite madrigalian at the beginning, as the cat formally and politely asks the mouse why it is running away. The text is a humourous Tom & Jerry dialogue: the cat is trying to trick the mouse into stopping to reply so that he can pounce on it, but the mouse doesn’t fall for this, repeating the words ‘I’m not running away’ countless times as he runs and runs, breathlessly claiming (as he reaches safety) that he’s ‘just energetic’. 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: 1’53”

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.