Mohokare

The song Mohokare for female voices is about two great natural landmarks in Lesotho: the Mohokare (or Caledon River as it is called in South Africa), and the Maloti (or Drakensberg mountains). K.E. Ntsane’s poem ‘Mohokare’ focuses on the source of the river high up in the terrifying mountain peaks, while the music seems to reflects the Mohokare lower down, forming the border between Lesotho and South Africa. This is a highly disputed border, politically, and the words speak to something ancient bred in darkness that eventually devours people and cattle, a powerful metaphor for both natural and human forces. Moerane wrote the song while he was working at Peka High School in northern Lesotho, which is situated very close to the the river, alongside which he often used to walk. 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: 3’22”

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