Monyaka Oa Pelo

Monyaka Oa Pelo is based on a beautiful love poem in rhyming verse by Bennett Makalo Khaketla (1913-2000), the Lesotho writer on whom Moerane drew in several of his compositions. The song provides an interesting example of how Moerane adapted poetry to his musical needs. He halves the length of the two verses of Khaketla’s seven-verse poem -which are given on the back page of the score – and repeats certain words, in the course of 75 bars of music filled with engaging rhythms, melodies and harmonies, which exude the joyfulness of young love. In so doing, Moerane  somehow avoids reflecting  the darker tone of the last line of the lyrics. 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: 2’17”

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.