Nonyana Se-nya-mafi

(The Prattler)

R39.00

ISMN
979-0-804002-30-0;979-0-804002-31-7
Catalogue No
JPM 066
Notation
Dual notation (staff & tonic solfa), Staff notation
Scoring
choir SSATB
Edition
Joshua Pulumo Mohapeloa Critical Edition
Category

This is a haunting, stirring song, which Mohapeloa first published ‘Nonyana Se-nya-mafi’ in 1947. It would have been useful to have Mohapeloa’s translation of the text, for it is clearly based on a folksong. He adapted this text to a modern musical setting which has strong traditional elements, in the call-and-reponse writing, for example. J.S.M. Khumalo notes, in the introduction to a transcription of the song published in 2008, “Mohapeloa here presents an element of folk-culture in a mock-naïve artistic setting”, pointing out the “characteristic dialogue style” of a narrative text based on “the African story-telling tradition”. He suggests that the dialogue is between children who have wandered far from home and a miraculous bird that has lured them away with its “tempting pap” (African porridge made from cornmeal), until eventually they return home and are “re-united – duly chastened – with their parents, who had given them up for lost”.

Audio

Type:
Studio Recording
Performers:
Meloding Youth Choir. Originally recorded c1965, digitized by the SABC in 1995, CDT298. Mastered and reissued by ACE on CD in 2014.
Location:
Unknown
Source:
African Choral Legacy - Historic Recordings of J.P. Mohapeloa Track 12
Publisher:
African Composers Edition
Date:
2014