Seotsanyana

The words of Seotsanyana, which Moerane anonymously attributes to ‘a Mosotho’ (a person from Lesotho) describe a symbiotic relationship between two very common birds of prey in southern Africa, the rock kestrel and the hawk. The kestrel shares the kill made by the hawk, goes the story, as they sit amicably side-by-side. Moerane composed the lighthearted music in contrasting sections that include some interesting chromatic harmonies and quite deliberate dissonances, as if the two old birds were not quite so amicable sharing their perch, and had the odd squawk or two.

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 2’32”

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.