the friendly dragon
February 20, 2022...given below. The music draws freely on nyamaropa, a well-known mbira tune from Zimbabwe, Reddy’s country of birth, as transcribed by the great expert on Zimbabwean music, ethnomusicologist Andrew Tracey....
from bach to the beatles (audio track from CD)
August 31, 2022In 1994 Reddy recorded his first solo piano album, reddy, steady, go! subtitled ‘the ill-tempered keyboard’ with Jannie du Toit’s JNS Musiek, in Johannesburg. The CD cover is on the...
african funk for felix
March 14, 2020...2009 (quoted by courtesy of Heike Asmuss) how african funk for felix grew out of his teaching. He and his student, Felix Schwalb, ‘were studying jazz improvisation, modes – the...
go for it!
August 30, 2022...the sounds they wanted (bass, piano/keyboard, drums, solo instrument) and in that way it became a highly virtuoso two-piece ‘band’. They at first called their duo ‘Key 2 Music’ and...forbidden wedding II
September 6, 2022...a quote from Bach’s 1st solo Cello Suite combined with Elton John’s tune (433-469), and after an excursion through Chopin (513-555), ‘Amazing Grace’ appears again (556-592). From bar 593 onwards...
clazzical sonata in c – the ‘hammerclazz’
March 14, 2020...in 1979. It is a huge work in three movements, which pay tribute to Mozart (i), Beethoven (ii), and Chopin and Scriabin (iii). The Mozart movement is the longest (and...masakane – let us build together (set of orchestral parts)
December 22, 2022...parts were generated and edited by Michael Blake, who also typeset and edited the new orchestral score (https://african-composers-edition.co.za/product/masakane-let-us-build-together-orchestral-score-2021/). The sample on the right is the first page of flute 1....
masakane – let us build together (orchestral score)
September 8, 2021...Organisation (SAMRO) for performance at the Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. The composers commissioned to write the other six parts were Peter Klatzow, Sipho (‘Hotstix’) Mabuse, Hans Roosenschoon, Denzil Weale,...’Mutlanyana
September 2, 2018...became the work that is known as ’Mutlanyana”. J.M. Mohapeloa continues, in his biography of the composer (1987): At the beginning he wrote a few lines, he would then test...
friends suite: a touch of clazz I
September 1, 2022...‘score’ as such of all five pieces, but there are separate recordings of each of them made in Konstanz in 2000. These can be found here: daniel, heike, felix, marion...
friends suite: a touch of clazz II
September 1, 2022...2000. Each piece in the suite is dedicated to a different friend: forbidden wedding (for daniel), valse for marion and maurice, african journey (for mathias), berceuse (for marion), mayibuye –...Sa ‘Mokotsane
October 25, 2020...might be a reference to crying out in anguish. The word ‘thuso’ (help) features prominently in the lyrics (by Moerane) and to a lesser extent the word, ‘tsepo’ (hope). Thuso...‘Mitsa-Mahosi
April 28, 2020...is known about when or where ‘Mitsa-Mahosi was composed. ‘Lerato, boloetse, mohloka-lipheko’ – ‘Love is a disease that cannot be cured’, says the poet, ‘Mahosi, ’mitsa-mahosi, shoeshoe!’ – A wild...Letsatsi
October 23, 2020...complained about in African communities: it is never just hot or cold, the lyrics of Letsatsi tell us, but always ‘too hot’ or ‘too cold’! People are just never satisfied...Liphala
October 24, 2020...1931, 13; 1932, 35; 1933, 55; 1934, 50; 1935, 59; 1936, 56; 1937, 57; 1938, 15). During 1937, Moerane helped to present the operetta “Prince Ferdinand”’ at Lovedale (Lovedale Report...
get up and go!
August 31, 2022...and Brahms) and topping it clear over techno (2nd), salsa (3rd) and Mozart (4th).’ The recording below is the CD track and can be downloaded free. The other five tracks...Fatše La Heso set of orchestral parts
November 3, 2020...(2nd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in A, 2 bassoons, 3 trumpets, 4 horns, 3 trombones, tuba, harp, piano, timps, percussion (bass drum, cymbals, and tam-tam & triangle –...the gravy train (medley arr. reddy)
August 31, 2022...is a medley of tunes about trains, by Richard van der Westhuizen (‘Tussen Treine’), David Hewitt (‘Slow Train’), Billy Strayhorn (‘Take the “A” Train’), Jabu Khanyile (‘Mbombela’), Jimmy Forrest (‘Night...Seotsanyana
October 24, 2020The 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...sweet suite
September 1, 2022...(‘Lakutshona Ilanga’), the Zimbabwean traditional song ‘Shosholoza’, and an original composition by Surendran (‘Madiba’). The piece is track 6 on Reddy’s second CD, Rough ‘n Reddy (The Ill-tempered Keyboard, Part...
chaconne (no. 1 of four piano pieces)
March 14, 2020...the final page of the autograph of the third piano piece, nocturne’, he lists the three pieces completed so far and for a date he puts ‘19?’ next to Chaconne,...
the incredible jazz machine (from the ballet three minutes to midnight)
August 26, 2022Surendran Reddy was working as a pianist and resident composer with the dance company of the Natal Performing Arts Company (NAPAC) in Durban, South Africa in 1987, when he wrote...U Ea Kae?
September 2, 2018...Taung, a district in the middle of Lesotho and home to Mohapeloa’s own clan, the BaTaung, whose totem animal is ‘tau’ (lion). This large Sotho clan embraces smaller clans such...toccata for john roos
March 14, 2020...to Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) and Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979), two books that he greatly admired. It is a joyful, witty and virtuoso 22-page...
flute variations on an original theme (b-a-c-h influenced)
March 14, 2020...theme and four variations on the musical letters B-flat, A, C, B-natural and makes a good companion piece to Reddy’s other early works for flute and those based on B-A-C-H....
