Go Tell It On The Mountains
October 25, 2020...join forces for the remaining 8 bars, and then there is a short coda. The tune, ‘Go Tell It On The Mountain’ (Moerane makes the mountains plural) was one of...I Stood On De Ribber
October 25, 2020...chorus, ‘Oh, Mourner don’t you weep…’. Moerane probably sourced it in the same book in which he found the tunes for his arrangements of Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen,...It’s Me, O Lord
October 25, 2020...transmitted until the late 19th century, when, among others, Harry T. Burleigh (1866-1949) arranged it, along with some 200 or more other spirituals, for voice and piano. Moerane may have...Shenandoah
October 25, 2020...learn Moerane’s choral version, a free rehearsal mp3 at a slow tempo is downloadable when the song is purchased. Duration: 1’00” The audio sample below was generated from the Sibelius...Witness
October 25, 2020Witness is one of the most harmonically pure and uncomplicated of Moerane’s eight arrangements of spirituals, a beautiful evocation, gospel-like in its intensity. It is in call-and-response form, like his...
idyll for johan
September 1, 2022...Namibia. In the absence of a score, a recording is given below which is freely downloadable. It is a home performance given by Reddy in 2000 in Konstanz, Germany. ...Lia Qhomaqhoma
October 25, 2020...rural South Africa. The music is very fast, full of staccatos, accents, slurs, and repeated notes, suggesting that the song was written for school use. In order to help choirs...Mohokare
October 25, 2020...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,...Mosele
October 25, 2020...a girl child, who is normally the youngest in the family. Moerane’s first granddaughter was called ‘Mosa’, which is quite close, and perhaps it celebrates her although if that is...
mayibuye – an african ballade (for hike)
September 1, 2022...‘Mayibuye’ is the Zulu word for ‘return’ and was often used in conjunction with ‘Afrika’ as a rallying cry before the end of apartheid, e.g. ‘Mayibuye, iAfrika!’. There is no...Ngeloi La Me
October 25, 2020...mood and texture in order to mirror this poem of nostalgia for home, the place where ‘my angel’ (ngeloi la me), my mother, lives. In order to help choirs learn...Ntsoaki
October 25, 2020...proper name, ‘Ntsoaki’. In the song for female voices, Ntsoaki, Moerane used verses 1 and 2 of a poem by Sesotho poet ’Mabasiea Jeannette Mahalefele that was published in 1971,...Paka-Mahlomola
October 25, 2020The ‘creator of sorrow’ (paka-mahlomola) in this song for three female voices is the Mohokare or Caldeon River. This is the river that separates Lesotho from South Africa, a long...Tsatsi La Pallo
October 25, 2020...doubt building up, in any case; but somehow below the surface, uncertainty remains. Like all of Moerane’s songs for Soprano and two Altos, this one is ingenious in its handling...Ha Ke Balehē
April 29, 2020...times as he runs and runs, breathlessly claiming (as he reaches safety) that he’s ‘just energetic’. In order to help choirs learn this song, a free mp3 of the lyrics...Hoja Ke Nonyana
October 23, 2020...erased, which raises the possibility that the poem might be by Khaketla’s wife, ’Masechele Caroline Ntseliseng, who in fact wrote far more poetry than her husband. In order to help...Jehova Oa Busa
October 23, 2020Moerane chose verses 1, 4, 5 of Psalm 93 for Jehova Oa Busa, adapting the text by adding, deleting, and repeating words in order to create a three-verse hymn. The...Khati
October 23, 2020...‘teele’. The reed-like part is used to weave many things, in this case a skipping rope, and both the rope and the game associated with it are called ‘khathi’. The...Mahakoe
October 24, 2020Mahakoe is an intense work, driven by Moerane’s impassioned love lyrics which are clearly inspired by W.B. Yeats’ poem, ‘He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven’ (1899) although they are...Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen
October 25, 2020...version on Youtube was re-issued in 1945 but recorded years earlier, and Moerane might have known it. In order to help choirs learn Moerane’s choral version, a free rehearsal mp3...Likhohlo
October 24, 2020...then, the poem is not just about gorges (valleys) but also about the beauty of nature at dawn when ‘the birdsong is simply breath-taking’ (kahohle linonyana li omisa mathe). As...
tango for leela
December 12, 2022This piano tango was written in 1986 for Surendran’s mother, Leela Reddy, to whom he was very close. Like some of his other pieces, there is no score. Reddy made...Satane A Tšeha (Le Joe-leputsoa)
October 24, 2020...heading for ‘Le Joe-leputsoa’ (Johannesburg). The word ‘Joe-leputsoa’ itself can be roughly translated as ‘Joe Blue’ and may be a reference to the skin colour of whites, a tit-for-tat joke...
contemplation
December 13, 2022...contemplation 1 and contemplation 2. As the name suggests, they are reflective electronic pieces. Both are available for free download at check-out. The photo of Reddy was taken in 2008....Sylvia
October 24, 2020...Mfundisweni Teacher Training Institute in Pondoland, near the south-eastern seaboard of South Africa, a college of education where Moerane taught in the late 1950s. The song, Sylvia may have been...
