Programme:
SOUND IMAGES FROM AFRICA
Tshepo Tsotetsi - Glances and a Glass of Wine, jazz composition for Solo viola and ensemble (premiere)
Jeanne-Louise Moolman, solo viola
Ensemble: Louise Lansdown, Elmarie van der Vyver and Lynn Rudolph, violas;
Krystyna Kulisiewicz, double bass
Hendrik Hofmeyr - Sonata for viola and piano (1st and 2nd movements)
I. Meditabondo – Andante – Irrequieto
II. Fiabesco – Cullante
Jeanne-Louise Moolman viola, Daniël Kramer IVC pianist
Mokale Koapeng - The Boabab Dance, for viola and piano (premiere)
TRANSCRIPT
Niel van der Watt - Wildflowers of the Drakensberg for viola and piano;
- Varkblom (Arum Lily) – Zantedeschia albomaculata
- Kruidjie-roer-my-nie (Gurty-touch-me-not) - Melianthus villusus
- Krismisklokkies (Butter lily) – Littonia modesta
- Pynappelblom (Pineapple Flower) – Eucombus humilis
- Wilde Braambessie (Wild Blackberry) – Rubus cuneifolius
- Sewejaartjies (Everlastings) – Helichrysum squamosum
- Suikerbos (Sugar bush) – Protea simplex
Franco Prinsloo - Die Gebreekte Snaar (The Broken String) for viola and looping station (world premiere)
Franco Prinsloo - Sonatina (viola and piano)
Introduzione - Scherzo - Song - Transcription - Finale
Elmarie van der Vyver viola, Mathilda Hornsveld piano
Programme Notes:
Die Gebreekte Snaar (The Broken String) - Franco Prinsloo:
“The first people of South Africa, Stone-Age hunters and gatherers from the mountains and the arid flats of the interior, did not survive the arrival of settlers from Europe. Within decades an ancient world of sorcerers, hunters and artists were lost forever, along with the stories they told”. (Bennun, 2004: cover)
In this lamentation for solo viola and loop pedal composer, Franco Prinsloo, explores the poetry of the nineteenth century /Xam poet, Diä!kwain, as archived in the acclaimed Bleek & Lloyd collection. “The poet laments the reality that he is disconnected from the place that was once his. The string with which he made the rain, has broken. His home has become unfamiliar to him and he is unable to hear its ‘rippling sound through the air’”. (Krog, 2004: 8)
The archive records eighty-seven legends, myths and other traditional stories of the ǀXam people in their now-extinct language. The stories were collected through interviews with various narrators, chief among them: ǀA!kunta, ǁKabbo, Diäǃkwain, ǃKweiten ta ǁken and ǀHanǂkasso.
These tales were written down and translated by Bleek and his sister-in-law Lloyd. Bleek died in 1875, but Lloyd continued transcribing ǀXam narratives after his death.
It is thanks to her efforts that some of the narratives were eventually published, which also includes sketches of rock art attributed to South African indigenous people, |Xam and some ǃXun narratives.
The composition, one in a series of works, aims to explore the natural inflection of the translated text (in this case the Afrikaans translation by acclaimed poet, Antjie Krog). The composition relies, much like vocal music, on the emotive emphasis of phrasing and natural narrative infelction of the text. The text is indicated bellow the music, not to be sung by the player, but rather to assist the instrumentalist in interpreting the musical language and to contemplate the text while performing. This allows the interpreter and listener to enter into a contemplation and conversation with the text musically.
The composer has set both English and Afrikaans translations of the text to music. This resulted in two very different and unique musical structures based on the unique rhythm and inflection of the respective spoken languages.
Hendrik Hofmeyr: Sonata for viola and piano
The first movement of the Sonata for Viola and Piano is based on a free adaptation of sonata form. The
introductory theme for the solo viola (Meditabondo) evolves from a melodic cell x which turns around a
central note. This cell recurrs in many guises throughout the work, and serves as a cyclic motto. A lyrical
theme (Andante) is announced on the piano, and then taken up by the viola, accompanied by a countermelody derived from the same material. A restless canonic section (Irrequieto), based on a faster theme and a chromatic semiquaver figure, both derived from the introductory material, leads to a climax which marks the end of the exposition. A brief cadenza for the viola leads to a fugal development section, the subject of which is derived from the lyrical theme, while the counter-subject is based on the semiquaver figure. A second subject, based on the faster theme, is introduced and combined with the first subject. This culminates in a climactic varied reprise of the opening idea, which marks the start of the recapitulation.
The ternary slow movement starts with an incantatory melody generated entirely from natural harmonics on the viola. A faster variant of this idea is taken up by the piano as counter-melody to a new theme on the
viola, which grows from the x motif. The middle section is formed by a mysterious lullaby, based on a
setting of William Blake’s A Cradle Song, which explores the chromatic third relationships on which much
of the tonal structure of the outer movements is also based. After the varied return of the first section, the
movement concludes with a brief coda, in which elements of the two sections are juxtaposed.
