SHEILA CHISHOLM
THE minister of music at a Virginia Baptist Church wrote a hymn titled We Will Walk Together. Wendell Kimbrough, a worship leader in South Alabama, composed We Sing Together. Combined, the verbs neatly describe Cape Town’s Philharmonia Choir’s (PC) link up with Khayelitsha’s The Phenomenal Opera Voices (TPOV), for a concert at 3pm on Sunday, 6 August at the Groote Kerk.
‘Praise from Africa’
Says Gill Farris (PC chairman): “In our South African choral programme we are walking and singing in a way we haven’t done before. Apart from presenting South African voices, we’re performing an all-South African programme comprising San Gloria by Peter Louis van Dijk and Prayers and Dances and Praise from Africa by Peter Klatzow. TPOV will perform a variety of traditional songs such as Ndikhokhele Bawo, a sacred musical hymn, and uNongqawuse, the legend about Sir Mhlakaza’s daughter whose dream prophesied how to become rich by destroying cattle and crops. PC and TPOV also join forces for a surprise offering.”
“The PC Choir is usually associated with cantatas, masses and oratorios, so this programme is quite a deviation, ” says Farris. “For a change we felt, mid-year, we should offer a variety of genres. Something contemporary. Something that would appeal to everyone who loves massed voices.”
Interesting percussive effects
PC conductor Richard Haigh adds: “The general oratorio work the choir sings is very tonal, with clear-cut harmonies and choral progressions with a lot of predictability. Van Dijk challenges us (and listeners) with regard to style and rhythm with quite a lot of use of portamento, as well as some interesting percussive sound effects. His San Gloria is innovative in its juxtaposition of ancient Latin texts (Catholic Mass) with the sounds of the Khoi-San culture.”
Haigh continued: “The Klatzow challenges the choir with much divisi of parts and a tonal language that employs beautiful cluster chords of close harmony. His music also moves to surprising harmonic places that the singer needs to think through and prepare for.”
For his words Klatzow uses An African Prayer Book compiled by Emeritus Archbishop Desmond Tutu for the first two movements. His third includes a prayer from Ghana called Cover me with the Night. It begins: “Come, Lord, and cover me with the night. Spread your grace over us….” Some are sung to a small ensemble and marimba.
Conductor Lunga Hallam
Drawing his 80 singers from Khayelitsha and ex-Luhlaza Secondary School youngsters, TPOV conductor Lunga Hallam established the choir in 2008. Aged between 14 and 27, TPOV have represented the Western Cape at numerous national eisteddfod and festivals. Serious about opera, their repertoire embraces extracts from Handel’s Messiah, Don Giovanni, Cossi fan Tutte and the Marriage of Figaro.”
Both Haigh and Hallam are excited about this collaboration, which Haigh describes as a particularly stimulating one.
Who: The Phenomenal Opera Voices, Philharmonia Choir
Where: The Groote Kerk, Cape Town
When: Sunday, 6 August, 3pm
Book: www.quicket.co.za
WS
