The director of South Africa's Gauteng Youth Choir has been on to me, asking if we could work together in December next year on something. We just got done working with one African choir from Congo and one choir from an African church here in Brussels, and I must say the prospect excites me greatly. I can imagine a Christmas concert, for example, where the two choirs do their joint and several thing in the second half, having sung something perfectly mainstream (the GYC specialises in the Baroque) in the first half.
But hey, I'm only one voice in six on the committee, and not the most important when it comes to musical choices.
Anyway, for you, and thanks to Tinus their director, I've put up three pieces he sent to me.
Kersliedjie [Carol] is by South African composer Lourens Fall, a setting of a poem by DJ Opperman. The poem describes the gifts that three South African people bring to the infant Christ.
Go le Mogote is by one of South Africa's best composers, Niel van der Watt, and his African Noon cycle.
Himne [Hymn] is by the South African composer Roelof Temmingh.
Listen to them or download for later here.