Home -> Composers -> Moerane, Michael Mosoeu

Français
 

Michael Mosoeu Moerane  (1909-1981) South African Composer, Pianist & Choral Director First Black Music Graduate of a South African University
Table of Contents   1 Birth   2 Student & Teacher   3 Bachelor of Music   4 Fatse la heso   5 Recording   6 Thematic Material   7 Pianist & Choral Director   8 Thabo Mbeki   9 Catalog	South African Music Fatse la heso (My Country) (11:18) National Symphony Orchestra of the South African Broadcasting Corporation Peter Marchbank, Conductor Marco Polo 8.223709 (1994)

1 Birth
Michael Mosoeu Moerane, a composer, pianist and choral director, was a member of the Southern African Music Rights Organisation. SAMRO's Biographical Notes on him begin:

Michael Mosoeu Moerane, late uncle of South Africa's President, Mr Thabo Mbeki, was born in Lesotho in 1909.

2 Student & Teacher
SAMRO lists the schools Moerane attended and those at which he later taught:

He had his schooling at the Lovedale Institute and at Fort Hare, near the town of Alice in Ciskei, and then became a school-teacher, beginning at his alma mater, Lovedale in 1927, continuing at the High School in Maseru in Lesotho, and later at the Umfundisweni Institute in Pondoland, and finally at the Peka High School in Gumtree, Lesotho.

3 Bachelor of Music
While teaching in several different communities, Moerane attended the University of South Africa by taking correspondence courses in Music, SAMRO relates:

Moerane holds the distinction of being the first black person to obtain a degree in music at a South African university. For the Bachelor of Music degree at the University of South Africa (UNISA), one of the largest distance-education institutions in the world, he studied History of Music, Harmony and Counterpopint, Acoustics, Score-Reading, Orchestration and Instrumentation, as well as Composition proper.

Moerane was also tutored in Composition by Friedrich Hartmann, a Professor of Music at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa, according to the Biographical Notes.

4 Fatse la heso
SAMRO explains how Moerane came to compose Fatse la heso (My
Country):

Moerane was required to present a composition exercise in order to complete his degree, and so composed the symphonic poem, Fatse la heso (My Country), which he completed in 1941, graduating that same year. Three years later, in November 1944, the work was premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in two separate studio performances under the baton of Clifford Curzon, one broadcast by the BBC's Home Service, and the other by its African Service. Fatse la heso was subsequently championed in New York and Paris by the pioneering black American conductor, Dean Dixon.

5 Recording
Moerane's composition Fatse la heso (My Country) (11:18) has been recorded on the CD South African Music, Marco Polo 8.223709 (1994). The National Symphony Orchestra of the South African Broadcasting Corporation is led by Peter Marchbank, Conductor.

6 Thematic Material
Moerane prefaced his score with an explanation of the source materials he incorporated into the work, as we learn from the liner notes by Alison Gaylard:

According to the composer, in a note prefaced to the score, My Country is based on thematic material derived from freely-adapted African songs: a warrior's song, a reaper's song, a free transformation of a cradle-song and a hymn which supplies the harmonic structure.

7 Pianist & Choral Director
SAMRO tells us that some of Moerane's songs were selected for use in national choral competitions among schools. The Notes tell us he did not limit his professional career to composing:

Moerane was also active as a pianist and choir conductor.  He died in 1981. Among Moerane's other compositions are three works for school orchestra, some descriptive piano pieces and a quantity of choral music on biblical texts.

8 Thabo Mbeki
When the Johannesburg Philharmonic celebrated its 5th Birthday with twin concerts on May 18 & 19, 2005, the announcement was entitled: "Jo’burg Philharmonic performs music by the man who taught Mbeki to play the flute".  It explained that South Africa's future President Thabo Mbeki lived with his uncle's family for two years when he was a young child in the early 1950s, and his uncle taught him to play the flute.  The music of Moerane on the program was Fatse la heso (My Country).

9 Catalog
Alexander Johnson and Chris Walton of the University of Pretoria have compiled a Dictionary of African Composers at http://sacomposers.up.ac.za
The entry on Michael Mosoeu Moerane includes these orchestral works:

Fatsa la heso, symphonic poem, 1941 Chorale, for school orchestra (flute, clarinet, piano and strings) Sunrise, for school orchestra (flute, clarinet, piano and strings) Why worry?, for school orchestra (flute, clarinet and strings)

Piano solo works listed are:

Fantasia In Hout Bay Joy ride Lonesome

Choral works (all SATB) include these and many more titles:
                       

Atamelang Banozolo: ke tla bina Barali ba Jerusalema Ba tsabang molimo: yizani nive Bokang Jesu

 

SAMRO
The address of SAMRO is:  SAMRO Ltd., P.O. Box 31609 Braamfontein, 2017 Johannesburg, South Africa.

 

This page was last updated on September 15, 2007