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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 Youngest Sister   3 Student & Teacher   4 Bachelor of Music   5 Fatse la heso   6 Manchester   7 Pan Africanist   8 Bantu Education   9 Recording   10 Thematic Material  11 Pianist & Director  12 Thabo Mbeki  13 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 explain that Michael Mosoeu Moerane was born in 1909 and  is the late uncle of South Africa's former President, Mr. Thabo Mbeki.  Izak Khomo is the nephew of Michael Mosoeu Moerane.  He tells AfriClassical.com

Michael Mosoeu Moerane was the second child and second son of Jakane Moerane and wife Sofi Moerane and he was born in the village of Mangoloaneng, in Mount Fletcher, District Eastern Cape. His elder brother Daniel Moerane was also born there, however, their father came from Lesotho, and he came to Mangoloaneng to put up a school at the request of the Sotho chief of the area, the school cum church is still standing in front of the home stead.

2 Youngest Sister
Izak Khomo explains that his late mother, born Renee Moerane, was the youngest of the seven children of the family:

My Late Mother, Renee Sake Khomo, nee’ Moerane was the last born of a family of seven children who included ex President Thabo Mbeki’s mother. Renee being the youngest, born in July 1920, was almost brought up by Michael that was when he was teaching at Lovedale and was at the same time undertaking his musical studies.

3 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.

4 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.

5 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.

6 Manchester
Izak Khomo calls attention to the use of Fatse la heso at the Fifth Pan African Conference, in Manchester, England from 15-21 October, 1945:

There is a lot about the Song Fatse La Heso, the song was played at the opening of the Manchester Pan African Conference organized by the Great Pan Africanist leader W E B Du Bois, and for that Du Bois requested permission which was granted by Mosoeu.

7 Pan Africanist
We learn from Izak Khomo that Michael Mosoeu Moerane supported the Pan Africanist movement:

Mosoeu himself was a strong Pan Africanist and so the statement ‘Fatse La Heso’ (Our Land) which was also the Clarion call of Pan Africanists in South Africa, this came from witnessing the gradual destruction of their father’s property and wealth by settler colonial laws which saw loss of farm land, the culling of the large heads of cattle and also flock of sheep under the pretext of land conservation.

8 Bantu Education
The Bantu Education Act of 1953 gave the South African Government control of education of Black children throughout the nation.  Most mission schools closed rather than operate under the new and highly unequal conditions set for the Bantu schools, such as limiting instruction to three hours per day, and preparing students to hold only menial employment.  Izak Khomo says Michael Mosoeu Moerane's opposition to Bantu Education result in his being banned from teaching, thus causing him to end his career in Lesotho:

Mosoeu finished his teaching career in Lesotho not of his liking but rather, like many teachers of the time, as a result of being banned to teach as a result of their opposition to the introduction of Bantu Education.

9 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.

10 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.

11 Pianist & 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.

12 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).

13 Catalog
Alexander Johnson and Chris Walton of the University of Pretoria in South Africa have compiled a list of the works of Michael Mosoeu Moerane:

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 28, 2011