Song for the Evening (2019)
for solo piano
Afrikosmos Volume 2: No 12
Dedicated to Rindi and Robert Gordon
Composed 20 February 2019, Mostertsdrift, Stellenbosch South Africa
Publisher: Bardic Edition
Available from Goodmusic Publishing
Score BDE 1282 (Volume 2 Complete)
Duration: 1'45"
Recording
Recorded by Antony Gray on 'Michael Blake: Afrikosmos’ (Divine Art DA 21374)
Première
First performance: 21 August 2021; Le Genesteix Concerts, Azat-le-Riz, France;
Antony Gray piano
Further performance: 22 September 2022; Chisholm Recital Room, Cape Town; Antony Gray piano
(South African première); 21 June 2023; Goldsmiths College London; Antony Gray piano
(UK première)
Programme note
Song for the Evening is a piano transcription of one of John Blacking transcriptions of Venda songs, using an anhemitonic pentatonic scale with an accompaniment derived from panpipe music. It is cast in 12/8 which most closely resembles the 12-beat pattern of a great deal of African music, and some of the melodic variation introduces a quadruplet of four semiquavers against three crotchets.
for solo piano
Afrikosmos Volume 2: No 12
Dedicated to Rindi and Robert Gordon
Composed 20 February 2019, Mostertsdrift, Stellenbosch South Africa
Publisher: Bardic Edition
Available from Goodmusic Publishing
Score BDE 1282 (Volume 2 Complete)
Duration: 1'45"
Recording
Recorded by Antony Gray on 'Michael Blake: Afrikosmos’ (Divine Art DA 21374)
Première
First performance: 21 August 2021; Le Genesteix Concerts, Azat-le-Riz, France;
Antony Gray piano
Further performance: 22 September 2022; Chisholm Recital Room, Cape Town; Antony Gray piano
(South African première); 21 June 2023; Goldsmiths College London; Antony Gray piano
(UK première)
Programme note
Song for the Evening is a piano transcription of one of John Blacking transcriptions of Venda songs, using an anhemitonic pentatonic scale with an accompaniment derived from panpipe music. It is cast in 12/8 which most closely resembles the 12-beat pattern of a great deal of African music, and some of the melodic variation introduces a quadruplet of four semiquavers against three crotchets.
