Lebombo Bone (2018)
for solo piano
Afrikosmos Volume 3: No 4
Dedicated to Mantombi Matotiyana
Composed 25-26 July 2018, Saint-Léger-Magnazeix
Publisher: Bardic Edition
Available from Goodmusic Publishing
Score BDE 1283 (Volume 3 Complete)
Duration: 2'15"
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
Programme note
The Lebombo Bone is a bone tool, between 44,200 and 43,000 years old, made of a baboon fibula or calf bone with incised markings discovered in the Lebombo Mountains, bordering South Africa and Swaziland. Its 29 notches suggest it may have been used as a lunar phase counter or calendar. This composition is a transcription and adaptation of music for the isitolotolo, an instrument known elsewhere in the world as the jaw harp or Jew’s harp.
for solo piano
Afrikosmos Volume 3: No 4
Dedicated to Mantombi Matotiyana
Composed 25-26 July 2018, Saint-Léger-Magnazeix
Publisher: Bardic Edition
Available from Goodmusic Publishing
Score BDE 1283 (Volume 3 Complete)
Duration: 2'15"
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
Programme note
The Lebombo Bone is a bone tool, between 44,200 and 43,000 years old, made of a baboon fibula or calf bone with incised markings discovered in the Lebombo Mountains, bordering South Africa and Swaziland. Its 29 notches suggest it may have been used as a lunar phase counter or calendar. This composition is a transcription and adaptation of music for the isitolotolo, an instrument known elsewhere in the world as the jaw harp or Jew’s harp.
