All Eleven (Folk Songs)(2010; 2026)
for tenor or mezzo-soprano and chamber ensemble
Instrumentation: string quartet OR flute (d. piccolo/alto flute), clarinet (d. bass clarinet), viola, cello, harp and percussion (1 player)
Texts: traditional (in all 11 official South African languages)
Unpublished
Première
First projected performance: Saturday 1 May 2010; Teatro Nacional de Sao Carlos, Lisbon, Portugal; Musa Nkuna tenor, Musicians of the Teatro Nacional de Sao Carlos (selection)
Programme note
The idea for this song cycle goes back to a conversation with Musa Nkuna and some of his colleagues in 1999, but the piece only started emerging in 2010 when I complete some of the songs for Nkuna to sing at a concert in Lisbon together a string quartet version of Solstice for tenor, horn and piano. In the final score there are eleven songs in eleven languages, with two possible accompaniments. The second version for voice and six players takes its instrumentation from Berio's Folk Songs, a work I have loved since I first heard it in the 1970s, and one which inspired my own eleven folk songs. The title All Eleven was of course also a reference to the World Cup taking place in South Africa that year.
for tenor or mezzo-soprano and chamber ensemble
Instrumentation: string quartet OR flute (d. piccolo/alto flute), clarinet (d. bass clarinet), viola, cello, harp and percussion (1 player)
Texts: traditional (in all 11 official South African languages)
Unpublished
Première
First projected performance: Saturday 1 May 2010; Teatro Nacional de Sao Carlos, Lisbon, Portugal; Musa Nkuna tenor, Musicians of the Teatro Nacional de Sao Carlos (selection)
Programme note
The idea for this song cycle goes back to a conversation with Musa Nkuna and some of his colleagues in 1999, but the piece only started emerging in 2010 when I complete some of the songs for Nkuna to sing at a concert in Lisbon together a string quartet version of Solstice for tenor, horn and piano. In the final score there are eleven songs in eleven languages, with two possible accompaniments. The second version for voice and six players takes its instrumentation from Berio's Folk Songs, a work I have loved since I first heard it in the 1970s, and one which inspired my own eleven folk songs. The title All Eleven was of course also a reference to the World Cup taking place in South Africa that year.
