Joshua Pulumo Mohapeloa: African Choral Legacy - Historical Recordings, Volume 1 and 2

These two volumes are reissues of an album compiled and released ten years ago. Volume one will be available on 11th October 2024 and the released date for volume two will be announced later.

Here a press release text from the label -

Joshua Pulumo Mohapeloa: African Choral Legacy - Historical Recordings

African Choral Legacy: Historic Recordings of Joshua Pulumo Mohapeloa was the first CD released by African Composers Edition, as ACE 001, in 2014. It comprised 31 tracks of short unaccompanied choral works by Lesotho composer Joshua Pulumo Mohapeloa (1908-1982), in the Sesotho language.

The tracks are a companion to ACE’s complete edition of the 145 music scores of Mohapeloa and are a remarkable historical record of African choral singing and fully notated choir music (as distinct from traditional music or jazz) across 7 decades.

The first 8 tracks on Volume 1 of this new downloadable CD were recorded in 1936/37 in Johannesburg, the other 8 from 1954 to 1980.

The recordings on Volume 2’s 15 tracks were made between 1980 and 2001 by choirs large and small, across southern Africa. These are community songs, written for amateur choirs, and the 31 tracks present the music chronologically. The earliest recordings sound rustic, almost like folksongs, the most recent are for huge competition choirs who singing with full voices and an operatic vibrato. Indeed, some of the world’s greatest young opera stars, such as Pretty Yende and Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, grew up in this unique African choral culture.

Mohapeloa wrote his first song in 1929 (’Mutlanyana-Hare, track 5), and his final works in the 1970s, of which track 18 (Mokhotlong) is a fine example. The music on this CD tells many stories about African history, geography, customs and places: Mokhotlong is a village high in Lesotho’s mountains, for example, where Mohapeloa was born.

The musical styles encompass a range of influences including ragtime, jazz, hymns, African folksong, and sacred or secular choruses. The music is vivid and descriptive, and these highly individualistic pieces, written for communities in cities, towns and villages throughout southern Africa, are a unique record of African life and recorded history.

African Composers Edition, 27 September 2024

Link to music on Volume 1 > https://orcd.co/a1bneak

Link to music on volume 2 > TBA

Link to a very substantial CD booklet for the tracks on the two volumes. >

https://mountaindigitalsleeves.blogspot.com/2024/10/digital-sleeve-african-choral-legacy.html

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