Sunday Feature: Classical Africa

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Classical Africa

BBC Radio 3 - Sunday Feature, Classical Africa

Leon Bosch explores the remarkable - often unheard - array of art music from Africa.

South African double bassist, writer and broadcaster Leon Bosch explores if we can define a distinctively African form of so-called 'Western classical' music.

Acclaimed South African double bassist, writer and broadcaster Leon Bosch explores if we can define a distinctively African form of 'Western classical' music.

Drawing from his own remarkable journey as a political activist who was locked up in jail in 1970s South Africa - and as someone who for decades sought to stand apart from his African musical heritage - Leon takes us on a journey of discovery through a rich and surprising array of African and European influences: a meeting point where musical and cultural hybrids are made.

He explores the wide kaleidoscope of influences in both directions - from Ayo Bankole and Akin Euba's 'African pianism' in West Africa to the rich array of North African compositions influenced by Arabic music, to the orchestras across the continent - such as the Pan African Orchestra and Zanzibar's Culture Musical Club - in which indigenous African and European art music traditions collide.

Leon also opens up fascinating and thorny questions about 'African-ness' in music, drawing from his own past. For several decades Leon didn't play South African music, owing to the trauma of the apartheid era. Now, he embraces it with gusto - and we hear him retrace that journey on location in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

He dismantles the idea of a single 'African' classical identity, and follows how different traditions in the east, west and south of Africa - not to mention the Arab-influenced north - have interplayed with colonial, cultural and political identities to create a unique and often overlooked thread of classical music making for more than two centuries.

Contributors include acclaimed musicologist Jon Silpayamanant, researcher and expert on musical hybridity Uchenna Ngwe, pianists Rebeca Omordia and Marouan Benabdallah and composers Aanu Sodipe and Edewede Oriwoh - with art music spanning the entire continent, from Nigeria to Algeria to South Africa.

Written and Presented by Leon Bosch
Produced by Steven Rajam
An Overcoat Media Production

Musical excerpts featured in the programme (in order):

Grant McLachlan - Sonatina for double bass and piano (1st movement)
Peter Klatzow - Concerto for marimba and string orchestra
Ayo Bankole - Variations for Little Ayo, for piano
Traditional Ethiopian Orthodox Church chant (St Yared Choir)
Michael Moerane - Fatse la heso (My Country)
Bongani Ndodana-Breen - Safika: Three Tales of African Migration for string quartet
Christian Onyeji - Ekele, for piano
Fela Sowande - African Suite for string orchestra: Akinla
Joshua Uzoigwe - Talking Drums, for piano
Ayo Bankole - Piano Sonata no.2 in C Major "The Passion"
Miriam Makeba / Jeffrey Ragavoy - Pata Pata (arr. for voice and orchestra)
Culture Musical Club - Binga Amekweda Kapa
Pan-African Orchestra - Yaa Yaa Kole
Bongani Ndodana-Breen - Flowers in the Sand, for piano
Camille Saint-Saens - Samson et Dalila
Gustav Holst - Beni Mora Suite for orchestra
Nabil Benabdeljalil - Nocturne no.1 for piano
Salim Dada - Five Miniatures, for string quartet
Paul Hanmer - Scratch Pad and Six, for double bass and piano
Grant McLachlan - Sonatina for double bass and piano (2nd movement)
Fela Sowande - African Suite for string orchestra: Joyful Day
Edewede Oriwoh - The Bright and Beautiful Continent
Fela Sowande - Folk Symphony
Foday Lassana Diabate - Sunjata's Time
Edewede Oriwoh - Play
Abdullah Ibrahim - Blue Bolero
Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto no.3 (1st movement)
Surendran Reddy - On The Run
Aanu Sodipe - Akorin
Grant McLachlan - Sonatina for double bass and piano (1st movement)

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