The story

I have a vivid memory of my grandmother who passed away when I was five-year-old. My sisters sometimes share their memories of her at church and other elders in the Lutheran church in earlier years.

They talk about how the elders hummed the hymns during the service. I believe that whichever way they sang the hymns they did that whole-heartedly. The journey of arranging hymns carries the melodies sang or hummed by the elders who could not read and write.

Most of the time I keep my hymn book on the piano ready to page and sing the hymns. The day that I played the hymn “Vhuyela hayani” I couldn’t help but hearing the thirds musical intervals.

During my routine of playing hymns there came a day when I approached the song "Vhuyela hayani". I played the song using the thirds at a slightly faster tempo. I started to hear the sounds associated with the Zimbabwean and Congolese music.

I pursued the sound for some time until I started to pay attention on the motifs. I worked on the intro which was having the African in them. I continued to play the intro introducing harmonies gradually.

The introduction had interesting harmonies that eventually inspired the current verses. With the progressions I started to hear the songs such as Wale Watu by Khadja Nin and Africa We! We! by Jabu Khanyile.

The new intro to the song started with the delayed first chord. It has a modal feel in it. The percussive sound that I have realized and embraced emerged in the arrangement. The song Iḓa in its current form was born.

These sounds resampled two note harmony of thirds found in most Zimbabwean Sungura music and some Congolese music. I played these melodies for some time. I have used similar melodies in other songs; however, these melodies resounded for a considerable length of time.

The Zimbabwean sounding melodies led me to look for intro. The intro had a delayed first chord which extended for few bars and the chord progressions turned interesting. The longer intro led to the new melodies forming.

I relate the formation of my melodic and harmonic ideas to the early exposure in choral music in Venda. I always looked forward the choral music competition that took place annually in the region.

I remember the name Belcanto choral, the choir conductors such as Prof J Mugovhani. I was attracted to the vocal arrangements while at the point I could not put a name to it. I often stayed at home until the winners were announced.

I have noticed earlier that there were similarities between the choral music and Lutheran hymns. In his doctoral theses Prof J Mugovhani discussed the connection between the Venda choral music compositions and Lutheran hymns.

Lutheran churches even today still hold their choral competitions throughout the country. It was common that the composers and choir members in Venda choral music contributed to both the church and in the community choirs in general.

We sang hymns at church, school, home and in gatherings. I particularly loved going to bigger Lutheran gatherings like rallies and harvest services because of the singing. The Lagger the gathering the better the music, with and without musical instruments.

I remember the elders like Mr Raphunga from Makhado, Mr Mufhadi from Vhulaudzi and Mr Takalani from Tshilamba, Ms S Mulaudzi from my congregation and Dr Ramasuvha from Sibasa for passionately leading the church gatherings in singing on time using the cover of the hymn book and palm of their hand while singing on top of their voices.

Later in life I was exposed to classical music at the University. My friend Ashley Hill was in the South African College of Music under the University of Cape Town. I attended several recitals and other classical events.

I started to connect the similarities between classical music and the choral music which I grew up listening every Sunday and in special competitions. I suppose they were playing the music associated with Bach.

The history of Lutheran music is linked to Bach through Martin Luther who composed earlier Lutheran hymns. The link between Lutheran music in Venda and Bach inspired German hymns is through the missionaries who played a part in developing Tshivenda hymns.

I followed the composition Mr MS Dzivhani through the songs under his name in the Tshivenda hymn book. Apart of his compositions he also translated the hymns from German language to Tshivenda.

I watched my friend Ashley playing classical during practice time and exam times. He played melodies using thirds. That approach is also in some Zimbabwean music. I fell in love with the sound. I hear a bit of similar melodies when Jonathan Butler plays on nylon string guitar.

We were surrounded by all type of indigenous sounds, from Zion churches and traditional. Different types of indigenous instruments were played in my village the surrounding villages.

I always wanted to hear the elders playing their instruments. I would see them carrying their instruments but the never played for us. Looking at it now I suppose that to them music had more significance to them that as children we could not comprehend. ❦