Celebrating the Freedom Charter: A rehearsal of 'Credo'
(Jonathan Andrews)
Bongani Ndodana-Breen sends this link on Credo, for which he composed the music:
Mail & Guardian
Credo: Vision that inspired a modern classic
Matthew Krouse
The
road to Pretoria is lined with landmarks. There are old things one
would rather forget, or ignore, and new things that give one a sense of
pride in progress.
...
Apartheid infrastructure
These days, the old brutalism looks quite sleek and cool, but many
architectural critics have commented how the building’s arrival was a
part of the Afrikaner Broederbond’s patronage of its architect Brian
Alan Theodore Sandrock in its creation of the apartheid infrastructure.
Within the building itself, one finds the ZK Matthews Great Hall, and
it is here where the university celebrated its 140th birthday this
week. After a number of coincidences, the hall played host to a
significant event that lends meaning to the celebration.
The name of the hall is indicative of the changes that local
institutions experience as the country evolves. The renamed ZK Matthews
Great Hall is situated in the Theo van Wijk building and I’ll bet that
today very few people know who Van Wijk was (he was a former Unisa
principal), while many more now know of Matthews than knew of him under
apartheid.
Matthews was an academic and Treason Trialist who, together with
activists Rusty Bernstein and Alan Lipman, compiled the Freedom Charter
of the Congress of the People back in 1955.
The coincidence, here, concerns a piece of modern classical music, an oratorio titled Credo, which is a celebration of the Freedom Charter and which will be performed in the ZK Matthews Great Hall this weekend.
By the time you read this, Credo will have premiered on July 18, Mandela Day, at a gala attended by President Jacob Zuma.
The two principal artists behind the work are musical composer Bongani Ndodana-Breen and writer Brent Meersman.
Together, they share a passion for the Freedom Charter as a founding
document, a precursor of the Constitution of the country today.
...
“Some people might think that it is a pipe dream, but I think it is one of the most uplifting, inspirational texts I have read.
“Some people might think that it is a pipe dream, but I think it is one of the most uplifting, inspirational texts I have read.
“All the things that it says are extraordinary: that this country
belongs to all who live in it, that the doors of learning and culture
shall be open to all, that there shall be housing and the elimination of
poverty. To me it is a very humanist kind of message.”
The essence of the Freedom Charter
Ndodana-Breen found this message explored in a poem by Meersman,
coincidentally left on a table when he visited the writer some years
ago. “I was staying at Brent’s house as a guest when I came back from
Canada,” said Ndodana-Breen, who has lived and worked abroad.
“I found this poem called Credo on his desk. I was intrigued
and I thought it sounded familiar. And I realised he had distilled the
essence of the Freedom Charter with this wonderful poem.
“I think he may have had musical aspirations. He called the thing Credo and, as you may know, the Creed in the Latin Mass is a very substantive piece of music.”
From the rehearsal I gathered that Credo is a sweeping,
uplifting declaration of how ordinary South Africans would like the
country to be. A choir sings the opening words of the charter: “We the
People of South Africa/ declare for all our country/ and the world to
know/ that the world belongs to all who live in it/ by right not will.”
Soloists Sibongile Khumalo, Otto Maidi and Monika Wassung make bold,
sung statements about the purpose of work, about the equitable
distribution of resources and about the need for food and healthcare.
In the performance, the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra will be
under the baton of visiting German conductor Jonas Alber. In 2011, Alber
visited South Africa to conduct the world premiere of Winnie the Opera,
also composed by Ndodana-Breen.
For Credo, images projected on to a panoramic screen will be
animated live by video jockey Andrew Black. These include portraits of
ordinary people, historical moments from the struggle archive, and
artworks including the signature image of the oratorio — Mary Sibande’s
sculpture of her alter ego Sophie, in a huge Victorian gown conducting
an imaginary orchestra.
But how does Ndodana-Breen feel about the discrepancy between the
idealism expressed in the Freedom Charter and the unrealised dreams and
disappointments of democracy that we experience today?
He quotes John F Kennedy’s Rice Stadium Moon Speech: “Kennedy said —
and I love this — ‘we choose to go to the moon, and all these things,
not because they’re easy but because they are hard’. And I think we as a
nation should keep on dreaming that South Africa can be a better place.
...
Credo runs at the ZK Matthews Great Hall on the Unisa campus in Muckleneuk, Pretoria, until July 21
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