The Rhythm Divine

A Masai milking song from Kenya and a lamentation for a dead fisherman in Uganda - these were some of the traditional songs of Africa recorded by composer David Fanshawe in the late 1960s and early 70s as he journeyed up the Nile from Cairo to Khartoum. As Fanshawe himself explains, songs like these inspired his setting of the Catholic Mass, African Sanctus, and opened up African music to the world.

Transcript

Imagine a man on a camel riding across the deserts and plains of East Africa with little more than a stereo tape recorder, a rucksack and a wide welcoming smile. Sounds unreal doesn't it. But it pretty much sums up our featured artist tonight David Fanshawe. Fanshawe was a young composer from the Royal College of Music who in the 1960s decided he would cross musical boundaries to create a work that would praise God in many voices. To do this he travelled to Africa and recorded the ritual music and songs of more than fifty tribes over four years from 1969. Back in London he combined his own compositions with the sounds of Africa, and the result was a work that he called African Sanctus.

It was first performed in London in 1972 and released on record three years later. At the time it was unique, and it probably still is - a setting of the Catholic Latin Mass incorporating traditional African music recorded by Fanshawe as he journeyed up the river Nile through Egypt, Sudan, Uganda and Kenya.

This interview was broadcast on ABC Radio in 1975.

Further Information

Fanshawe One World Music
David Fanshawe's Homepage and music store. David Fanshawe is still recording traditional music from around the world, his most recent release being Chants from the Kingdom of Tonga out on CD this year, 2008.

African Sanctus Homepage

Presenter

Geoff Wood

Producer

Geoff Wood