Programme note
This work was commissioned by the CTSO for its 75th anniversary of 1989, with funds provided by the South African Music Rights Organisation.
The title suggests something about the musical structure of the piece:
as one moves inward from the dark periphery of illumination, the source gradually becomes brighter. An array of images is created: refraction of light, its opulent glow, its vivid glittering.........
Based on a traditional Xhosa choral piece Siyanibulisa Nonke (Greet you all!), the work unfolds in nine sections which alternate between slow and fast tempi and which explores several facets of the original theme. Moving from one section to the next, the source becomes gradually more apparent until the last section, in which the original theme is heard in its entirety for the first time.
Review
..the brass writing is highly effective and captures much of the involving vitality of traditional African choral music.
(Irish, Deon. 11 March 1989, CAPE TIMES)
Kooij, Pieter. 11 March 1989, DIE BURGER
Du Plessis, Phil. 14 March 1989, THE ARGUS
Short, Florence. 19 July 1991, THE ARGUS
Cloete, Johan. July 1994, THE ARGUS
Kooij, Pieter. July 1994, DIE BURGER