Programme note
Generally speaking, Hans Roosenschoon’s tendency towards “colourful” music can already be seen in Palette, an orchestral work completed in 1977 while he was studying in London. The basic “theme” of this piece is restricted to a dialogue between sonorities and textures – sonorities in which different string techniques are exploited and in which dynamic shadings and different kinds of articulation combine with a variety of changing textures.
Strings are sometimes used as percussion instruments and the overall effect is that of continuous movement. In this work the composer paints with bold strokes and the formal aspects of the music are at times decisively influenced by the very technique he uses. This can take the form of a collage or a seemingly disorientated counterpoint of things less idyllic, more unpleasant but generally deeper and more true. At certain points the results are severe, even bare, with complementary moments of extraordinary vastness and lyrical beauty, a patchwork of elements woven together as if the composer’s ingenuity has outwitted itself.
Review
Roosenschoon is particular imaginative with regards to his treatment of string ensemble.
(Grové, Stefans. 24 September 1978, RAPPORT)
One does not wish to decry the efforts of South African composers but, in this particular instance, one can only repeat the shortest critique written by a British drama critic: “Why?”.
(Davies, John. 21 September 1978, STAR)
The South African composer Hans Roosenschoon, now in his mid-thirties, is showing encouraging signs of reacting constructively to several very powerful European influences. Roosenschoon apparently studied in London, although the sleeve-note gives little biographical information. On this evidence, however, it is those strong, seductive continental voices - Berio, Ligeti, Lutoslawski, and Stockhausen - which have lingered longest in his mind. And it takes musical character of no little determination to rise above the pale imitation of any or all of these.
Imitation is certainly fairly pale in the earliest piece recorded here. Palette (1977) for string orchestra, despite the aggressive stance of its swooping, Polish-style clusters. Yet the music's sheer diversity of material - an occasional hint of the style's pre-history in Bartok, even a glimpse of a vanished world of richly-laid-out consonant harmony - may be personal rather than inherited, and if it suggests indecision rather than positively-embraced comprehensiveness, it evidently provides the impetus for the collage-like qualities of Roosenschoon's later compositions.
(Whittall, Arnold. June 1986. GRAMOPHONE, Vol. 64, No. 757, London)
Sack, Joe. 21 September 1978, RAND DAILY MAIL
Ahlers, E. 21 September 1978, TRANSVALER
Van Dalsen, Marie. 21 Sepetember 1978, VADERLAND
Odendaal, Thys. 22 Sepetember 1978, BEELD
Miller, Philip. 21 September 1978, CITIZEN
Steafel, Harold. 9 September 1983, RAND DAILY MAIL