African_Sanctus

African Sanctus BEST INTENTIONS A critical essay about David Fanshawe´s African Sanctus The Project Fanshawes project ”African Sanctus” in his own words: ” African Sanctus is a universal work who’s impact is immediate, whose message is simple, the driving force is one of Praise and a firm belief in One Music - One God. It informs both listener and performer about African music and its relationship to Western polyphony” Fanshawe’s project is to ”compose" a meeting between what he feels are two equal but different cultures. His intentions are pure and obviously nothing but good-hearted. I think the most successful parts, according to the intention of the project is movement#2, ”Kyrie: Call to Prayer”. The Call is recited in Islam and the Choral Kyrie is sung in Latin, and this hybrid creates a strange but beautiful harmony between the two praises. One is to Allah, the other to the Christian God and, as written the program notes: ”This fusion emphasises the musical relationships that do exist between the Muslim and Christian faiths; an affirmation of belief in the one God.” In movement#12 he repeats this composition: ”Although the composition is virtually the same as No. 2, the juxtaposition of tape to live is completely different. The resulting tempo is african, sanctus, own, fanshawe, , about, god, out, composition, very, project, one, nothing, music, know, fanshawes, cultural, christ, think, son, oh, it’s, even, between, writes, two, through, mother, mercy, lord, likely, interesting, eye, different, both, am