Raising the Bar: Traditional South African Choral Music, Vol. 2

This is the second in a series of South African choral music instructional DVDs with accompanying book of resources, intended for mixed, youth and children's choirs. The four-part traditional South African choral songs in this collection were especially chosen for their adaptability for three-part treble choir. Included on the disc are pronunciation tracks, teaching video for the voice parts and the dance movements, and both SATB and treble choir performances for each of the songs.

The DVD features 50 singers aged 8-18 from Chicago Children's Choir and Matlakala Bopape, director of the Polokwane Chorale in Limpopo Province, South Africa, under the direction of Mollie Stone and Patty Cuyler.

The accompanying resource book includes tips for learning, teaching and performing traditional South African choral music, a guide to pronunciation, texts with translations and IPA symbols, background information about the songs, and suggestions for adapting the songs for different ensembles, as well as a short history of South African choral music.

There is no transcribed music in the resource guide; when people do try to transcribe these songs, they often get a score that looks extremely busy, messy, and complicated - entirely misrepresenting the relaxed nature of South African rhythm.  The included songs need to be learned and taught orally, as per South African tradition, because that is by far the easiest way to teach and learn them.

Included songs:

• Likhon' ithemba lam (Xhosa church chorus)
• Re dibini (Sotho folk song)
• Ndisondela kuwe (Xhosa church chorus)
• Swilo yini (Tsonga folk song)
• Sesimfumene (Zulu wedding song)
• Iindonga za Jeriko (Zulu folk/anit-apartheid song)