''African Sanctus'' is a 1972 choral
Mass
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...
and is the best-known work of
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
composer and collector of world musics
David Fanshawe
David Arthur Fanshawe (19 April 1942 – 5 July 2010) was an English composer and self-styled explorer with a fervent interest in world music.''The Times'' obituary 9 July 2010. His best-known composition is the 1972 choral work '' African Sanctu ...
.
In ''African Sanctus'' the
Latin Mass is juxtaposed with live recordings of traditional
African music, which the composer had recorded himself between 1969 and 1973 during a journey up the
Nile
The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest ...
, from the
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...
to
Lake Victoria. The work consists of 13 movements and follows the journey of the composer through
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
. The recordings are from
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
, the
Sudan,
Uganda
}), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...
and
Kenya
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...
.
A key moment in the conception of ''African Sanctus'' came at the beginning of Fanshawe's 1969 journey, in Egypt. Sitting in a Christian church he heard the
muezzin
The muezzin ( ar, مُؤَذِّن) is the person who proclaims the call to the daily prayer ( ṣalāt) five times a day ( Fajr prayer, Zuhr prayer, Asr prayer, Maghrib prayer and Isha prayer) at a mosque. The muezzin plays an important r ...
of a nearby
mosque
A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...
calling the faithful to prayer, and imagined this beautiful sound in counterpoint with Western choral harmony.
['']The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'' obituary July 9, 2010 Originally entitled ''African Revelations'', ''African Sanctus'' was first performed in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
by the Saltarello Choir in July 1972, and was later played on
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering ...
on
United Nations Day
United Nations Day is an annual commemorative day, reflecting the official creation of the United Nations on 24 October 1945. In 1947, the United Nations General Assembly declared 24 October, the anniversary of the Charter of the United Nations ...
.
On
Easter Sunday
Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the ''Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel P ...
1975, a
documentary about the making of the work was broadcast on
BBC1
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...
's ''
Omnibus'' programme. Made by composer and film-maker
Herbert Chappell
Herbert Reginald Chappell (18 March 1934 – 20 October 2019) was a British conductor, composer and film-maker, best known for his television scores.
Education and early career
Born in Bristol, Herbert Chappell's first musical training was as a ch ...
, this charted Fanshawe's progress recording the work in North and East
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
, and coincided with the release of the album. The two men retraced Fanshawe's original journey and tried, largely unsuccessfully, to find the musicians he had recorded on his original trip. The documentary was nominated for the '
Prix Italia
The Prix Italia is an international Television, Radio-broadcasting and Web award. It was established in 1948 by RAI – Radiotelevisione Italiana (in 1948, RAI had the denomination RAI – Radio Audizioni Italiane) in Capri and is honoured with the ...
'.
[The 'African Sanctus' website]
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Following the publication of the full score in 1977, premiere performances were given in Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
, Worcester Cathedral
Worcester Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Worcester, in Worcestershire, England, situated on a bank overlooking the River Severn. It is the seat of the Bishop of Worcester. Its official name is the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Bles ...
in 1978, and the Royal Albert Hall in 1979, which was conducted by Sir David Willcocks
Sir David Valentine Willcocks, (30 December 1919 – 17 September 2015) was a British choral conductor, organist, composer and music administrator. He was particularly well known for his association with the Choir of King's College, Cambr ...
.[ The work has received over a thousand performances, from North America to the ]Far East
The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.
The ter ...
, with Fanshawe himself supervising many of the performances, sometimes accompanying the work with a slideshow of the photographs of the musicians he had recorded.[
In 1994 Fanshawe composed an additional movement for a new recording of the work, the "Dona Nobis Pacem – A Hymn for World Peace", which completed the "]Agnus Dei
is the Latin name under which the " Lamb of God" is honoured within the Catholic Mass and other Christian liturgies descending from the Latin liturgical tradition. It is the name given to a specific prayer that occurs in these liturgies, and ...
". Based on this new recording, the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
commissioned the maker of the 1975 documentary, Herbert Chappell, to make a new programme, ''African Sanctus Revisited.''
Fanshawe's work has been criticised by some. ''
'' noted "While other adventurers returned from distant lands with lion skins or elephant tusks, the trophies from Fanshawe's odysseys were recorded ones.
And ''
The work is composed in 13 movements and reflects geographically the composer's cross-shaped pilgrimage, from the Mediterranean to Lake Victoria, whereby 'Kyrie' represents
.
*1 African Sanctus
Acholi Bwala Dance, North Uganda
*2 Kyrie: Call To Prayer
Muezzin from the Muhammad Ali Mosque, Cairo
*3 Gloria: Bride of the Nile
Egyptian Wedding, Luxor
Islamic Prayer School, East Sudan
*4 Credo: Sudanese Dances
Courtship Dances, Kiata Trumpet Dance
Koranic Recitations, Marra Mountains
*5 Love Song: Piano Solo
Hadandua Cattle Boy with Bazenkop Harp
Desert Bells, East Sudan
*6 Et In Spiritum Sanctum
Frogs, Zande Refugees of South Sudan
*7 Crucifixus: Rain Song
Dingi Dingi Dance, Rains & Thunder
"Rain Song" by Latigo Oteng, Uganda
*8 Sanctus: Bwala Dance
Bunyoro Madinda Xylophone
Acholi Bwala Dance, Uganda
*9
Lamentation, Lake Kyoga, Uganda
The Offertory (in English)
*10 Chants
Maasai Milking Song, Kenya
Song of the River, Karamoja, Uganda
Turkana Cattle Song, Luo Ritual Burial Dance, Kenya
*11 Agnus Dei
Hadandua War Drums in the Desert, Sudan
*12 Call To Prayer: Kyrie (Reprise)
Mu'azzin from the Muhammad Ali Mosque, Cairo
*13 Finale & Gloria
Acholi Bwala Dance, North Uganda
*Dona Nobis Pacem (Optional)
A Hymn for World Peace
(short or long version)