Music legend Reuben Caluza celebrated this Heritage month
AS THE country celebrates Heritage Month, the legacy of one of South Africa’s most accomplished composers, Reuben Tholakele Caluza (1895-1969), will be re-lived at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg during Heritage weekend on September 23 and-24.
Caluza was once a household name in South Africa. Then for decades, his music was largely forgotten in the sound archives of music history.
But now, a multimedia concert by acclaimed contemporary musicians sets out to change that.
As part of Heritage Month, Reuben T Caluza – The B-side will celebrate a musical legacy of one of South Africa’s most accomplished composers.
The performance will feature imaginative new interpretations of songs based on the original recorded album, The Double Quartet, that Caluza made in London in 1930.
Caluza’s lyrics were often commentaries on social issues of the day, ranging from the brutal apartheid laws coming into effect in the early 1900s, to his critical views on the growing aspirations of the black middle class living in Joburg and Durban.
His work was influenced by a variety of styles and idioms, from choral hymns to ragtime and protest music.
The project to re-introduce Caluza’s music is led and arranged by the internationally acclaimed composer Philip Miller, together with his collaborator, Tshegofatso Moeng, a multi-talented musical opera singer and composer.
An ensemble of singers join Miller and Moeng, alongside award-winning theatre-maker Khayelihle Dominique Gumede, who directs the concert.
The project began at the start of the Covid pandemic, when Miller came across the song Influenza (1918), which Caluza had written in response to the devastation of the Spanish flu pandemic in South Africa.
It resonated so powerfully at that time that Miller and Moeng brought together a talented ensemble of 12 singers to record the song remotely, raising awareness of the plight of singers struggling to make ends meet.
The Brazilian video designer Marcos Martins created a video on social media, using mostly cellphone footage filmed by the singers isolating in their homes during the hard lockdown.
Miller said the response to the song was so overwhelmingly positive that the they collaboratively continued to learn, arrange and record more of Caluza’s incredible repertoire.
Martins has gone on to create 12 films that now provide a contemporary visual response to the music that is to be presented theatrically in this dynamic multimedia concert.
He uses a rich mixture of visual languages ranging from original filmed footage, archival material, and typographic animations and drawings.
The singing team includes many of the singers who have collaborated with Miller and Moeng over the years. Most of them would have been heard singing Millers music for William Kentridge’s work, The Head and the Load, seen this year at the Joburg Theatre.
They include Ayanda Eleki, Ann Masina, Bulelani Madondile, Nokuthula Magubane, Lydia Manyama, Zebulon Mmusi, Mhlaba Buthelezi, Mapule Moloi, Lindokuhle Thabede, Lubabalo Velebayi and Bham Ntabeni.