Safika: Three Tales of African Migration: Movement I

(Starts at 1:20:32)

Program Note: "Migration, dislocation and exile have always been key themes in the historical narrative of the Black experience in South Africa.  These three pieces for string quintet are personal responses/reflections to the various journeys that affected and shaped the lives of many. It can be argued that to some extent, South Africa continues to live with the sociopolitical consequences of this history of migration and dispossession.

The unifying factor in all those who were touched by these journeys is memory. Remembering the lives left behind, the people, the songs, the dances, the connection to the land. Time might wear away the detail and new experiences splinter entire memories to fragments but nothing is completely erased.  

A certain driving rhythm, a flash of timbre, a fragment of melody, a cadence, a turn of musical phrase, even a few dance steps. These stay within as faint echoes, repeated sequences sometimes layered over each other, stuttering, staggering or sometimes as clear lyrical songs and dances, vibrant as the day first experienced. "Safika" means "we arrived" in Xhosa, and in the context of these pieces, is an allegorical terminus of these journeys where reflection, affirmation and restoration begins." - Publisher

Compound Meter: 6/8 Time, Dotted Quarter = c. 108