Reformed church inter-synod groups sing god's praises

BABOKI KAYAWE
Staff Writer | Monday September 27, 2010 00:00

 

My pen is still dancing to the reverberations of the good choral performance offered last Saturday during the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa and the Dutch Reformed Church's annual Inter-Synod music competitions at the SSKB auditorium. Revellers and those bitten by the music bug voiced their musical aptitude in a competition themed, 'Voices in Harmony'.

Just like football, the event brought together nations as about 22 choirs from the various synods in South Africa, Lesotho and Botswana praised the Lord in choral music.

Treated to the fine texture of choral music, with the various choirs having the ability of being high noted and low noted as possible, revellers responded in applause to and chants of 'Amen' to the beautiful pieces. With very high discipline attached to the exercise, the Senior B choirs namely Gaborone, Winsburg, Tlokwe, Polokwane, Tlokweng, Botshabelo and Mogwase splendidly performed an Italian opera titled Va Pensiero.

Fly, thought, on wings of gold, in English also known as Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, Va Pensiero, is a chorus from the third act of Nabucco (an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi, based on the biblical story of Nebuchadnessar) inspired by Psalm 137, recollects the story of Jewish exiles from Babylon after the loss of the First Temple in Jerusalem.

Through their unique voice alterations, one could hear the Jewish weeping by the rivers of Babylon as they remembered Zion.

Another memorable piece, Thuto, sang in Tswana/Sotho was heavily packed with information on the importance of education and an educated people. There is one line that caught me the most, 'thuto ke lesedi, ga e fele go fela dichaba' which loosely translates into 'education is light, it does not end rather nations or people do,' Powerful line, indeed, with the potential of making those involved in this year's examination chaos rethink what the repercussions of their 'war' is to the envisaged 'educated nation'.

Dutch Reformed Church of Botswana music coordinator, Christopher Monyatsi revealed in an interview with The Monitor that the annual event is a unifying force and above all draws the youth to the church. He hailed it for reviving the singing spirit that had dimmed years back when the competition stopped, later to be reborn in 2003.'Today, our choirs are strong and, most importantly, young people are attracted to our institution,' Monyatsi said.

He added that the Inter-Synod music competition has brought tangible results to the Mochudi branch, for instance, as an internal youth choir 'Singing Angels' has released a CD entitled 'Kenyorilwe.'