THE TIMES DO NOT PERMIT, the musical life of Michael Mosoeu Moerane

 273pp,. illus., map, paperback, Wits University Press, Johannesburg, 2024

ISBN: 9781776149193

Biography of South African choral composer Michael Mosoeu Moerane (1904-1980).

Moerane was born in 1904 in Mangoloaneng, a village in the Matatiele/Mount Fletcher district of the Eastern Cape. He attended mission schools and trained as a teacher. Actively involved in anti-apartheid activities, mainly though his membership of the Cape African Teachers Association, he was forced into exile in Lesotho. After he retired in the late 1960s, he helped establish the Department of Music at the new National Teachers Training College in Maseru.

In 1931 he registered for a B. Mus degree, part-time, through Rhodes University College, a satellite campus of the University of South Africa, and completed the degree by correspondence in 1941. He composed more than 80 works, the majority of them short pieces for a cappella choir. 50 choral works and the symphonic poem Fatše La Heso (My Country) have survived. During his lifetime he was known for only a few choral pieces; the remainder were discovered long after his death.

"With this richly contextualised account of the musical life of Michael Moerane, a gifted composer of choral music in twentieth-century Southern Africa, who happened to be black, Lucia has provided us with a model for telling the stories of many unsung composers of African art music." Kofi Agawu, Distinguished Professor, The Graduate Center, City University of New York

"It is refreshing to read such a comprehensive account of the life and times of one of Africa's most important black composers. This book lays us into the intimate details of Moerane's ;life as a teacher, a composer, and a family man ... an important addition to the literature." Sibusiso Njeza, Department of Music and Musicology, Rhodes University

Christine Lucia is Honorary Professor at Africa Open Institute for Music, Research and Innovation at Stellenbosch University and editor of African Composers Edition, an online publication of African compositions.