African Sanctus

Fanshawes project ”African Sanctus” in his own words:

” African Sanctus is a universal work who’s impact is immediate, whose message is simple, the driving force is one of Praise and a firm belief in One Music - One God. It informs both listener and performer about African music and its relationship to Western polyphony”

Fanshawe’s project is to ”compose" a meeting between what he feels are two equal but different cultures. His intentions are pure and obviously nothing but good-hearted.

I think the most successful parts, according to the intention of the project is movement#2, ”Kyrie: Call to Prayer”. The Call is recited in Islam and the Choral Kyrie is sung in Latin, and this hybrid creates a strange but beautiful harmony between the two praises. One is to Allah, the other to the Christian God and, as written the program notes:

”This fusion emphasises the musical relationships that do exist between the Muslim and Christian faiths; an affirmation of belief in the one God.”

In movement#12 he repeats this composition:

”Although the composition is virtually the same as No. 2, the juxtaposition of tape to live is

” This movement further emphasises the praise that we can all share on planet earth.”

Also the text in the movement emphasises the link:

Its a love song, and the bellringing has most likely nothing to do with the birth of Jesus Christ, as Fanshave writes in his notes. What he actually do whith a statement like that, is to push his own religious belief on a women which is ringing a bell for her own very personal reason: To chase away the evil eye. I understand his thought, that this evil eye resembles to the Christian homemade invention, the devil. But the spirits/Gods this woman worships is just as likely to be synonymous with the devil for most ”good Christians”, which is a category and I think we without problems can add Fanshawe into. Maybe she is a worshipper of the element of nature. God/s of fertility. Which, as we know, is the base of the Devil as we know him. I am aware of the danger in that I myself can walk directly in the trap of cultural ignorance with a statement like this: that this woman, since she is African, most likely worships ancestors and spirits of nature…so just to make it clear: I am not saying she is but I am saying that Fanshawe most likely didn’t bother to find out, and therein lies the lack of respect.

Thanks to Fanshawe for that effort, it’s an admirably piece of work he has done by preserving these songs for posterity. There is only one little drawback in his statement: the project was paid in advance; the forthcoming African Sanctus was realised as an idea before the recordings were done.

Some topics in this essay:
Intellectual Property, II It's, African Sanctus, Sanctus Cultural, Fanshawe Maybe, Oh Oh, Indiana Jones, Christ Fanshave, Muslim Christian, Yes Fanshawes, african sanctus, ”african sanctus”, oh son, evil eye, son oh, oh son oh, lord mercy, ”african sanctus” own, god lord, tape recorder, fanshawes own, feels equal, meeting feels equal, god lord mercy, african sanctus project,