Orchestral Works by Tracy-Lee Engel and Mac Mckenzie

Mc Kenzie's  Ground- Breaking Work

Writer and producer Deon Maas said: “I have always seen Mac as a shape shifter in South African music. He has always taken the existing and moved it further, making it more difficult for others to reach the goalposts. Creatively, he mixes roots with new experiences, making him more cutting edge than most people realise. His new work is once again ground-breaking, taking his own compositions and especially goema to another, previously unexplored level.” 

The Songbook is a collection of classically trained, young orchestra players, probably the only musicians capable of following his dense scores and unusual time signatures. Even for these pros, the music is a challenge. Drummer Greg Whit said he had never played on goema drums before he pitched for Songbook rehearsals. McKenzie’s latest piece, Finale, is a lengthy saga about the troubled history of South Africa, in 10 movements. 

In his words, they are: “Unimpeded — the Khoisan are playing their music, in a simple way, in 1652, running around in the Garden of Eden with their bows; 

“Impending Impact, as the Europeans start coming in, and then you hear violins; 

“Mixed, where the races start mixing … the extended lyricism of 17th century Europe starts to mix with the indigenous sounds; “Church Song, where you get the religious stuff, the influence of the missionaries, the dirges of the Catholics, the Gregorian chants; “Little Party, because now the music is starting to gel, it goes into goema, then it goes into bebop swing, then back into goema; 

“Militair. There is ‘mos kak’ happening in the party, fornication, so this is when the military steps in to sort things out; 

“Postwar — I like to call it Lost War, because all wars are lost. After the war people have to bury bodies and patch people up, there is all this destruction. It’s a very sad piece;  

“Rock Against is where people come out and start rocking in protest … that is your amandla kind of theme … that has always happened in South Africa, after the wars, the victors have had to hold down the swelling masses …  

“Nine A is called Reconciliation, and nine B is Romance … 

“Carnival Victory, a straight-forward goema piece …” 

South Africa’s diverse roots

The piece he is developing after that, Symphony No 2, is also a narrative, tracing the movements of the Nguni tribes down from Central Africa into our country. It incorporates mbiras from Zimbabwe, maskande music from the Zulus and tablas from the Indians in KwaZulu-Natal. Once McKenzie has “settled the scores” of these works, he aims to take them, with a few principal musicians, overseas. McKenzie pays his musicians from his own pocket. The money comes from various grants and is meant to cover his rent, but he uses part of his rent money to get the best people in to do the job. 

“I would rather live on the street, and have a beautiful music product, and improve chops, than live with creature comforts,” he says.  He might not be leaping around the stage à la Genuines any more — and would probably look ridiculous if he did — but his imagination is pretty agile. Mac is impressive; he’s a product and creator of South Africa’s diverse roots, an expression of how twisted yet beautifully they can grow.