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New Azania Overture (also known as An Antipodean Overture) (opus 38) was composed in 1980 while the composer was also writing his two orchestral Threnodies; all three works the result of extra-musical stimuli. On the musical front, the work's genesis stemmed from two long-standing desires: to write a short concert overture, and a stirring anthem tune. The tune was entitled ‘New Azania’ and gave the piece its original title of ‘New Azania Overture’, the work’s name being eventually changed to ‘An Antipodean Overture’, and back once more to ‘New Azania Overture’.
The ‘New Azania’ theme is anticipated at the very outset, making its full presence felt only towards the end of the piece, and then in the remote key of A flat (the most distant key from the work’s tonal centre of D). Apart from the ‘New Azania’ theme, the work contains other musical ideas, the most important being the theme first heard on horn near the beginning. This idea is heard throughout and is itself related to the ‘New Azania’ theme. The overture is scored for standard strings and wind, and has an extended percussion section with parts for four players.
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Johannesburg
South Africa