Threnody 2 for Strings, Clarinet and Timpani (originally titled ‘Steve Biko in Heaven’) (opus 39) is dedicated to the memory of Steve Biko and was written in 1981 as a protest piece for orchestra. This was a somewhat daring innovation at the time, since the then government and indeed South African orchestral managements frowned on music with any provocative content. Not surprisingly, the piece was banned at the SABC from 1987 until 1993.

The clarinet is the protagonist in the piece and is used in all of its registers, especially the high register. The obbligato timpani sometimes conspires with it, at other times with the strings, so providing a unifying mould which draws the variegated strands together. The musical materials are threefold: a 12-note row, of which the first four notes E, B flat, D, F sharp are of particular importance; the anthem ‘Nkosi sikelel’ i Afrika’ (‘God Bless Africa’) -distorted initially on solo violin, but later triumphant on clarinet; and a brief, repeated tonal theme in B major played by the upper strings.

The timpani establish a ‘mood of violence’ at the outset. This gives way to the strings, which play chords to the rhythm of the name ‘Steve Biko’. The 12-note material is in a state of constant flux and variation, with fragments of ‘Nkosi sikelel’ i Afrika’ interpolated. About two-thirds into the piece -the golden section- chords consisting of the notes E, B flat, D and F sharp scream out five times with increasing intensity. The music winds down -the agony of the hero is at an end. Slowly a quieter, more transfigured mood establishes itself, as the orchestra unites to play what was to become the South African national anthem, before the B major theme is introduced as its natural continuation.

This was the first use of ‘Nkosi sikelel’ i Afrika’ in a piece of ‘serious’ music.

The antiphonal placing of clarinet and timpani on either side of the strings increases the work’s dramatic impact in live performance.

Threnody 2 has been performed many times, including a performance at the Edinburgh International Festival and Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow, in 1998.