Audio excerpts
Let us run out of the rain (1986; rev. 1993)
for two to play at one piano or harpsichord
lingers in the memory, captivating above all with its playfulness and simplicity, with the infusion of a poetic sense characterized by clarity of ideas and delight in the creation of music(Igor Berger, Musical Life, Bratislava)
[ top ]
Let us run out of the rain (1986; arr. 1995)
for vibraphone and marimba (4 players)
Blake creates the impression of a composer who 'thinks on his feet', who intuitively allows the potential of his material to take its course and cherishes its fragile nature.(Stephanus Muller, Die Burger, Cape Town)
[ top ]
Honey Gathering Song (1989; rev. 1999)
for flute and piano or harpsichord or fortepiano
the Béla Bartók of South Africa(Héctor Hugo Coda, La Nación, Buenos Aires)
[ Further info: Work details • Programme note ]
[ top ]
Kwela (1992; transcr. 1998)
for string orchestra (violins 1 & 2, violas, cellos 1 & 2, double bass(es))
translates the popular dance from the black townships of fifty years ago into the timbres of the string orchestra(Dietrich Helssenbüttel, Stuttgarter Zeitung)
[ Further info: Work details • Programme note ]
[ top ]
French Suite (1994)
for solo piano
combines solid African rhythmic structures and restless melodies in a quiet and meditative-like music(Armin Kaumanns, Rheinische Post, Düsseldorf)
[ top ]
String Quartet No 1 (in Memory of William Burton) (2001)
The first movement is like a string of beads laced together, and although none of the beads is identical, repetition plays a large part in the unfolding of the music…Blake presents his material without abandoning its subjective origin or degenerating into arbitrary sequences. It is a delicate equilibrium of relationships (note to note, fragment to fragment) which grips the imagination.(Stephanus Muller, Die Burger, Cape Town)
The slow second movement was simply beautiful: filled with the sounds of living breath, and breath halted, and the breath of those icy stars outside.(Gwen Ansell, Cue, Grahamstown)
[ top ]
Ways to put in the salt (2002)
for solo piano
…almost a Well-Tempered Klavier for the uhadi. It explored the forms of improvisation and ornament that traditional Xhosa players use to spice up their themes, but applied to a theme that was brutally modern in its simplicity…(Gwen Ansell, Cue, Grahamstown)
[ top ]
Solstice: Seven Poems of Don Maclennan (2004)
for tenor, horn and piano
[ Further info: Work details • Programme note ]
[ top ]
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (Rain Dancing) (2005-2006)
2+picc.2.2+Eflat.bcl.2-4.2.3.1-hp-perc(2)-str(min8.8.6.6.4)
What strikes me about his music is that it seems to be homeless. Like it has no country of origin. It is in that fact, not of place but of time.(Dick Tuinder, artist)
As a dance it grows organically out of a mere two notes transmogrified into varying moods and energies, and reaches a triumphant resolution. The work is both a celebration of rain and also a ritual for the promotion of life.(Don Maclennan, poet)
Blake is a carrot dangler and his sometimes fey, sometimes wistful melodies encourage us to hum, to whistle, and even occasionally, to jig — but never in a way that would actually release the tension that his compositions ever so gradually build towards.(Aryan Kaganof, filmmaker/writer)
[ top ]
Rural Arias (2007)
for singing saw or soprano and 11 players
a magnificent, craggy lament for South Africa’s rural population, feeling the devastating effects of climate change, poverty and HIV/AIDS. As he searched out original methods for evoking truth, and in a bid to jolt the listener out of any complacency, Blake used a musical saw to produce a sonorous sadness which reverberated hauntingly.(Mary Jordan, Business Day, Johannesburg)
[ top ]
Shoowa Panel (2007)
for vibraphone and marimba
Feldman eulogised the rugs and sold the coats but only Stockhausen actually wove in Trans: your homage to African pattern language is, I hope, the beginning of many more musics by analogy.(Peter de la Porte)
[ top ]
Sonata for Two Pianos (Homage to Schumann) (2007)
Your quintet mutates on the piano and I see you reimagining Schumann the same way early Cage reimagines Grieg.(Peter de la Porte, philosopher)
[ Further info: Work details • Programme note ]
[ top ]
The Philosophy of Composition (in Memory of Don Maclennan) (2009)
for cello and piano
Every note in the work seems to lead inexorably towards the sequence of notes that begins around the 8 minute mark — this beginning of the end is reached without superfluity, without a single note that could be described as inessential.(Aryan Kaganof)
[ top ]