Takanimba (A night in Soweto)

Takanimba (A night in Soweto) was composed in 1988 in a small personal MIDI studio, using a computer as a sequencer and a Roland MT-32 module as a sound generator. The work has no electroacoustic post-processing and can be performed in real time. The starting point of the piece is an improvised sequence over four fixed pitches, which was then edited and quantized to a regular pulse. Throughout the piece, variations of this single sequence are added and overlaid in an increasing degree of complexity. These variations were generated automatically by the computer, using algorithms that allow controllable degrees of randomness in the various parameters, as well as permutations of order. The name Takanimba, as synthetic as the sounds generated by the modules used, refers to the timbres that appear in the piece, all of which are percussive in nature. In a way, it would also evoke a kind of non-existent and completely invented folklore. The subtitle “A night in Soweto” alludes to a well-known composition by Dizzy Gillespie, and the change of geographical location with respect to the original has connotations somehow related to the character of the piece.