Classical guitarist Derek Gripper provided a sumptuous soundtrack to the imaginings of his enraptured audience at a performance on Saturday.
The richness of the sounds wafted over the audience, warming them up on the cold evening. Gripper’s renditions displayed a range of different notes which struck at every emotion, at times calming and at other times unsettling.
Classical guitarist Derek Gripper provided a sumptuous soundtrack to the imaginings of his enraptured audience at a performance on Saturday.
The richness of the sounds wafted over the audience, warming them up on the cold evening. Gripper’s renditions displayed a range of different notes which struck at every emotion, at times calming and at other times unsettling.
The audience fell into a dream-like state with each new song, with him then bringing them back to reality with an anecdote about a new piece, only to take them back on a journey once again.
The audience was treated to a blend of international sounds as Gripper’s pieces had Brazilian, Arabic, African, Spanish and of course South African influences.
As he describes it: “The music that I play is rooted in South Africa in many ways. The music that’s really special to me is the music of the Western Cape, just the spirit of it.”
He played traditional vastrap music, which unites Khoisan music with Dutch folk music, along with “farmer’s songs” with distinct boeremusiek sounds.
One of the more poignant pieces was one which he wrote about Vanilla Nurse, a toddler who died while asleep in her parents’ car which caught alight.
The song captured the stages of grief which her parents went through. The light notes gave away to harsh, disarming ones, which conveyed the anger and despair of the grieving process.
Although Gripper has toured internationally, he plans to stick to South Africa for now. “There’s a lot of South Africans who have never heard me play and I’m going to try and reach them. The Europeans have their own musicians.”
