Hans Roosenchoon

Roosenschoon is particular imaginative with regards to his treatment of string ensemble.
(Grové, Stefans. 24 September 1978, RAPPORT)

On this evidence, however, it is those strong, seductive continental voices - Berio, Ligeti, Lutoslawski, and Stockhausen - which have lingered longest in his mind. And it takes musical character of no little determination to rise above the pale imitation of any or all of these.
(Whittall, Arnold. June 1986. GRAMOPHONE, Vol. 64, No. 757, London)

Roosenschoon's ability to draw and integrate material from a wide variety of sources is remarkable and his instinctive feeling for drama and comic relief is noteworthy. This unique work [If music be] of immense beauty deserves a place amongst the very best of works which are primarily conceived according to electronic means. ……The composer's versatility is particularly striking; he appears to be capable of successfully handling any medium to which his imagination may lead him.
(James, Christopher. 1986. HANS ROOSENSCHOON: IF MUSIC BE in: South African Journal of Musicology (SAMUS), Volume 6 no.1/2)

But Roosenschoon is a unique talent in South African music and there is a great deal of interest in his development. The level of his craftsmanship is unquestionable.
(Klatzow, Peter. 30 Oct. – 5 Nov. 1987, WEEKLY MAIL)

You can tell Roosenschoon has an acute musical imagination from the way a small detail as a ticking percussion figure is allowed to grow and to engulf the entire texture.
There's an emotional directness about this music that is often naive. But unlike so much cross-cultural music it is never pseudo-naïve.
(Hewett, Ivan. b/c 13 & 17 June, 1992. New Releases Morgan, Nick (ed.), in SATURDAY REVIEW, BBC Radio 3)

Roosenschoon's music achieves a remarkable synthesis, which in effect is quite individual. While certain parameters of the music apply avant-garde techniques, others are often treated in a more conventional way.
However the listener might perceive these African works, they incorporate all of Roosenschoon's best qualities: an innate sense of structure, rhythmic interest, sensitivity to colouristic effect and a strong lyric tendency.
(May, James. 1992. HANS ROOSENSCHOON in Morton, Brian & Collins, Pamela (ed.), CONTEMPORARY COMPOSERS, St James Press, Chicago & London)

"(CLOUDS CLEARING) expresses the joy of South Africa’s new democracy in a way that no political speech ever could".
(Hudson, Barrie. 4 August 1994. Evening Express, Aberdeen, Scotland)

Roosenschoon's music reflects a personal response to experiences of joy, sorrow, mystery and contradiction, through strong emphases on sound painting, collages of diverse material, structural coherence and the fusion of African elements into his own tonal language.
Roosenschoon follows a transformational and multi-level approach to rhythmic and tonal organization by which he obtains coherence, synthesis, variety, contrast and the simultaneous unfolding of different, yet related, ideas.
(Viljoen, Nicol. 2001. HANS ROOSENSCHOON in: Sadie, Stanley and Tyrell, John (ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd Edition, Vol. 21 London)

This is an imaginative and affecting work for unaccompanied chorus, reflecting the mystery of a nighttime ritual of the Kalahari Bushman culture.
Firebowl is a work that should be brought to the attention of choral directors seeking a fresh and unusual, yet highly accessible modern repertory.
(www.answers.com/topic/firebowl-for-choir)

In his development as composer. Roosenschoon took cognisance of the wide
variety of styles and composition techniques dominating the 20th
century. thus gaining much comprehension on this type of music and its
theories. His earlier compositions already reveal a preference for
sonorous effects, a masterly arrangement of musical elements, and a
continuous transformation of textures leading to a rich play of colour
within sound. Although he does not regard himself as an African
composer, some of his music became more African inspired with the
inevitable fusion of these elements into his tonal language. In many of
his orchestral works, sources from Western music literature are often
combined with African elements, which are not treated as themes to
elaborate on in the traditional sense, but rather as organic musical
objects being developed and displayed on different levels resulting in
an easier accessibility of the music to the listeners, and in this way
overriding to a certain extent the inherent complexity of compositional
structure and design.
(Geldenhuys, Daniël G. 2005. Roosenschoon, Hans in: Blume, Friedrich and
Finscher, Ludwig (ed.). */Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart/*,
Personenteil 14, Bärenreiter-Verlag, Stuttgart)