Harry Masenya: The Sung Hero

South Africa has a thriving liturgical music scene, and one of its driving forces has been composer and choirmaster Harry Masenya. He spoke to Daluxolo Moloantoa.

What greater honour can one receive in a long music career than to have your songs sung in the presence of a pope and future saint? Harry Masenya could tick this box in 1995 during St John Paul II’s papal Mass in Johannesburgs. It signified a highpoint in a life dedicated to making a significant contribution to home-brewed South African Catholic music, most notably in its recital and composition.

Mr Masenya was born on Sunday, October 29, 1939, at St Gerard’s Mission Maternity Home in Eastwood (now Garsfontein), Pretoria. “I was born at 6am, when the first Angelus bell rang,” he told The Southern Cross. He attended St Gerard Primary School in Eastwood and Little Flower Secondary School in Lady Selbourne, also in Pretoria, matriculating at Pax Training Institution in 1957.

Lack of funds prevented a tertiary education. After a two-year job-hunt, he found a job as a filing clerk for an insurance group in Pretoria, and in 1962 took up the position of clerk in Pretoria City Council. This was followed by a training officer position in the council, and later for the CSIR, a job which took him across the country running various training courses.

Harry Masenya married his wife Cecilia Rose in 1972. They had four children, two boys and two girls. One of the boys went to be with the Lord when he was five months old.

At the altar before school

The Catholic faith has been at the centre of Mr Masenya’s life throughout. In 1946 he received First Communion and Confirmation, on the same day, and became an altar server. “At the time, the Mass was said in Latin, and so were the altar servers’ responses. We had to serve not only on Sundays but also during the week. We had morning Mass at 6:00, and afterwards we would rush home to prepare for school.”

As he progressed through primary school, Harry became engrossed in the hymns during Mass. “When not serving, I would sit at the back of the church, next to the organist, watching her play the organ and wishing that I could emulate her. We sang the hymns in Sesotho, isiZulu, English and Latin,” he recalled.

As youngsters, Mr Masenya and schoolmates would spend a lot of their free time at the mission. They would play football or help the nuns with odd jobs, such as fetching their mail at the nearby Highlands Post Office or delivering the priest’s laundry to St Joseph’s church in Eersterust.

On Sunday afternoons, Harry would join the mission’s priest and a nun on visits to the outstation at Matamong, in the present-day Constantia Park. The priest would hear confessions, and the nun would offer adult catechesis, while Harry taught the children ordinary prayers. “When the priest had other commitments, and because none of the nuns could drive, I would jump on a bicycle and go there to lead the congregation in praying the rosary,” Mr Masenya recalled.

His early desire for good liturgical music was answered when his family moved to Pretoria’s Mamelodi township in 1959. When he went to the local St Raphael’s church to enquire about Mass times, he encountered four people singing in a small room. “They informed me of the Mass times. Then they told me that they were forming a choir. I happened to know the conductor. I joined them, and became a parishioner of St Raphael’s and a member of the choir.” Almost 65 years later, Mr Masenya is still active in the choir, as its only surviving founding member and choirmaster.

The first wind of composing

The same year, Mr Masenya visited his parents’ homes in Ga-Dikgale, near Polokwane. “One morning, as we trudged through the barren maize fields in the village, a slight breeze blew in the air. Its blowing produced distinct musical sounds in my ears, over and over again. A week later, I was back at home in Mamelodi. I revived the sound of those melodies, and the final result was my first-ever music composition, devotionally titled ‘Ave Maria’.”

Back at St Raphael’s church, he took on the responsibility of composing the responsorial psalms for the Sunday Mass. “They were well received by the parish, and that spurred me on to write more responsorial psalms. In 1964, I took over as parish choirmaster,” he said. “I wrote a song for Mass in my mother-tongue, Sepedi. The positive response from the congregation led me to compose hymns in other languages, such as Sesotho, isiZulu and Xitsonga. From then onwards the flood gates opened. I have written many songs. But one of my favourites I composed in 2017, titled ‘Nonwane ya Fatima’, written on the centenary of the apparition of Our Lady in Fatima in Portugal.”

Another milestone came in 2018 when Archbishop  William Slattery requested that he compose a song dedicated to Bl Benedict Daswa. “I gathered all the pertinent information I needed on Bl Benedict from The Southern Cross, and I went ahead writing the song. I wrote its final note on September 13, 2018, which was the third anniversary of his beatification.”

Other songs Mr Masenya has composed include “Hlabela Morena Sefela” (Sing for the Lord), “Sello sa Davida” (The Cry of David), “Morena O re gaugele” (Christ our Redeemer), “O yo Mokgethwa” (You are Chosen), “Konyana ya Modimo” (Lamb of God) and, from Psalm 103, “Reta Morena Mogaugedi” (Praise the Lord our Saviour).

A great influence in Mr Masenya’s formative stage as a Catholic music composer was the slain anti-apartheid activist Dr Fabian Ribeiro, who advised him to learn to play the organ, and also guided the budding composer on how to transcribe hymns from one language to another.

The great choirmaster

For many Pretoria Catholics, Mr Masenya is best-known for his work with the Pretoria Archdiocese Catholic Church Music Association (PACCMA), which organises choral music competitions in the archdiocese, among other functions.

“I became involved with PACCMA in the 1980s under the chairmanship of the late Matthew Sono. At first the music competitions were confined to the archdiocese of Pretoria. As time went on, we introduced interdiocesan competitions. During my tenure as chairperson, the dioceses involved were Pretoria, Johannesburg, Witbank and Durban. Later regions such as Bloemfontein and Gaborone became members,” he said.

It was while still with PACCMA that Mr Masenya had the opportunity to have his music included in a papal Mass. “Fr Buti Tlhagale, now archbishop of Johannesburg, requested that I submit two compositions for the Apostles’ Creed and the responsorial Psalm. They were sung by a big choir at St John Paul II’s Mass at Gosforth Park racecourse in Germiston,” he recalled.

Among other memorable assignments, Mr Masenya was asked to compose and to conduct the Mass choir for the responsorial Psalm at the episcopal installation of Archbishop Dabulo Mpako in Pretoria in 2019.

However, the greatest honour, after the papal Mass, came on April 17, 2017, when the Melodi Ya Tshwane Music Association selected a number of Mr Masenya’s compositions for the African section of a choral music competition held at the State Theatre in Pretoria. “My entire family, including my siblings, were guests of honour at the event. The choirs sang my music accompanied by the Tshwane Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. The winning choirs were given medals which had my effigy incorporated on them, to remind the winners of the composer of the music that they were singing on the day.” A framed picture with a list of all his compositions was handed to Mr Masenya, and a copy of it was also hung in the office of then-mayor Solly Msimang. “It was a great day to be honoured in the city which I had served first as a municipal worker and as a musician over the years,” Mr Masenya said.

Like clockwork, Mr Masenya keeps to a strict routine of prayers and meditations. “Firstly, in line with the request of Our Lady in March 1917 at Fatima, I say the rosary every day. It’s my daily habit to retire to my prayer corner at 14:30 and petition the following prayers: Consecration to the Sacred Heart, Novena to the Sacred Heart, Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Five Fatima Prayers, Novena Prayer to St Joseph, Miraculous Prayer of the Little Flower, St Peregrine (patron of cancer), followed at 15:00 with the Divine Mercy, together with its litany.”

On Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays he is engaged in various liturgical music ministries. In his spare time, Mr Masenya enjoys cleaning inside and outside the house — “it relaxes me”. The Mamelodi Sundowns and Manchester United fan likes to watch football and to read. “I enjoy reading The Southern Cross magazine. I find it informative when it comes to our Catholic faith. I also enjoy walking long distances; it keeps me fit as a fiddle,” he said.

His advice to aspiring Catholic musicians is to firstly dedicate their music to the Lord. “As King David did in Psalm 9, they should seek to praise God with all their hearts. The gift of music comes from above, and being able to sing is an honour from our Father in heaven. Never give up or be despondent when you feel that there is no recognition, especially as a composer when it seems that only the famous composers are recognised. Remember that God is the one who recognises and rewards in the right season.”