The Bushveld is a sub-tropical woodland ecoregion of Southern Africa named after the term veld. It encompasses most of Limpopo Province and a small part of the North West Province of South Africa, the Central and North-East Districts of Botswana and the Matabeleland South and part of th Matabeleland North provinces of Zimbabwe.

Geography[link]

The elevation of this region varies from 750 to 1,400 m and the annual rainfall from 350 mm in the west to 600 mm in parts of the northeast. There are three significant mountain ranges in this region: the Drakensberg escarpment that forms the eastern border of the Bushveld and runs from Tzaneen in the north to Belfast in the south; the Waterberg range that stretches from Mokopane in the east to Thabazimbi in the west; the Soutpansberg range just north of Louis Trichardt. The latter is the northernmost mountain range in South Africa.

Flora and fauna[link]

As implied by the region's name, the Bushveld's well-grassed plains are dotted by dense clusters of trees and tall shrubs. The grasses found here are generally tall and turn yellow or brown in winter, which is the dry season throughout most of South Africa. The undisturbed portions of this habitat, such as much of the Waterberg Biosphere, offer many large mammal species including white rhino, black rhino, giraffe, Blue Wildebeest, kudu, impala and a variety of further antelope species and other game.

Geology[link]

The Bushveld is one of the most mineral-rich regions of the world. This is due to the Bushveld igneous complex, an extremely rich saucer-shaped geological formation that stretches over more than 50,000 square kilometers. This formation contains most of the world's reserves of minerals such as andalusite, chromium, fluorspar, platinum and vanadium. The complex includes the Merensky Reef, which is the world's biggest source of platinum as well as platinum-group metals.

Farming[link]

As most of the region tends to be dry, the Bushveld is mostly cattle and game farming country, with only a few drought-resistant crops such as sorghum and millet being farmed, usually under irrigation.

Towns and cities[link]

Towns and cities in the region include:

• Bela Bela (formerly Warmbaths)
• Brits
• De Wildt
• Haenertsburg
• Hammanskraal
• Lephalale (formerly Ellisras)
• Louis Trichardt
• Mara
• Modimolle (formerly Nylstroom)
• Mokopane (formerly Potgietersrus)
• Mookgophong (formerly Naboomspruit)
• Musina (formerly Messina)
• Northam
• Phalaborwa
• Pienaarsrivier
• Polokwane (formerly Pietersburg)
• Roedtan
• Selebi-Phikwe
• Sun City
• Thabazimbi
• Vaalwater
• Vivo
• Zion City Moria

See also[link]

• Geography of South Africa
• Jock of the Bushveld

External links[link]

• Southern Africa bushveld (World Wildlife Fund)

Coordinates: 24°S 28°E / 24°S 28°E / -24; 28

Klaus Badelt
Klaus Badelt, 2007
Background information
Birth name	Klaus Badelt
Born	(1967-06-12) 12 June 1967 (age 45)[1]
Origin	Frankfurt, Germany
Genres	Film scores
Occupations	Composer, producer, Arranger

Klaus Badelt (born 12 June 1967) is an award-winning German composer, best known for composing film scores.

Life and career[link]

Badelt was born in Frankfurt, Germany. He started his musical career composing for many successful movies and commercials in his homeland. In 1998, Oscar-winning film composer Hans Zimmer invited Badelt to work at Media Ventures in Santa Monica, his studio co-owned by Jay Rifkin. Since then, Badelt has been working on a number of his own film and television projects such as The Time Machine and K-19: The Widowmaker. He also collaborated with other Media Ventures composers, such as Harry Gregson-Williams, John Powell, and Zimmer; and mentored several others like Ramin Djawadi and Steve Jablonsky.

While collaborating with Zimmer, Badelt contributed to the Oscar-nominated scores for The Thin Red Line and The Prince of Egypt, as well as writing music for many well known directors including Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Terrence Mallick, John Woo, Kathryn Bigelow, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Werner Herzog, Sean Penn, Gore Verbinski, Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg.

Badelt co-wrote and co-produced the score to Hollywood box office hit Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, along with Zimmer and singer/composer Lisa Gerrard. Having contributed music to Gladiator, Mission: Impossible 2 and Michael Kamen's score for X-Men, Badelt was involved in the three most successful movies in 2000. Badelt also collaborated with Zimmer on other successful films, such as The Pledge, and 2001 blockbusters Hannibal and Pearl Harbor. One of his more famous and popular scores was for the 2003 film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.^[2]

In 2004, Klaus branched out of Zimmer's studio and founded his own film music company, Theme Park Studios, in Santa Monica, CA. Since then, he has scored films like "Constantine", "Poseidon", "Rescue Dawn", and "TMNT", to name a few.

Among Badelt's most critically celebrated scores are the Chinese fantasy film The Promise^[3][4][5] and Dreamworks' remake of The Time Machine, the latter which earned him the Discovery of the Year Award at the World Soundtrack Awards 2003. He also wrote the music for the closing ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, and was commissioned to write the opera about China's First Emperor, to be premiered in 2012.

Known for his dedication, Klaus worked on the soundtrack for The Promise for almost 6 months. The song which can be heard in the movie's end credits is an ancient folk song in China, and very few people can still sing it. For that, Klaus traveled almost two weeks in China to find someone who was able to sing the whole folk song in order to rearrange it for the score.

Discography[link]

2001

• Extreme Days
• Invincible (with Hans Zimmer)
• The Pledge (with Hans Zimmer)

2002

• Equilibrium
• K-19: The Widowmaker
• The Time Machine
• Teknolust

2003

• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
• Beat the Drum
• Basic
• Ned Kelly
• The Recruit

2004

• Catwoman
• Thunderbirds

2005

• The Promise
• Constantine (with Brian Tyler)

2006

• Rescue Dawn
• Miami Vice
• Poseidon
• 16 Blocks
• Ultraviolet

2007

• Redline
• Heaven and Earth
• Skid Row
• Premonition
• TMNT

2008

• The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior (direct-to-video)
• Starship Troopers 3: Marauder (direct-to-video)
• Pour Elle
• Dragon Hunters
• Beijing Olympics Closing Ceremonies

2009

• Le Petit Nicolas (French)
• Solomon Kane
• Waking Madison
• Killshot

2010

• Valentine
• Heartbreaker
• Dylan Dog: Dead of Night
• Shanghai
• The Extra Man
• À bout portant
• Happy People: A Year in the Taiga

2011

• The Swarm
• MotorStorm: Apocalypse
• The Prodigies
• Seven Days in Utopia
• The Oranges

References[link]

External links[link]

• Klaus Badelt at the Internet Movie Database
• Klaus Badelt at Allmusic
• Interview with Stumped Magazine
• Remote Control Fan Site
• ScoreNotes Interview
• Official Site
• Swiss-German Fansite, visited by Klaus Badelt too

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