Composition portfolio
- Authors: Wynne, Donovan
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: Music -- South Africa Composition (Music) String quartets -- Scores
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MMus
- Identifier: vital:2658 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003121
- Description: Introductory remarks: Being a middle-class white South African, I grew up on a diet of predominantly "white" music: rock, pop and Western classical music. I was later introduced to a broader range of musics: blues, jazz, kwaito and traditional Southern African idioms. I found myself particularly attracted to the traditional music of the amaXhosa (especially that of the uhadi bow), possibly due to the fact that this music is hexatonic (that is, based on two major triads whose tonics are one tone apart), a system that bears certain resemblances to the Western tonal idiom. However, much of my musical experience tended to be entrenched in the piano and flute music I played: mostly works by composers who were neatly ensconced in the traditional Western canon. Therefore, despite the broad range of musics with which I was familiarisedduring my tertiary studies, I feel that this early experiential background is the reason I feel most comfortable with Western-influenced music. More recently, I discovered a whole new genre to explore: film music, particularly the work of Elliot Goldenthal, Danny Elfman, John Williams and Philip Glass, whose unique brand of minimalism has extended from the concert hall to thefilm theatre. I am fascinated by the ways in which film scores function. A "main titles" theme usually appears as the film opens, upon which most of the subsequent music is based. This is not a linear process, like a theme and its variations, but a lateral, where the main titles theme is the core that engenders other themes that all share a familial resemblance.
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- Date Issued: 2006
Composition portfolio
- Authors: Webb, Cassidy Frank
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MMus
- Identifier: vital:2659 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003729
- Description: Introduction: This portfolio consists of musical ideas which I have had for some time now. I have attempted to capture these ideas throughout the portfolio, starting with the smaller works (Brumes et Pluies) and building up to the larger works (James Tiberius, The tide). Brumes et Pluies is minimalistic in style. The interlocking of the two pianos plays an important role in the texture of the piece. The rhythms are repetitive throughout, with only slight variations. Kalahari is more idiomatic, rhythmical and has a main theme which recurs throughout the piece. Melodic fragments are used, sometimes with slight variations. This piece was inspired by the Kalahari desert, with its abundance of life. I enjoy the string quartet because of the homogeneity of sound on the one hand, and the diversity possible by using different techniques and effects on the other. James Tiberius is a work for chamber orchestra. Motifs in the music resemble certain animals. The rhythm is unstable, as is the harmony. There are many melodic fragments throughout. The texture is thin in certain areas (at the beginning) and dense in others (the waltz). The harmony is sometimes unconventional. The Tide was written in response to a memory of a drowning incident I experienced when I was a child. This orchestral piece is strong in form. The opening, for example, is tense and slightly atonal in harmony. The pomposo section tends to utilise most of the orchestra, so the texture is a lot denser here and the harmony is more conventional. I try not to use traditional forms in my composition. Rather, I prefer to compose by re-using and re-introducing ideas as I proceed.
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- Date Issued: 2006
Gaze patterns of expert and amateur sight-readers with particular focus on the cognitive underpinnings of reading key and time signatures
- Authors: Viljoen, Jacobus Frederick
- Date: 2021-10-29
- Subjects: Sight-reading (Music) , Eye tracking , Cognition , Musical notation , Tonality , Musical meter and rhythm
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/190908 , vital:45040 , 10.21504/10962/190908
- Description: Over the last decade, eye-tracking technology has provided researchers with specific tools to study the process of reading (language and music) empirically. Most of these studies have focused on the “Eye-Hand Span” phenomenon (the ability to read ahead of the point of playing). However, little research investigates the cognitive implications of specific aspects of musical notation when performed in real time. This research aimed to observe the fixations patterns of sight-readers in order to investigate the cognitive underpinnings of key and time signatures in music scores. This research project is a quantitative study using a quasi-experimental research design. Tobii eye-tracking equipment and software were used to record the eye movements of 11 expert and 7 amateur keyboard sight-readers. Two key aspects of music notation, key and time signatures, were selected as the main focus of the study. To investigate these aspects, eighteen research participants were provided with seventeen sight-reading examples for one hand (low complexity) and two hands (high complexity) composed specifically by the researcher. Several examples contained one or more unexpected aspects (accidentals or changes of time signature) to test their effect on fixation count and duration. Two variables (fixation count and fixation duration) were utilised to analyze fixation patterns on the selected aspects of the scores. Three main results emerged from the data analysis: 1) Expert sight-readers performed with much greater accuracy than experts in both tests; 2) Expert sight-readers exhibited a higher fixation count on entire scores in complex examples; 3) Both expert and amateur sight-readers fixate more and for longer on certain notational aspects such as key and time signatures than other notational aspects such as deviations or individual notes. This selection of focused attention suggests that both expert and amateur sight-readers cognitively process music scores in a hierarchical order. In conclusion, key and time signatures appear to require more and longer fixations by both groups of readers than other aspects of the score. This supports previous research which suggests that sound musical knowledge may play a positive role in performers’ sight-reading skills, thereby contributing to more successful sight-reading performances. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, Music and Musicology, 2021
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- Date Issued: 2021-10-29
A reconceptualisation of music performance anxiety
- Authors: Van Schoor, Nina
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Performance anxiety , Music -- Performance -- Psychological aspects , Anxiety
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MMus
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/167631 , vital:41498
- Description: Music Performance Anxiety (MPA) refers to the potentially debilitating anxiety experienced before and/or during the public performance of music, despite adequate preparation. MPA is generally treated by means of drug therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy, psychoanalysis or various relaxation techniques. This research aims to present a different approach to dealing with MPA, based on a reconceptualisation of the concept. As a result, it attempts to unpack all three concepts inherent in the term from both a psychological and philosophical viewpoint. The study used autoethnography as a methodology, as I wished to explore my own lived experience of MPA and anxiety in general, in conjunction with that of my two participants, two other student Western Art music performers, and how our methods for confronting MPA within the performance context itself suggests a more complex understanding of performance and MPA than is reflected in the current literature. Thus the data was collected from two first-person interviews as well as a self-reflective written account. The results of the analysis were that existential anxiety is potentially a contributing factor to MPA, and that performance itself can potentially provide the very means for overcoming not only MPA, but all forms of anxiety, due to the cathartic quality of music as well as performance, especially when the liminal or interstructural, nature of performing and its ritualistic function is explored. This exploration reveals the world and self-disclosing nature of agency and Play, or the potential within experiences to resolve conflicts and reveal otherness. This requires a degree of existential courage, or an affirmative response to the unknown, which is more relational than the definition suggests. In conclusion, this study reconceptualises MPA as a potentially potent existential experience, and that the anxiety in response to it is considered as a reaction to the catharsis inherent in being an agent, rather than merely as an obstacle to be controlled.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Performing the township: pantsula for life
- Authors: Van Niekerk, Heather Elizabeth
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Pantsula (Dance) South Africa Johannesburg , Pantsula (Dance) South Africa Makhanda , Dance Social aspects South Africa , Sophiatown (Johannesburg, South Africa)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/57874 , vital:26998
- Description: Pantsula dance is a performing art born from the townships of Johannesburg. It is a dance form performed across South Africa, in a variety of contexts; in theatres, music videos and competitions in community halls, on national and international stages and on television, and in the streets of townships, cities and suburbs across South Africa and abroad. Its performance is widespread, but it has its beginnings as a dance form born in areas created to marginalise and oppress. There is a scarcity of academic scholarship related to pantsula dance. This thesis aims to be a contribution to that pre-existing body of knowledge in the hope that there can be further engagement on this important, and increasingly mainstream, art form. I have focused my thesis on analysing pantsula dance as a performance of 'the township'. This has been attempted through an ethnographic engagement with pantsula dancers based in different township areas of Johannesburg and Graha mstown: various members of Impilo Mapantsula, Via Katlehong, Intellectuals Pantsula, Via Kasi Movers, Dlala Majimboz and the cast of Via Katlehong's Via Sophiatown. The research was conducted between 2013 and 2016 and serves to represent various moments within the ethnographic research process, while coming to understand various aspects of pantsula dance. An engagement with notions of 'the township', the clothing choices of the pantsula 'uniform', the core moves, inherent hybridity in the form itself, and the dedication to the dance form as a representation of the isipantsula 'way of life', are addressed throughout the thesis. As well as engaging with the memory and representation of Sophiatown as an important component to pantsula dance. Pantsula dance, an intrinsically South African dance form, provides a celebratory conception of 'the township' space and allows people from different backgrounds to engage in an important part of South Africa's past, present and future.
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- Date Issued: 2018
Deconstructing “the South African jazz feel”: roots, rhythms and features of South African jazz
- Authors: Thorpe, Christopher John
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Jazz -- History and criticism , Jazz -- African influences , Jazz -- Africa --History and criticism , Jazz -- South Africa --History and criticism
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MMus
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/76649 , vital:30612
- Description: South African jazz has established itself as a distinct and influential genre in modern popular music that merges musical elements from traditional South African musics with influences from U.S.-American jazz. Formed during a time of extreme social inequality in a divided country, South African jazz became the soundtrack of the struggle against social injustice and racial oppression, and was brought to international attention by artists such as Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, and Abdullah Ibrahim who gave poignant musical expression to the hardships of the time. South African jazz is celebrated for its unique sound, original catalogue and all-important “feel”. To many listeners, performers and musicologists, it is this concept of feel that makes South African jazz so distinctive and inimitable. To date, however, much of the scholarly and popular literature on South African jazz has centred on the historical, social and political aspects of the music, with less attention given to close musical-textual analysis. A few studies have considered the melodic and harmonic language of iconic saxophonists and bass players but there are – to date – no close studies of rhythm and feel in South African jazz. Beginning to address this gap in the literature, this study uncovers some of the elements that constitute the South African jazz feel through close rhythmic and more general musical analyses of a selection of South African jazz recordings.
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- Date Issued: 2019
The ninety piano preludes of Alexander Scriabin : an analysis
- Authors: Sumter-Loosen, Leonore Olga Elisabeth
- Date: 1978
- Subjects: Scriabin, Aleksandr Nikolayevich, 1872-1915 -- Criticism and interpretation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MMus
- Identifier: vital:2672 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007323
- Description: From thesis: Except perhaps for Debussy, Scriabin appears to be the most outstanding and productive composer amongst all his contemporaries in the field of the prelude. He wrote ninety preludes for the piano.
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- Date Issued: 1978
Peter Warlock: a study of the composer through the letters to Colin Taylor between 1911 and 1929
- Authors: Smith, Barry, 1939-
- Date: 1991
- Subjects: Warlock, Peter, 1894-1930 -- Correspondence Taylor, Colin, 1881-1973 -- Correspondence Composers -- Great Britain -- Correspondence
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2657 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002323
- Description: This thesis involves a comprehensive study of the letters written by Philip Heseltine (Peter Warlock) to Colin Taylor from 1911 to 1929. Warlock first came into contact with Taylor at Eton in 1908 when he studied the piano with him as a schoolboy. Through Taylor's imaginative teaching during the next four years Warlock's interest in and understanding of music, particularly modern music, grew and matured. At the same time a strong bond of friendship developed between the two men and continued until Warlock's early death in 1930. This is clearly illustrated in the surviving 87 letters. Warlock was a great letter writer and over a thousand of them have been preserved, mostly in the British Library. His letters to Taylor have a special significance in that they were written during the entire period of his adult life, most of them during the early formative and creative years. They cover a wide range of topics including the influential friendships with the composers Frederick Delius and Bernard van Dieren, contemporary British and foreign music and his own work as a composer, writer, and scholar. They also give us many important insights into his life and personality, written as they are with rare candour and humour. In this thesis each letter has been carefully and systematically studied and the resulting information used to augment and expand the existing knowledge of Warlock's life and personality, his friendship with Taylor, his music and writings. Because of the wide field which the life and works of Peter Warlock cover, this study has been limited to subjects arising out of the correspondence with Taylor. Where necessary, additional information has been interpolated from other sources, mainly to give a sense of continuity and to explain references which might otherwise seem obscure. For a detailed study of Warlock's music readers are referred to Ian Copley's book, The Music of Peter Warlock, (Dennis Dobson, London, 1979). A definitive biography has yet to be written.
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- Date Issued: 1991
The growth, development and impact of the Grahamstown Festival of the Arts with special reference to music
- Authors: Silva, Jane Susan
- Date: 1998
- Subjects: Standard Bank National Arts Festival -- Grahamstown , Standard Bank National Arts Festival -- Influence , Grahamstown (South Africa) -- Art and music , Music -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Grahamstown
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2656 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002322 , Standard Bank National Arts Festival -- Grahamstown , Standard Bank National Arts Festival -- Influence , Grahamstown (South Africa) -- Art and music , Music -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Grahamstown
- Description: The Grahamstown Festival has become a huge and complex annual celebration of the arts, transforming the small Eastern Cape city for ten days every year. However this event had very modest beginnings, as did music and festivals in the city of Grahamstown. From its early days Grahamstown showed strong signs of becoming an important cultural centre, presenting numerous musical concerts from 1812, the festival tradition in the city beginning in 1887. The modern arts festival, initiated in 1971, had a chequered history during the early and mid 1970's, weathering economic recession, petrol restrictions and a repressive and restrictive political atmosphere. However by 1979 the event had become established and popular enough to ensure continued success during the 1980's. The period 1980-89 was one of great growth and development for the festival regarding attendance, and the number and nature of productions presented. Music had always been an integral part of the festival, and for the first time its role in this artistic celebration is being examined. The impact of such an event is varied and far-reaching, and thus difficult to assess, but the thesis ends with an attempt to gauge the Festival's impact.
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- Date Issued: 1998
Monochord to moog : a study of the development of stringed keyboard instruments with special reference to popularity trends
- Authors: Shuttleworth, Betty
- Date: 1972
- Subjects: Keyboard instruments -- History
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2676 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007441
- Description: The object of the present work has been to trace the evolution of stringed keyboard instruments from the monochord to the present day piano forte. So many inventions have occurred that a chronology of these would be both tedious and of little added value to the existing literature. In the present work the emphasis has been on those innovations which achieved some measure of popularity and can be regarded as essential steps in arriving at the products and methods of modern piano manufacturers. In order to bring this work up to date, visits have been paid to John Broadwood & Sons and the British Piano Museum in London; to the Essex Institute and Pingree House in Salem, Massachusetts; the Smithsonian Institute (Division of Musical Instruments) in Washington; the various Yamaha Factories in Hamamatsu, Japan; and the Piano Manufacturing Company in Wellington, South Africa. Special attention has also been paid to the development and popularity trends of mechanical, pneumatic and electric pianos. In the last Chapter of this study, the information gained is applied to the identification and dating of stringed keyboard instruments found in South Africa or referred to in newspapers or Africana.
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- Date Issued: 1972
Performance of Mhande song-dance: a contextualized and comparative analysis
- Authors: Rutsate, Jerry
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: Karanga (African people) -- Music Shona (African people) -- Music Folk music -- Zimbabwe Music -- Zimbabwe Folk songs, Shona Mhande Dance music -- Zimbabwe
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2655 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002321
- Description: This thesis is an investigation of the significance of Mhande song-dance in two performance contexts: the Mutoro ritual of the Karanga and the Chibuku Neshamwari Traditional Dance Competition. In addition, I undertake comparative analysis of the structure of Mhande music in relation to the structure of selected genres of Shona indigenous music. The position of Mhande in the larger context of Shona music is determined through analysis of transcriptions of the rhythmic, melodic and harmonic elements of chizambi mouth bow, karimba mbira, ngororombe panpipes, ngano story songs, game, hunting, war, and love songs. Mhande is an indigenous song-dance performed for the mutoro ceremony, the annual rain ritual of the Karanga. The Mhande repertoire consists of distinctive songs and rhythms used for communicating with the majukwa rain spirits. The rain spirits in turn communicate with God (Mwari) the provider of rain, on behalf of the Karanga. Mhande song-dance is performed exactly the same way in the annual Chibuku Neshamwari Traditional Dance Competitions as in the ritual context of the mutoro ceremony. However, in the context of the Competition, it is used for the expression of joy and as a form of cultural identity. The Competition is a forum in which Karanga songdance traditions such as Mhande, compete with other Shona song-dance traditions such as mbakumba, shangara and chinyambera. I contextualize and analyse Mhande song-dance by using the ‘Matonjeni Model’, which in terms of Karanga epistemology, is culture specific. This Model is grounded in description, interpretation and analysis; the primary methods in my research process.
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- Date Issued: 2008
Performing Emil Hartmann – The Importance of Musical Contextualisation: A practice-based research project
- Authors: Robertson, Garreth Damon
- Date: 2021-10-29
- Subjects: Hartmann, Emil, 1836-1898 , Hartmann, Emil, 1836-1898 Criticism and interpretation History 19th century , Practice (Philosophy) , Research Methodology , Contextualism (Philosophy) , Music Denmark History and criticism , Music appreciation , Musical analysis
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/190771 , vital:45026
- Description: When embarking on a journey of preparing a musical work for performance, a contextualisation process is undertaken which informs the performer/s of the factors which govern the parameters of the work. In this study, the author performed Emil Hartmann’s piano trio op. 10 as a part of an integrated master’s degree program. As the composer was not a part of mainland European musical society, information on his life and work was difficult to access, which presented the performer with a contextualisation problem. This study aimed to highlight the process of contextualisation, in the absence of sufficient literary material, through the lens of Emil Hartmann’s piano trio op. 10. The research used a three-pronged methodological approach in order to construct the narrative around Hartmann’s life and composition. Through a structured process of using practice-based research to analyse the creative process undertaken by the practitioners, alongside a micro-historical and analytical methodology, the study builds layers of understanding to inform Hartmann’s narrative, and thus provides interpretational insight into the execution of the work. The research finds that, although it is possible to interpret a musical work based on the musical score, there are layers of depth which cannot be accessed without a contextual understanding of the composer and the conditions in which the composition was written. Through forming the narrative on Emil Hartmann and his piano trio, the research uses the methodology to highlight a method which can be undertaken in the absence of contextual knowledge, and thus presents a contextual understanding of Emil Hartmann’s narrative. With the constructed knowledge, the author uses the findings based on the methodological approaches to weave a narrative around the life of Emil Hartmann. Applying the information discovered in the findings, interpretational approaches are discussed to inform future performances of the work. , Thesis (MMus) -- Faculty of Humanities, Music and Musicology, 2021
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- Date Issued: 2021-10-29
Composition portfolio
- Authors: Richard, Paul Christian Patrice
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Composition (Music) , Vocal music -- Scores
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MMus
- Identifier: vital:2695 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017548
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- Date Issued: 2015
A portfolio of original compositions exploring syncretism between Indian and western music
- Authors: Ram, Deepak
- Date: 1996
- Subjects: Raga Music -- India -- History and criticism Music -- History and criticism Jazz -- History and criticism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MMus
- Identifier: vital:2654 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002320
- Description: In this dissertation, overviews and detailed examinations of three compositions are presented. These compositions which constitute the portfolio of the M.MUS degree, are an attempt to explore syncretism between Indian and western music. Two of these works are written for a flute quartet (flute, violin, viola and cello) accompanied in part by a mridangam (Indian percussion instrument). The third work is written for a jazz quartet (piano, saxophone, double bass and drums). Syncretism between western and Indian music can take on a variety of forms, and while this concept is not new, there exists no suitable model or framework through which these compositions can be analysed. The approach used In this dissertation IS therefore guided solely by the compositions themselves. The syncretism in these works lies in the use of melodic, rhythmic and timbral elements of Indian music within two ensembles which are essentially western. This dissertation describes each of these elements in their traditional context as well as the method of incorporating them into western ensemble playing.
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- Date Issued: 1996
The piano sonatas of Muzio Clementi: an investigation into compositional aspects with special emphasis on developments in form and style
- Authors: Radloff, T E K
- Date: 1987
- Subjects: Clementi, Muzio, 1752-1832 -- Sonatas, Piano
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2653 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002319
- Description: This thesis follows on a number of studies all of which deal with selected schools of composition important in the development of the piano sonata. Muzio Clementi was one of the leading contemporaries of such great masters as Haydn. Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, all of whom contributed greatly to the repertoire of piano sonatas. During his lifetime his reputation equalled that of his contemporaries and many of his sonatas were greatly admired by the young Beethoven. Clementi was born in Rome but spent the largest part of his Ii in London where he established himself as a multi-faceted musician, being engaged in many different fields connected with music: composer, teacher, performer, publisher and manufacturer of pianos. His sonatas form the most important part of his total creative output. While the earli works still follow principles typical of the middle classical period, his later sonatas belong to a different era and foreshadow the coming of romanticism. This thesis is devoted to a detailed survey of the changes that affect the form of the various movements. It shows the gradual change from tile simple compositional methods of the early works to the inherent logical process that characterises the sonatas of the later years The first part of the thesis culminates in findings that prove Clementi IS individuality and show that his enquiring spirit makes him an innovator of the first rank. The second major part of the thesis deals with the stylistic changes that take place within the various periods of Clementiis creative life. It summarises the main ingredients of his early music, critically evaluates the importance of various pianistic devices that play a leading role in works of the middle periods and finally shows the successful blending of inherited and new techniques in the last sonatas. The concluding section details the major points of the preceding investigations and presents a picture of Clementi's personality as it emerges through the medium of his solo keyboard sonatas.
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- Date Issued: 1987
Composition portfolio
- Authors: Prince, Lloyd T
- Date: 2004
- Subjects: Music -- South Africa Composition (Music)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MMus
- Identifier: vital:2652 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002318
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- Date Issued: 2004
The requiems of Brahms and Verdi
- Authors: Pennels, Geraldine Murtel
- Date: 1994
- Subjects: Brahms, Johannes, 1833-1897 -- Requiems Verdi, Giuseppe, 1813-1901 -- Requiems Requiems -- History and criticism Requiems
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MMus
- Identifier: vital:2651 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002317
- Description: The aim of this thesis is to compare the Requiems of Brahms and Verdi, two composers who are both amongst the greatest in our Western musical history, but completely different in significant aspects, the one being by nature introspective, serious, and even inclined towards melancholy in his creative work, whether done in a religious context or not; and the other being first and foremost a composer of operas, thus specializing in music for the stage or theatre, presupposing extroversion and even a degree of flamboyancy. Brahms never wrote any operas but his oeuvre is enhanced by symphonies, sonatas and concertos of serious intent, and especially by a body of wonderful chamber music (which is perhaps the most intimate genre in Western instrumental music). Verdi, on the other hand, is known almost exclusively for his operas, and wrote little else. Then Brahms was one of the great composers of the German Lieder, again a markedly intimate genre, which suggests that he paid constant attention to fine detail. In contrast, Verdi's mentality was that of the Italian opera composer who is more concerned with flowing melodic beauty, which is a "translation into music" of the meanings and tendencies of the text.
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- Date Issued: 1994
Music and (post)colonialism : the dialectics of choral culture on a South African frontier
- Authors: Olwage, Grant
- Date: 2004
- Subjects: Choral music -- South Africa -- History Black people -- South Africa -- Music -- History and criticism Bokwe, John Knox, 1855-1922
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2679 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007717
- Description: This thesis explores the genesis of black choralism in late-nineteenth-century colonial South Africa, attending specifically to its dialectic with metropolitan Victorian choralism. In two introductory historiographic chapters I outline the political-narrative strategies by which both Victorian and black South African choralism have been elided from music histories. Part 1 gives an account of the "structures" within and through which choralism functioned as a practice of colonisation, as "internal colonialism" in Britain and evangelical colonialism in the eastern Cape Colony. In chapter 1 I suggest that the religious contexts within which choralism operated, including the music theoretical construction of the tonic sol-fa notation and method as "natural", and the "scientific" musicalisation of race, constituted conditions for the foreign mission's embrace of choralism. The second chapter explores further such affinities, tracing sol-fa choralism's institutional affiliations with nineteenth-century "reform" movements, and suggesting that sol-fa's practices worked in fulfilment of core reformist concerns such as "industry" and literacy. Throughout, the thesis explores how the categories of class and race functioned interchangeably in the colonial imagination. Chapter 3 charts this relationship in the terrain of music education; notations, for instance, which were classed in Britain, became racialised in colonial South Africa. In particular I show that black music education operated within colonial racial discourses. Chapter 4 is a reading of Victorian choralism as a "discipline", interpreting choral performance practice and choral music itself as disciplinary acts which complemented the political contexts in which choralism operated. Part 1, in short, explores how popular choralism operated within and as dominant politicking. In part 2 I turn to the black reception of Victorian choralism in composition and performance. The fifth chapter examines the compositional discourse of early black choral music, focussing on the work of John Knox Bokwe (1855-1922). Through a detailed account of several of Bokwe's works and their metropolitan sources, particularly late-nineteenth century gospel hymnody, I show that Bokwe's compositional practice enacted a politics that became anticolonial, and that early black choral music became "black" in its reception. I conclude that ethno/musicological claims that early black choral music contains "African" musical content conflate "race" and culture under a double imperative: in the names of a decolonising politics and a postcolonial epistemology in which hybridity as resistance is racialised. The final chapter explores how "the voice" was crucial to identity politics in the Victorian world, an object that was classed and racialised. Proceeding from the black reception of choral voice training, I attempt to outline the beginnings of a social history of the black choral voice, as well as analyse the sonic content of that voice through an approach I call a "phonetics of timbre".
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- Date Issued: 2004
An investigation into the application of Austrian didactics and methods of elementary musical education in South African school
- Authors: Nowotny, Ingrid Heidelinde
- Date: 1970
- Subjects: School music -- Instruction and study -- South Africa , Music -- Study and teaching (Elementary) , Music theory -- Elementary works
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MMus
- Identifier: vital:2688 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012970
- Description: Why teach music? To answer this question one has to be able to see the full value of musical education. One has to recognize its effect on the unfolding of character and personality on the one hand and, on the other, its value for the development and sharpening of the intellect. In ancient Greece, the cradle of Western culture, the significance of music for man, the people, and the state was frequently emphasized. The Greeks regarded music almost as a magic force, the inherent harmony of which was capable of transforming things and creating order by reconciling contrarieties. Similarly they believed that the power of music could restore the harmony in man's soul. Intro., p.1.
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- Date Issued: 1970
A portfolio of original compositions with a commentary
- Authors: Nkuna, Musa
- Date: 2000
- Subjects: String quartets -- Scores Song cycles -- Scores Music -- Africa -- Scores
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MMus
- Identifier: vital:2698 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018689
- Description: This portfolio consists of four diverse original compositions written in 1999 : a string quartet, a cello suite and a set of two choral pieces.
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- Date Issued: 2000