https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3857-9217
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ABSTRACT
The two recent doctoral projects compared in this essay explore the affordances of centring the authors’ respective musical practices against the backdrop of the ongoing quest for African (ethno)musicological approaches. Foregrounding the life-long embodied perspectives of the authors as musicians/dancers, they report on seeking out less canonised disciplinary reference points on which to ground these understandings, and share the approaches found to be conducive (viz., creative systems theory and creative musicology). Despite attending to different practice registers and repertoires (musical arrangements within African hymnody compared with art music composition derived from traditional dance principles), they demonstrate how starting from, and centring, their respective practices has allowed local specificity to bring distinctive, new insights to their research in ways that may be of interest to a wider academic community.
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Notes
1 This article has emerged from an extended dialogue between the authors and their PhD (funded by the National Institute of Humanities and Social Science), (co)supervisor, who has played a supporting role in its drafting. Also, accompanying images that appear do not require any third-party permissions.
2 Among these, Étienne Wenger’s notion of communities of practice has been influential (initially conceived, with anthropologist Jean and Wenger (Citation1991), within educational theory with reference to apprenticeship as a learning model), especially in music education.
3 Ethics clearance was granted by the Human Research Ethics Committee (Non-Medical) of the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, protocol number H18/05/12.
4 Interview with Gerald Yaze and Selby Mbenenge (2018).
5 From my recently completed doctoral study to be accessible in 2022, entitled: Transnationalisation and Indigenisation of Euro-American Hymns in South Africa through the Creative Agency of Arranging.
6 Interview with Jongimpi Papu (2018).
7 Coplan (Citation2007) and Ballantine (Citation2012) provide insights on the development of music and its diversity of styles since the 1940s around Johannesburg.
8 Phillips (Citation2014) recounts the history of Soweto dating from the early 1900s (pre-apartheid) to its official naming in 1963 (during apartheid).
9 Other earlier ensembles anticipated the work of our group. An elaborate history of local ensemble practices between 1950 and 2020 is documented in my doctoral research.
11 These are contextualised and explored in my thesis.
12 This segment draws on a broader question I address in my doctoral thesis focusing on the integration of Euro-American hymns in South Africa through the creative agency of arranging.
13 Pamela Burnard (Citation2012) writes on musical creativity in education and Guerino Mazzola, Joomi Park, and Florian Thalmann (Citation2011) write on musical creativity in composition and improvisation. My position is informed by a study in a Western setting by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Citation1999). He produces compelling theoretical propositions of a social-systemic nature in studying creativity.
14 For example, the Philosophy states that:
‘5 – Music reveals creativity in that it draws from quality melodies. If harmonized, it uses harmonies in an interesting and artistic way, and employs rhythm that complements them.
6 – Vocal music employs lyrics that positively stimulate intellectual abilities as well as our emotions and our will power. Good lyrics are creative, rich in content, and of good composition. They focus on the positive and reflect moral values; they educate and uplift; and they correspond with sound biblical theology.' https://www.adventist.org/guidelines/a-seventh-day-adventist-philosophy-of-music/ (Accessed 22 December 2021) and more details as provided in my thesis.
15 Some studies in music have considered Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of ‘flow' as a state of mind in the process of creativity, e.g. Thram (Citation1999) and others.
16 This was addressed in a conference paper in 2018, in which Simon Mckerrell (Citation2021) centers practice as method and object in extending the observation of culture and society through what he terms ‘translational’ ethnomusicology. Separately, Steven Feld (Citation2012) argues for the value of the object of study to be central among post-ethnomusicology alternatives, for example acoustics as an epistemic tool (acoustemology).
17 Lewis Gordon (Citation2018) argues for black aesthetics and an understanding for the people and their production equally, the idea of the culturally universal and the particular is articulated by Kwasi Wiredu (Citation1996) in recognising local cultural value.
18 Detterbeck (Citation2002) refers to early perspectives of Hugh Tracey. This view is also separately asserted by Agawu (Citation2016) on how African music has been studied.
19 Dent in his study of ‘The Harmonic Development of the Black Religious Quartet Singing Tradition’ in the United States (Citation1997), corroborates this.
20 Additional studies on localisation practices appear in ‘Music in the Life of the Church’, the work of King et al. (Citation2008).
21 Interview with Stanley Cakata (2018).
22 These are choruses that have often been sung with bodily movement over the years https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJCB1McujvA&ab_channel=RichardMartin, these are translated hymns that have not always been sung with bodily movement until recent years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QvU_d5jpWI&ab_channel=SifisoDesire.
23 These are translated hymns that have not always been sung with bodily movement until recent years https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QvU_d5jpWI&ab_channel=SifisoDesire.
24 Hymns are recognised as practice in the work of Detterbeck concerning South African choral cultures.
25 Performance based on the original 1886 score accessible at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSApZJ1HNyg with score.
26 From the archived Southern African Union Conference (SAUC) 1950s committee minutes.
27 Interview with Thula Nkosi (2019).
28 Original recorded version can be accessed on https://samap.ukzn.ac.za/sites/default/files/audio/ILAM/CR0635-GU1-30-4871.mp3.
29 1991 recording not available through conventional channels (released independently to church members/ audiences).
30 Ethics clearance was granted by the Human Research Ethics Committee (Non-Medical) of the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, protocol number H16/04/14.
31 African Musicology is a term that was used by scholars who identified themselves as scholars that were researchers but composers at the same time who aligned themselves with the term Creative Musicology. Some of the notable African scholars who have advocated for African Musicology are J.H. Kwabena Nketia (Citation1974), Jean Ngoya Kidula (Citation2006), Kofi Agawu (Citation2003), Geoff Mapaya (Citation2014) and many others.
32 I am aware that most African countries have been formally decolonialised for over half a century, with South Africa being the last but that does not translate to a complete restoration of some local identities.
33 I am aware that debates regarding appropriate notation for African music are ongoing (Agawu Citation2016; Grupe Citation2005; Koetting Citation1970). I ended up coming up with a simple notation system that uses numbers to perform cultural dance and all this I would like to credit it to my co-supervisor, Prof. Zaidel-Rudolph, who made a huge contribution to my PhD.
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Notes on contributors
Kgomotso Moshugi
Kgomotso Moshugi is a researcher in the humanities and social sciences, and a cultural practitioner whose interests integrate conventional qualitative modes of inquiry with those that are artistic, concerning choral cultures and ensembles, creativity, arranging, leadership, cultural policy and entrepreneurship.
Evans Netshivhambe
Evans Netshivhambe is a young South African composer interested in African music identity through African art composition. His PhD in music composition incorporates Venda rhythmic elements into African art music exploring a new sound world through composition.
Brett Pyper
Brett Pyper is a nationally rated, interdisciplinary South African music and humanities scholar and professional arts practitioner with a longstanding interest in multi- and interdisciplinarity and the interface between theory and practice.