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Beyond mastery: jazz, gender and power in postapartheid South Africa

- Williams, Ulagh

Authors: Williams, Ulagh
Date: 2023-10-13
Subjects: Uncatalogued
Language: English
Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/432505 , vital:72876 , DOI 10.21504/10962/432512
Description: This dissertation studies the musical lives of seven South African women who have built highprofile national and international careers as jazz musicians. Empirically it records self-reported experiences and actions that they have identified as relevant to their success within a notoriously patriarchal field. Drawing on feminist research methods and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis the dissertation strives to develop an empathic yet critical epistemological framework attuned to the complexities of their lived experiences as women and as jazz musicians. Theoretically it investigates the power relations at play in the myriad ways they negotiate or have been impelled to negotiate gender and patriarchy as musicians. Chapter one draws attention to the ubiquity of patriarchy in South African and international jazz culture, and highlights the research participants’ numerous successes to date as performers, educators, composers, and bandleaders. Chapter two positions this study in relation to cognate work in South African jazz studies, international feminist jazz studies and feminist phenomenology. Chapters three to five successively consider the participants’ early enculturation as musical and gendered subjects, their agentic responses to structures of patriarchy and/or race as emerging and established professionals, and the ways these experiences have found expression in some of their musical utterances as performers and composers. Fusing art and activism, the participants challenge and transcend masculinist discourses of mastery that still dominate South African jazz as a field of production and aesthetic practice. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, Music and Musicology, 2023
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Date Issued: 2023-10-13

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Jazz pedagogical strategies: an A/R/Tographic investigation into the implementation of the South African jazz CAPS syllabus

- Rungan, Natalie

Authors: Rungan, Natalie
Date: 2023-10-13
Subjects: Jazz Instruction and study , Durban High School Curricula , Jazz Outlines, syllabi, etc. , Curriculum-based assessment South Africa , Jazz vocals , Jazz education , South Africa. Department of Basic Education
Language: English
Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/432488 , vital:72875 , DOI 10.21504/10962/432488
Description: The Jazz stream of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement Further Education and Training music curriculum was introduced in South Africa in 2012 (DBE, 2011a). Despite the intentions of the government to promote diversity, social transformation, and inclusion, subject music is still weighted towards Western Art Music, perpetuating past biases of a Eurocentric model for music education. This study, which uses a mixed-method approach, seeks to create strategies to advance Jazz education in South Africa through an a/r/tographic analysis of the author’s Jazz pedagogical methods at Durban High School in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. Key approaches include curriculum theory, currere, a/r/tography, among others. After reviewing Jazz pedagogy in the U.S.A. and South Africa as a starting point, using Pinar’s (1994) method of currere, the author demonstrates how past personal music educational processes have led to present Jazz pedagogical methods. Six original compositions were written that outline the influences that infused these methods and added to the creative output related to this research. Interviews were conducted with key stakeholders in the Jazz community to gain perspective about the current state of Jazz education, and with students to provide insight into their reactions to the Jazz stream of CAPS. This presents new information about the curriculum from a learners’ perspective. Ethical clearance for research with children was sought and received (Appendix A). Findings show that the ability of learners to recognise the value in, and identity relating to, their African culture through Jazz points to a pivotal departure from previous Eurocentric music education models. However, despite South Africa being positioned as one of the only countries offering Jazz as a subject choice to high school learners, the selection of Jazz in the subject of Music remains underutilised. This study concludes that for Jazz education to advance in South African high schools, there needs to be intentional engagement with Jazz professionals at the high school level. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, Music and Musicology, 2023
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Date Issued: 2023-10-13

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Perceptions of African musical arts education in foundation and intermediate phases in government schools as seen through the South African academy since 2011: an exploration through meta-ethnography

- Chirombo, Ilana Elize Caroline

Authors: Chirombo, Ilana Elize Caroline
Date: 2023-10-13
Subjects: Music Instruction and study South Africa , Music of Africa , Arts, African , Traditional knowledge , Qualitative research , Ethnography
Language: English
Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/425366 , vital:72233
Description: The aim of this study is twofold: first, to understand meta-ethnography as a tool of synthesis; second, to use this methodology to explore perceptions of African musical arts education in the Foundation and Intermediate Phases in government schools in South Africa after 2011. Meta-ethnography is a methodology used to synthesise qualitative material by means of seven distinct phases: getting started; deciding what is relevant to the initial interest; reading the studies; determining how they are related; translating the studies into one another; weaving them together into a synthesis; and expressing the synthesis. This study synthesises five articles discovered through a deep search of the literature. Through the process of synthesis, a narrative emerges that connects past prejudice in music education in South Africa to present day educational inequality, one that looks towards a future in which children’s agency is harnessed in the multicultural world we live in to teach music in a relevant, contextual way. The synthesis extracts perceptions on colonialism and apartheid; educational access; post-apartheid curricula; music education pedagogies; informal music making; children’s games and agency; into the classroom; and how to assess. These themes weave a clear perspective on African musical arts education, and a reciprocal synthesis of the views of the articles’ authors. This study finds meta-ethnography to be a rigorous, understandable methodological tool for qualitative synthesis, one which serves the purpose of researchers, no matter the depth of their engagement with the synthesis. , Thesis (MMus) -- Faculty of Humanities, Music and Musicology, 2023
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Date Issued: 2023-10-13

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Singing madness: three performative analyses of the “mad scene” from Lucia di Lammermoor

- Le Kay, Jo-Nette

Authors: Le Kay, Jo-Nette
Date: 2023-10-13
Subjects: Mental illness in music , Bel canto , Donizetti, Gaetano, 1797-1848. Lucia di Lammermoor. Dolce suono , Coloratura soprano , Embellishment (Vocal music) , Performativity
Language: English
Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/425377 , vital:72234
Description: This study describes three internationally recognised sopranos and their presentations of character psychology on stage, during their performances of the famous “mad scene” from Gaetano Donizetti’s opera Lucia di Lammermoor. These sopranos are Joan Sutherland, Mariella Devia, and Lisette Oropesa. I use Margaret Kartomi’s (2014) model of performativity to interpret the “madness” depicted by the three selected sopranos, as based on my interpretations of commercially released audio-visual recordings of their performances in the role of Lucia. Through analysing these performances with the help of Kartomi’s performativity model (which focuses on persona, emotion-and intersubjectivity, and reception), my research determines – with speculative interpretation, and within the reasonable limits of standard psychiatric frameworks – which mental illnesses the sopranos can be understood to have portrayed in their interpretations of the role of Lucia. The study’s goal is not to make an accurate mental health diagnosis of someone’s portrayal of a fictional character. (Considering the fact that one cannot make accurate mental health diagnoses for people who do not exist.) Rather, my focus is to discover which dramatic and possibly musical characteristics are utilised to perform this fictional character and give expressive content to her “madness”. The concept of “madness” and its psychological characterisation during performance thus becomes the framework from which to interpret and understand vocal and acting techniques related to opera in general and to bel canto more specifically. My research findings are that the three performers use facial expressions, different aspects of using the voice through bel canto singing, and body movements as a way of expression. Bel canto characteristics include coloratura embellishments, fioritura, melismas, messa di voce, squillo and chiaroscuro. The sopranos also show musical and dramatic elements in how they respond to the flute or glass harmonica during the ‘Mad Scene’ – which counts as the personae expressed by the performers. These personae are further applied in the emotional and intersubjectivity and the reception aspects of Kartomi’s performativity model. In the emotional and intersubjectivity aspect, the chorus and other characters singing on stage are read as emphasising the reaction of society on the mentally dysfunctional behaviour enacted by the sopranos. In the reception aspect, reviewers are used to filling in for audience members. I read their reactions as contributing factors in forming an understanding of the interpretations of the “mad scene” performed by the three sopranos. My reading of the three interpretations of the “mad scene” goes further by subjectively interpreting how these sopranos approximate different states of mental collapse. These readings include approximations of psychosis such as mania, dissociative personality disorder, and paranoid schizophrenic behaviour. Always, though, these mental health behaviours are identified as approximations to better understand vocal and acting techniques. , Thesis (MMus) -- Faculty of Humanities, Music and Musicology, 2023
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Date Issued: 2023-10-13

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The use of creative-arts therapies in treating trauma-related mental health conditions in South Africa: perspectives from three practising creative-arts therapists

- Makube, Tshegofatso Bennia Basetsana

Authors: Makube, Tshegofatso Bennia Basetsana
Date: 2023-10-13
Subjects: Arts Therapeutic use , Mental health South Africa , Mental health services South Africa , Health services accessibility South Africa , Psychological trauma , Stigma (Social psychology) , Mental illness Social aspects South Africa
Language: English
Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/425399 , vital:72235
Description: Multiple factors contribute to the prevailing mental health conditions of South Africans. According to Kaminer and Eagle (2010, p.8), 75% of South Africans are trauma survivors, half of whom have experienced multiple traumas, some directly and some indirectly. However, many trauma survivors are not adequately treated due to the limited access and availability of mental health specialists in the country. Thus, mainstream medical treatments ought to be supplemented by alternative forms of therapy such as creative-arts therapy that cater to the wide demographic range of citizens in South Africa. This research aims to explore the efficacy of creative-arts therapies as a treatment for trauma-related mental health conditions in South Africa from the perspectives of three practising creative-arts therapists. The research is a qualitative study and uses Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to interpret the data. The research participants consisted of three accredited creative-art therapists practising in Music, Art, and Dance. The participants were interviewed using semi-structured, in-depth interviews which were conducted online. The interview data was transcribed and analysed using the IPA framework provided by Smith, Flowers and Larkin (2009). The results yielded three superordinate themes which were supported by eight subordinate themes. The results suggest that creative-arts therapies are underutilized in South Africa due to a lack of public awareness and general (mis)perceptions about mental health conditions. Furthermore, access to these therapies in formal settings is limited as they are not offered as treatment options in public health facilities, which negatively impacts the viability of creative-arts therapies practice in the country. Creative-arts therapies offer several unique benefits to individuals of all ages, backgrounds and abilities as they do not require prior artistic knowledge or experience to participate in treatment. In addition, they are non-verbal which helps to bridge the language and cultural barriers that often arise as a result of South Africa’s diverse cultural population. Finally, creative-arts therapies are an effective method of treating mental health conditions incurred through trauma as they focus on accessing stored trauma in the body or unconscious mind through a natural and non-judgemental platform of creative expression. As a result, they address the physical, emotional, psychological, and cognitive effects of trauma while empowering the individual. In conclusion, this research suggests that creative-arts therapies are highly effective in the treatment of trauma-related mental health conditions, particularly in a country like South Africa which experiences high incidents of trauma. They should be better integrated into public health care facilities so that they are accessible to the general public. This will result in an increase in the use of creative-arts therapies as a treatment option for mental health conditions, particularly those related to trauma. It would also help to address the limited awareness and poor perceptions of the nature of mental health, mental illness, mental health care and mental health care services. , Thesis (MMus) -- Faculty of Humanities, Music and Musicology, 2023
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Date Issued: 2023-10-13

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Instrument building as a tool for the revitalisation and revaluing of traditional music transmission: An investigation in Tshandama and Mbahe in Venda, South Africa

- Makhanza, Joseph

Authors: Makhanza, Joseph
Date: 2023-03-31
Subjects: Instrument making , Ecomusicology South Africa Venda , Venda (African people) Music , Group identity South Africa Venda , Musical instruments South Africa Venda , Environmental awareness
Language: English
Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/419525 , vital:71651
Description: This study stems from my experiences as a child who grew up playing herd boys’ musical instruments from Venda, such as the tshipotoliyo (ocarina), and tshitiringo (flute). Importantly it also builds on my time working at the International Library of African Music (ILAM,) where the aforementioned instruments, as well as the dende (musical bow) and tshizambi (Vhavenda and Vatsonga mouth bow), are displayed in transparent glass cubicles with a note, “Do not touch, they are fragile”. This phrase is painfully apt because, as a musician, I have observed a decline in the availability and performance of these musical instruments. The truth is that, other than at ILAM, these instruments are hardly in circulation, let alone being performed. This fact ignited my interest in relearning some of the musical instruments I used to play and make while herding cows in Giyani. In the context of trends such as modernisation, rural–urban migration, and globalisation, I document my experiences as a musical-instrument maker, teacher, and performer in revitalising dende, tshipotoliyo, tshitiringo, and tshizambi through classroom practice, using Rhodes music students, instrument-making workshops, performances, and community collaborations as inspiration. I propose the development of crafting skills as a medium for revitalising and sustaining these musical instruments which serve as important identity markers of the Vhavenda people. , Thesis (MMus) -- Faculty of Humanities, Music and Musicology, 2023
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Date Issued: 2023-03-31

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A critical analysis of Professor Andrew Tracey’s contribution to African music pedagogy and the field of applied ethnomusicology

- Moyo, Vuyelwa O'Lacy

Authors: Moyo, Vuyelwa O'Lacy
Date: 2022-10-14
Subjects: Tracey, Andrew T N , Ethnomusicology , Music Instruction and study Africa , Mbira Zimbabwe
Language: English
Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/406829 , vital:70311
Description: The research presented in this thesis is based on my interest and experience in forms of African music, ethnomusicology, and studying mbira with Professor Emeritus Andrew Tracey. When I arrived in South Africa in 2019 to join Rhodes University’s Applied Ethnomusicology programme, I chose to study the mbira with Tracey as the idea of learning more about Zimbabwe through music was important to the formation of my identity. Through the lens of embodied learning and a practice-based approach in this research, I evaluate how Tracey’s numerous contributions to African music pedagogy have improved prospects for African music scholars and students in terms of contributing to the goals of applied ethnomusicology. The primary purpose of this thesis is to respond to the absence of serious scrutiny of existing pedagogical approaches to African music at universities across South Africa. The contribution this research makes will be valuable to African music programmes across the continent as well as to practitioners of African traditional instruments, such as the marimba, mbira, timbila xylophones, nyanga pan pipes, and valimba xylophones. The thesis comprises five chapters. The first presents an introduction to the research, and its goals, procedures and approaches, along with an outline of the subsequent chapters. Tracey’s biography is covered in the second chapter. A consideration of the state of African music teaching in other African countries such as Ghana, Kenya, and Zimbabwe; the history of African music; and the state of African music pedagogy in tertiary institutions in South Africa constitutes the third chapter. Chapter 4 comprises an analysis of Tracey’s articles and data gathered from interviews, as well as my personal reflections as Tracey’s student. The final chapter presents a summary of the preceding chapters, the study’s findings, and suggestions for further research. A multidisciplinary approach was used for this thesis. The results finds that Tracey’s articles had six common themes which he wrote about and are a contribution to African music pedagogy. These themes are the history of instruments, the structure of the instrument, the learning/playing technique, structure of the instrument, transcription and dance steps. , Thesis (MMus) -- Faculty of Humanities, Music and Musicology, 2022
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Date Issued: 2022-10-14

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Composition Portfolio

- Hanmer, Paul Dylan

Authors: Hanmer, Paul Dylan
Date: 2022-10-14
Subjects: Composition (Music) , String quartets Scores , Symphonies Scores , Music South Africa
Language: English
Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/327283 , vital:61100 , DOI 10.21504/10962/327283
Description: Extract from Introduction: “In the cover bands I worked with, I used to do what all my colleagues in these bands were doing to learn and remember repertoire; transcribe “by ear” and then rehearse with the whole band. Later, when I joined “909” [a cover band named after the “909” model of drum-box developed and built by the Japanese company, Roland] I learned to extend that skill by notating my transcriptions and then playing from these self-made keyboard parts. All the instrumentalists in that band likewise played from their own notated transcriptions and, from that time onward it became rarer for me to do any kind of performance work without a set of self-made parts to read from or refer to. I had thus reverted to performing from musical notation. Even later, when I became involved almost exclusively in improvisational music performance, I never quite abandoned the notion of having notated keyboard or piano parts to hand, as a reference or guide. Since about 1990, I have led a life that has increasingly left pop music behind and instead embraced working with improvising musicians; those who wish to explore South African folk idioms in their compositional and performance output, as well as others who have a deep love of jazz music. At the same time, I have re-entered the realm of classical music and music-making; often through writing arrangements of my own music, which would incorporate classically trained players, as well as in response to commissions to compose [for particular musicians or groups of musicians] fully notated pieces of music – such as the works in this PhD portfolio. Yet, there are many circumstantial factors that feed into my composing, and exert an influence on my creativity. A major step in this particular direction came during 2002 when composer, Michael Blake, asked me to contribute to The Bow Project. This commission brought me into close contact with the [then intact and very active] Sontonga Quartet. Several further requests for, and commissions of, new works followed on from there. Two such works constitute the major portion of the portfolio to which these reflexive commentaries refer.” , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, Music and Musicology, 2022
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Date Issued: 2022-10-14

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The soul of Mozambique: an autoethnographic and performance-based study on the correlation of glabalisation, Chopi people migrations and the reinterpretation of timbila music in Mozambique

- Bande Júnior, Venâncio

Authors: Bande Júnior, Venâncio
Date: 2022-10-14
Subjects: Timbila , Chopi (African people) Mozambique , Music festivals Mozambique , Traditional knowledge , Music and globalization , Modernity , Traditional folk music
Language: English
Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/406818 , vital:70310
Description: This is an autoethnographic and performance-based study on the correlation between indigenous and modern cultures. It discusses the influence of globalisation, modernity, and of the Chopi people migrations to Maputo, the main city of Mozambique and to gold and platinum mines in South Africa, on timbila music. Timbila is both the name of a musical instrument (xylophone) and of a cultural manifestation, practiced by the Chopi people from Mozambique. It is one of the most documented music and dance cultures in Mozambique and was proclaimed as a masterpiece of the oral and immaterial heritage of humanity by UNESCO in 2005. The oldest references by Father Andre Fernandes date from the 16th century. However, the most well-known timbila sources were written and recorded by Hugh Tracey, the founder of the International Library of African Music (ILAM), from 1940s. All these sources were based on traditional timbila music. None refers to contemporary timbila music, which is a mixture of timbila with Western musical instruments. The research is thus based on both historical and is new research to understand the role of the phenomena mentioned above to the reinterpretation of timbila music over the time. Performance based and autoethnography methods were selected because of my role as a pedagogue of the music and culture of timbila, allowing me to express my knowledge on this cultural expression. Literature review and interviews are the two procedures of data collecting employed to get an understanding of the research methods; the phenomena of modernity, globalisation and of the Chopis migration for the searching of better living conditions in Maputo and South Africa; and the approaches of different scholars who have written about timbila. The use of these methods and methodologies, allowed me to conclude that, Chopis migrations, modernity and globalisation has allowed the emergence of a modern version of timbila music; internationalisation and dissemination of this musical expression; and contributes to the extinction of traditional timbila orchestras in Zavala. Despite considerable studies on timbila music and culture, this thesis is important and pioneering, from the perspective of studying the influence of Chopis migrations, globalisation and modernity on timbila and is one of the few sources that approach the contemporary timbila music. , Thesis (MMus) -- Faculty of Humanities, Music and Musicology, 2022
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Date Issued: 2022-10-14

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Composition portfolio

- Lemmer, Elizabeth Kate

Authors: Lemmer, Elizabeth Kate
Date: 2022-04
Subjects: Composition (Music) , Music South Africa , COVID-19 (Disease) and the arts , Emotions in music , Violin music Scores , String quartets Scores , Chamber music Scores
Language: English
Type: Master's thesis , text , sheet music
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/232624 , vital:50008
Description: In this portfolio I reflect on issues Covid-19 has brought to our communities and the possibilities of creating a brighter future. My music reflects the struggle that most people have faced in the last two years, the emotions and the conspiracies surrounding the experience, and the effect of solitude. In a time such as this it is almost inevitable that the music being composed is connected to the struggle in society at large. For ma composition is a journal of the heart. The pandemic has created a situation where most are out of touch with each other, have lost all previous routine and structure, where relationships are broken due to lack of personal contact, and almost everyone has unwillingly (or unwittingly) been thrust into self-reflection. Every day sees a new struggle to squeeze in all those pre-pandemic ideals so that some normalcy can be obtained, but this is not a time to be looking back. It’s a time to understand what we are going through, build new joy and excitement for this different life and learn to live the best we can with the opportunities we are given. There has not been a more important time to foster some form of connection with friends and family, and to be as strong and supportive as possible. The portfolio begins with a solo violin piece, Unwelcome Solitude, which exemplifies the loneliness and sadness during the various lockdowns over the last two years, with hints of the past and the difficulties in trying to resurrect pre-Covid-19 times. There are some unusual expressive markings to add to the descriptive effect within the piece. This is followed by The Pandemic, two serialism works: Panic and Pain scored for a string quartet. Both of these pieces apply a flexible use of serialism to emphasize out the emotional aspects of the music, and quite simply; the panic and the pain caused by Covid-19 and the country’s response to the pandemic as a whole. Finally there is a three movement chamber piece titled A Storm Series which quite literally represents the series of events that occur from the upcoming to the closure of a typical Highveld storm. Further than this, these pieces represent the series of events that occurred in South Africa from the first rumour of the Covid-19 virus starting to circle around the world, through the various lockdowns and progression of events in our country and abroad. The final movement of this series, Re-awakening, ends on a positive note representing the rainbow at the end of the storm, and the positive outlook for South Africa to keep persevering through the pandemic. , Thesis (MMus) -- Faculty of Humanities, Music and Musicology, 2022
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Date Issued: 2022-04

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Gaze patterns of expert and amateur sight-readers with particular focus on the cognitive underpinnings of reading key and time signatures

- Viljoen, Jacobus Frederick

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

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Performing Emil Hartmann – The Importance of Musical Contextualisation: A practice-based research project

- Robertson, Garreth Damon

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

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The Effects of Monaural Beat Technology on Learners' Experiences of Music Performance Anxiety (MPA)

- Flanagan, Jayson Edward

Authors: Flanagan, Jayson Edward
Date: 2021-10-29
Subjects: Performance anxiety Alternative treatment , School music South Africa Makhanda , Music students South Africa Makhanda Examinations , Beats (Acoustics) Psychological aspects , Monaural Beat Technology
Language: English
Type: Masters theses , text
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/188419 , vital:44752
Description: Music performance anxiety (MPA) is related to the experience of persisting, distressful, apprehensions about and/or actual impairment of performance skills in a public context, to a degree unwarranted given the individual’s musical aptitude, training and level of preparation (Salmon 1990). This research project set out to investigate learners’ subjective experiences of the effects of monaural beat (MB) vibrational frequencies on their experiences of MPA. The research project was a qualitative study based on a phenomenological research paradigm, which fundamentally aims to explore an experience in its own terms (Smith et al. 2009). The research participants consisted of four subject music pupils at St Andrew’s College and The Diocesan School for Girls and were interviewed through in-depth, semi-structured interviews over two practical examinations. The results suggested that various factors contribute to the experience of music performance anxiety, such as the performers’ perceptions of audience reactions, as well as the context of the performance. Self-esteem and the performer’s fragile sense of self-worth and self-confidence also play an important role in influencing their music performance anxiety. However, listening to monaural beats during a performance has the ability to lower levels of music performance anxiety by eliciting the following effects: an improved sense of confidence within the listeners; a sense of calm; the monaural beats working on a passive awareness level that allows the beat to operate at a sub-conscious level; the ability to focus better on the task at hand as well as benefit the listener in non-musical contexts such as studying; general concentration or ordinary tasks such as gardening or going for a run. The research suggests that listening to monaural beats during a musical performance can benefit the performer by lowering levels of MPA. As a result, the performer will experience an improved sense of confidence, calmness and the ability to focus better on the task at hand. Monaural beats have also shown to be a useful method of dealing with MPA instead of resorting to pharmaceutical drugs or other methods of coping such as playing games for distraction. , Thesis (MMus) -- Faculty of Humanities, Music and Musicology, 2021
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Date Issued: 2021-10-29

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The prominence of choral music in the search for, and preservation of, an African identity: A study focusing on the role of choral composers in the formation of black nationalism during and after the colonial era in South Africa

- Nelani, Athenkosi

Authors: Nelani, Athenkosi
Date: 2021-10-29
Subjects: Choral music South Africa , Choral singing South Africa , Black people Race identity South Africa , Black nationalism South Africa , Composers, Black South Africa , Amakwaya
Language: English
Type: Master's theses , text
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/190965 , vital:45045
Description: In South Africa, choral music has been prominent in schools, churches, and community choirs since the 19th century. However, the majority of South Africans know little of the history of indigenous choral music. This study investigates the origins of South African indigenous choral music, its canonic figures, and their contribution to this genre in promoting an African identity among the indigenous people of South Africa. Using the methodological lens of historical ethnomusicology, this thesis explores the genesis of choral music in South Africa. Choral music was introduced to the region when it was first colonised by the Dutch East India Company in 1652. Missionaries established institutions in the villages of the local people and translated the Bible and hymn books into the local languages. These actions had lasting consequences for music, and choral singing was greatly advanced. In addition, in this work early composers of South African indigenous choral music are recognised in an effort to establish a choral canon. Three definitive choral periods are recognised, namely those of the first-generation, second-generation, and post-colonial composers. Using this historical framework, this thesis investigates the social and political influence these composers had on African identity during the liberation struggles in the late colonial era and during the early apartheid period. The history and compositions of the composers are discussed, including how they used their compositions as political tools and as mouthpieces to communicate societal issues of concern to the indigenous people during and after the colonial era. , Thesis (MMus) -- Faculty of Humanities, Music and Musicology, 2021
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Date Issued: 2021-10-29

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A reconceptualisation of music performance anxiety

- Van Schoor, Nina

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

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Composition portfolio

- Cooper, Corinne Jane

Authors: Cooper, Corinne Jane
Date: 2019
Subjects: Xhosa (African people) -- Music , Musical bow -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Sound recordings in ethnomusicology -- South Africa , Dywili, Nofinishi. The bow project , Music -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
Language: English
Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MMus
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/168338 , vital:41568
Description: In June 2014, I was introduced to Christine Dixie by a film maker I had worked with on a previous project. Christine was looking for a composer who could arrange a soundtrack around musical themes that she had commissioned from Jared Lang to accompany her video installation To Be King (Dixie 2014. Jared composed five different melodies that I wove into a palette of sounds that comprised the soundtrack. To Be King was exhibited at the National Arts Festival in 2014 as part of the Main Festival. It moved to Cape Town in 2015 and 2017, to Venice and London in 2017, and to Lithuania in 2018. In 2017, Christine approached me to compose a soundtrack for a different work, based again on seventeenth century Spanish artist, Velázquez’ painting ‘Las Meninas’ (1656), but this time, using a series of sculptures representing the different figures in the painting, a reinterpretation with strong Eastern Cape (South Africa) themes and associations. Christine proposed reimagining the figures in the painting by clothing them in Shweshwe 1 material and placing African masks on each of them, masks that she had sought out during her travels around Africa. The use of Shweshwe material, ties the figures very closely to the Eastern Cape, and in particular, close to where I grew up in Alice, just 60 kilometres away from where it is manufactured in King William’s Town. Alice is important in the unfolding of this portfolio as Ntsikana, purportedly the first Xhosa person to be converted to Christianity and a prophet, lived in Peddie (which is about 70 kilometers from Grahamstown and Rhodes University) and Gqora, near the Kat River District which is located in the Amathola District near Alice. (Kumalo 2015, p.26). Alice is steeped in history, and is the town where Lovedale Mission Station was founded in 1824 and later, the Lovedale Press in 1861. Therefore, this project felt close to my roots, hence this interaction between Western and African cultures is very relevant to my world view and has impacted on my scoring of this music. I was initially challenged by the idea that the project would require a deeper understanding of traditional Xhosa music and while I had been exposed to Xhosa culture while growing up in Alice, my formative years were largely shaped by the culture of my Christian parents who immigrated to South Africa from England during the 1960s. During the first decade of the twentieth century, in my capacity as a sound engineer, I was tasked with recording and mastering a double CD called The Bow Project. Various South African composers were invited to transcribe and paraphrase or reimagine traditional Xhosa bow music for the classical string quartet. The uhadi songs 2 of Nofinishi Dywili formed the basis for many of these intercultural explorations, and I recorded and mastered the string quartets as well as 12 individual recordings of Dywili’s music. I spent many hours listening to Dywili’s recordings while I mastered them, but though I was very familiar with how they sounded, I realised, as I started compiling this portfolio, that I was not familiar with their notation and rhythmic structures. I approach sound engineering with a very different ear and sonic perspective to that of a composer. To learn more about uhadi bow music I visited the International Library of African Music (ILAM) which is housed by Rhodes University in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape. Here I consulted with sound engineer and African music specialist, Elijah Madiba, on Xhosa instruments and traditional music-making. With Madiba’s assistance I listened carefully to different bow performances and examined a variety of instruments. After this introduction I loaned a selection of recordings from the ILAM collection and listened to them as carefully as I could. Every time I listened, I seemed to hear something different, both melodically and rhythmically. To gain a deeper understanding of how this music was created I decided to transcribe some of the songs. Following a steep learning curve I completed transcriptions of two songs with my transcriptions including a wealth of vocal parts. As my ears grew accustomed to the sound world I heard additional counter melodies. Notating the rhythms using staff notation was challenging, as this music is created according to a different format, but I am familiar with staff notation and if I was going to use this material while composing then I needed to remain with that which was familiar. I finally settled on notating with shifting time signatures and the first song is scored in bars of 3/4, 4/4, and 2/4 while the other song uses 3/4, 2/4. It was a very worthwhile exercise and after completion I humbly set about composing the eleven pieces that would musically express Dixie’s new work: Worlding the White Spirit Maiden (2019).
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Date Issued: 2019

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