A Deep Divide in South African Art Music: Locating the Voice of the Performer
Date
2023-07
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Abstract
This essay traces the origins of a “deep divide” (Fokkens 2014: 8) that developed between two central figures in the South African compositional world, originally in the 1980s around accusations of the cultural appropriation of African music. The conflict became entrenched amongst composers, musicologists and performers and has pervaded much of the research and dialogue that has taken place in the intervening years. This came to a head when a selection of South African composers was selected to present works to be performed at a concert at the Juilliard School in New York in 2014. The ensuing fallout characterised the vicious nature of the musical aspersions that eventually degenerated into direct personal conflict. My role as a performer, during this time, had to take into account this unpleasant environment as I had direct interactions with many of the figures involved, often working towards performances and recordings of their music. In more recent times, support for the arts in South Africa has declined significantly serving to intensify the struggle for access to funding, resources, and performance opportunities, exacerbated by a diminishing government mandate for general arts support and the devastating impact of Covid-19. The essay recounts an in-depth personal narrative and performance analysis of my experience when preparing Jeanne Zaidel-Rudolph’s Pendulum for Piano and Orchestra (2010). It finds that while an ideal philosophical approach to preparing a performance is commendable, it is not always achievable when confronted with the practical realities of a musical performance.
Description
A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Wits School of Arts, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, March 2023.
Keywords
Solo Piano, Chamber Music, South African Composition, Artistic Research, Auto-ethnography, Essay, Musicology, Music performance., UCTD
Citation
Nay, Malcom. (2023). A Deep Divide in South African Art Music: Locating the Voice of the Performer. [PhD thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg]. WIReDSpace.