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A Critique of the Survival Anxieties That Inform South African Discourses About Western Art Music

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A Critique of the Survival Anxieties That Inform South African Discourses About Western Art Music A CRITIQUE OF THE SURVIVAL ANXIETIES THAT INFORM SOUTH AFRICAN DISCOURSES ABOUT WESTERN ART MUSIC ETIENNE VIVIERS Dissertation presented for the degree Doctor of Philosophy at Stellenbosch University Department of Music Faculty of Humanities Promoter: Prof. Stephanus Muller March 2016 Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za Declaration By submitting this dissertation electronically, I declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the sole author thereof (save to the extent explicitly otherwise stated), that reproduction and publication thereof by Stellenbosch University will not infringe any third party rights and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification. October 2015 Copyright © 2016 Stellenbosch University All rights reserved ii Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za Abstract This study investigates how survival anxieties have influenced the often unacknowledged ideology of Western art music in South Africa. The approach taken in this thesis to understand the articulations of survival that inform local musical/musicological discourse, is structured according to three compound parts. First, this study provides an overview of how positivism and formalism shaped the knowledge horizon of South African musicology, and how critical insights gathered from the ―new musicology‖ gradually challenged the philological purgatory that meant to secure the endurance of Western art music (and by extension ―Western civilisation‖) in South Africa. This discussion leads into a comprehensive analysis of the J.M. Coetzee essay ―What Is A Classic?‖, which uses T.S. Eliot‘s eponymous essay about the ideologically disinterested survival of Virgil‘s poetry to argue for an equivalent phenomenon in J.S. Bach‘s music. In opposition to Coetzee, I then contend that stripping the canon of Western art music from problematic ideological interpretations – i.e. deliberately placing these works inside the philological purgatory – denotes a hegemonic practice-based tactic aimed at safeguarding musical ―classics‖ and civilisation from the anticipated onslaught of a destructive ―barbarism‖. Secondly, this study examines how Oswald Spengler‘s and Arnold Toynbee‘s foundational international discourses about civilisation‘s decline and survival were adopted in South Africa, up to the point where they significantly impacted on apartheid‘s ideology, through the construction of intellectual paradigms like the Afrikaner poet C.M. van den Heever‘s Die Afrikaanse Gedagte. Spengler‘s and Toynbee‘s discourses are furthermore compared with the Afrikaner discourse about ―survival in justice‖ (voortbestaan in geregtigheid) formulated by N.P. van Wyk Louw, and subsequently responded to by prominent resistance figures such as Breyten Breytenbach and André P. Brink. In determining how these crucial international and local survival discourses filtered through into musicology, the focus shifts onto the Marxist sociological critiques published by the South African musicologist Klaus Heimes during the mid-1980s, and the politically sensitive critiques of the Western art music establishment published by Stephanus Muller in the period immediately after apartheid‘s abolishment. This is followed by an investigation into how Afrikaners used teleological concepts like Die Pad van Suid-Afrika to subvert Spengler‘s pessimistic prediction that Western civilisation was doomed to an inevitable cyclical decline. It is demonstrated how anxieties about this eventuality triggered a national obsession, during the 1930s, with maintaining racial purity through psychological construction of the ―laager mentality‖. Emphasis is given to understanding how the anthem iii Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za ―Die Stem van Suid-Afrika‖, due to its exploitation during the Great Trek centenary celebrations, and due to its luminescent encapsulation inside the Voortrekker Monument, universalised Afrikaner nationalism into an utopian worldview, where the self-preservation of a few hundred pioneer migrants at the 1838 Battle of Bloedrivier was interpreted as a providential guarantee for Afrikanerdom‘s South African hegemony and survival in perpetuity. Thirdly, this study discusses two post-apartheid examples where musical/musicological discourse remains chained to pre-democratic ideals about cultural survival. Both of these examples are relevant to Stellenbosch in particular. The first example concerns the vehement reception discourse generated after the world premiere performance of Hendrik Hofmeyr‘s Sinfonia africana on 19 August 2004. This work, which was commissioned by the Stellenbosch-based group Vriende van Afrikaans, set the poetry of three historical Afrikaans poets to music within a teleological narrative that moves from despair to hope, and claims to be applicable to the entire African continent‘s humanity. Examination takes place of the exhaustive newspaper discourse of audience members who defended Hofmeyr and his symphony against an ideological critique that Stephanus Muller published in a review of the premiere performance. It is revealed how this Stellenbosch-driven discourse centres largely around heated political arguments about the survival of Afrikaans. Consequently, it is also pointed out as deeply problematic that Sinfonia africana‘s final movement pays tribute to the Spengler-inspired ―white‖ supremacist philosophy contained in C.M. van den Heever‘s Die Afrikaanse Gedagte, by setting to climactic music his poem ―Afrika‖. The thesis then concludes with a second musical example of post-apartheid survival anxiety that is relevant to Stellenbosch in particular. Winfried Lüdemann‘s professorial inaugural lecture is subjected to a thorough critique that scrutinises the complicated evolutionary theoretical framework he uses to advocate for the institutional safekeeping of ―Western‖ and ―South African‖ art music at the Stellenbosch University Music Department. In contrast to Lüdemann‘s petition, this thesis finally argues for the deliberate miscegenation (versmelting) of diverse musics in order to undermine the essentialised identities forced on the South African cultural landscape by apartheid‘s Kuyperian fetish for segregation. iv Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za Opsomming Hierdie studie stel ondersoek in na hoe oorlewingsangs die dikwels onerkende ideologie van Westerse kunsmusiek in Suid-Afrika beïnvloed het. Die metode wat in hierdie tesis gevolg word om die artikulasies van oorlewing (voortbestaan) wat plaaslike musikale/musikologiese diskoerse gestalte gee beter te verstaan, is volgens drie saamgestelde dele gestruktureer. Eerstens bied hierdie studie ‘n oorsig van hoe positivisme en formalisme die kennishorison van Suid-Afrikaanse musikologie gevorm het, en hoe kritiese insigte vanaf die ―nuwe musikologie‖ geleidelik die filologiese vaevuur uitgedaag het wat bedoel was om die voortbestaan van Westerse kunsmusiek (en by implikasie die ―Westerse beskawing‖) in Suid-Afrika te verseker. Hierdie bespreking lei na ‘n omvattende analise van die J.M. Coetzee opstel ―What Is A Classic?‖, wat gebruik maak van T.S. Eliot se gelyknamige opstel oor die ideologies-neutrale oorlewing van Virgilius se poësie, om te betoog vir ‘n gelykstaande verskynsel in die musiek van J.S. Bach. In teenstelling met Coetzee, voer ek dan aan dat die ontkenning van problematiese ideologiese interpretasies wat gekoppel is aan die kanon van Westerse kunsmusiek – d.w.s. die doelbewuste posisionering van hierdie werke binne die filologiese vaevuur – dui op ‘n hegemoniese, praktyk-gedrewe taktiek wat gemik is op die beveiliging van die musikale ―klassieke‖ en uiteindelik ten doel het om die beskawing te beskerm teen die verwagte stormloop van ―barbarisme‖. Tweedens, handel dit in hierdie studie oor hoe Oswald Spengler en Arnold Toynbee se grondleggende internasionale diskoerse oor die beskawing se verval en oorlewing in Suid-Afrika opgeneem is, tot op die punt waar dit betekenisvolle invloed uitgeoefen het op apartheidideologie deur die konstruksie van intellektuele paradigmas soos dié van die Afrikaner digter C.M. van den Heever in sy Die Afrikaanse Gedagte. Spengler en Toynbee se diskoerse word verder vergelyk met die Afrikanerdiskoers oor ―voortbestaan in geregtigheid‖ soos deur N.P. van Wyk Louw geformuleer, en op die reaksies op hierdie diskoers deur vooraanstaande weerstandsfigure soos Breyten Breytenbach en André P. Brink. In die vasstelling van hoe hierdie deurslaggewende internasionale en plaaslike oorlewingsdiskoerse tot musikologie deurgesyfer het, verskuif die fokus na die Marxistiese sosiologiese kritieklewerings wat deur die Suid- Afrikaanse musikoloog Klaus Heimes in die middel-1980s gepubliseer is, en die polities-sensitiewe kritieklewerings van die Westerse kunsmusiek establishment wat deur Stephanus Muller in die tydperk direk ná apartheid se afskaffing gepubliseer is. Hierdie beskouiings word gevolg met ‘n ondersoek na hoe Afrikaners teleologiese konsepte soos Die Pad van Suid-Afrika gebruik het om Spengler se pessimistiese voorspelling dat die Westerse beskawing tot ‘n onafwendbare sikliese ondergang verdoem is, omver te v Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za probeer werp. Daar word gedemonstreer hoe angs hieroor uiteindelik ‘n nasionale obsessie met die handhawing van rasse-suiwerhied gedurende die 1930s veroorsaak het. Nadruk word gelê op die verstaan van hoe die volkslied ―Die Stem van Suid-Afrika‖, weens die uitbuiting daarvan tydens
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