1 the Performance of Indigenous Or Folk Music from Many African

1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 RESEARCH ISSUE AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS The performance of indigenous or folk music from many African countries in choral format is an ongoing evolution in traditional music practices. Choral singing was brought into Africa by westerners, and merged with African traditions. As a hybrid form it can thus be categorised under what researchers such as Detterbeck (2002: 281) terms “Neo-Traditional”. This research aims to explain the phenomenon of African Neo-Traditional Choral Music in Southern Africa and what the rehearsal and performance practices of this discipline entail. Apart from current traditions, it also looks at a different possibility for choirs to engage with this music in a cross-cultural context. Although choirs from Africa perform western music, African compositions and African neo-traditional music, most choirs with a western background focus on neo-traditional selections when performing folk music from Southern Africa. Agawu (2003a: 10) advocates against the practice of ‘apply[ing] one or another metropolitan technique to African materials’, and many researchers will find this discourse doing exactly that. Yet it should therefore be clarified, already at this point, that the music with which this research is concerned is not ‘African materials’ as such, but as this discourse will point out in Chapter Two, is a hybrid genre of music which is an amalgam of western with African traditions. Any further syncretic ideologies are consequently based on this history. This thesis also does not aim to re-establish African traditions, but to describe certain historical facts of African musicking. The study also aims to suggest a new direction in this genre based on these historical facts, but the intention is not to indigenise this new form of choral music. Because it is research in the choral discipline, the new suggestion has as aim a new direction based on certain traditional elements. Reference to these latter aspects is to highlight many interesting similarities between the different cultures and genres, and to set a palette of different possibilities as basis for choral extemporisation. 1 Research in ethnomusicology in the last few years has seen a number of studies which deal directly with issues related to choral singing in Africa, and especially in Southern Africa. An ongoing quest in the choral world to preserve indigenous traditions has urged me to focus this research on the performance of neo-traditional music in choir format. Although this focus will be on the neo- traditional choral music of Southern Africa, it is also necessary to look at other regions in sub-Saharan Africa where the choral tradition developed in much the same way as in Southern Africa. This is partially answering Detterbeck’s plea for research ‘to promote what is best in the tradition, and to keep alive this expression of an indomitable African spirit’ (2002: 388). Due to the fact that ‘choral singing has become the culturally most pursued activity in South Africa’ (Van der Walt, 2004: 19), it is important to promote research in this field. Not only should research such as this cast light on choral music, but it should also focus on the unique traditions of African indigenous and traditional music that have found their way into the choral and popular disciplines through syncretism or hybridism. Unfortunately most studies pursue the research of popular music together with choral music, or as many South Africans refer to it, makwaya, as a sub-category. Even Coplan (1998: 764) claims that ‘[a]t least until the 1960’s [sic], makwaya must be considered popular music’. But the sheer number of people involved in the making of choral music, or choraling, which exceed that of popular music by far, question this claim. Another aim is also to suggest a method to engage with this genre of choral music which will assist it on the evolutionary path from popular folk- to serious or art music. My interest in this field is enhanced by the fact that, as a choral conductor and educator, I have been involved with Southern African neo-traditional performances of many choirs, including the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir from South Africa. The latter will be referred to as a specific sample case. I also wrote a dissertation on The African Sound Body in comparison with its Swedish equivalent as part of a Master’s Degree study. It is therefore for personal academic, as well as public interest that this subject matter was chosen. To attempt a study such as this may be problematic due to different factors. Firstly the references on this music are limited. Secondly, the theme itself can become so vast that the focus of the subject matter becomes vague. There are as many theories and philosophies surrounding the origins of this music as there are 2 people involving themselves with the study and performance of this music. It is therefore important to refer broadly to the literature utilised in this thesis. It is also, before commencing with the discourse, necessary to clarify the format of the dissertation, with its specific research questions and the methodologies utilised in the clarification of these matters. Although these methodologies are presented in the first chapter, a description of methodologies through which each chapter’s issues are researched will serve as a reminder to the reader at the beginning of each chapter. According to Jorgensen (1992: 91) ‘[c]ritical dialogue’ and ‘clarification of terms’ are important pillars of research. Terms such as “indigenous”, “traditional”, “neo-traditional”, “choral music”, and “choral extemporisation” may be misinterpreted if not defined in the specific context. What is to be understood under “African” and “Southern African” in this thesis, as well as “western”, should also be clarified. The first chapter will thus aim to clarify these terms once the research issues and research questions, methodologies, and general literature synopsis have been discussed. The primary purpose of this research is to determine the origins, development and current practices of African neo-traditional choral music of Southern Africa. Chapter Two aims to summarise the history and development of Southern African neo-traditional choral music. Is this choral music what is generally understood as indigenous or traditional music, or is it an evolution in this field? Can it be described as an amalgamation or hybrid of Southern African indigenous music and western choral traditions? In other words, from where does it originate and how did it develop? As mentioned, not only do many choirs from Africa perform this music, but choirs from many other countries and cultures also engage with this new form of choral music. Following the discussion of the development of the music in Chapter Two, the third chapter will be a narrative description of five choirs that engage with this music. These choirs were chosen to represent a broad spectrum of western and African choirs, both from Southern Africa as well as from America and Europe. This description precedes a case study that serves as specific illustration of how a choir engages with this music. This way the case study engages with African neo-traditional choral music of Southern Africa is presented 3 as new knowledge. To cast light on the background of this case, a brief description on the background of this choir is presented. With the understanding of the evolutionary nature of this music, the development of alternative methods of engaging therewith is a natural occurrence. This issue will be the focus of Chapter Four, which will serve rather as a springboard for further research as well as a clarification of yet another issue. Due to the close relationship between extemporisation and the music being researched, reference to this concept will be interwoven throughout the discourse. This last chapter will not aim to restate the discussion of this issue as clarified in the previous chapters, but will expand on it by focusing on this practice in another culture, namely the Scandinavian choral traditions. Much of the narrative has for that reason not been lumped together in the fourth chapter alone, but has been handled as a thread throughout the text. Performance practices of African neo- traditional choral music in Southern Africa focus currently on combining melody from Southern Africa with western choral harmony and presentation. Although harmony is one of the foundations of this music, rhythm overshadows it when it comes to artificial claims of which of the characteristics, like harmony, are ‘the most important…of neo-traditional choir music in South Africa’ (Herbst, 2007: 3). If other musical characteristics of sub-Saharan Africa and especially Southern Africa, such as extemporisation can be utilised within the framework of the freedom allowed in this music, the performance outcomes of African neo- traditional choral music in general can change. The influence of folk music on choral extemporisation in Scandinavia is an example of this phenomenon in another culture. This example motivated choral extemporisation as an innovative method to engage with Southern African neo-traditional choral music. Although some might be alarmed that the information regarding the Scandinavian practices suggests another syncretism, it is presented rather as an example of this genre. Any relationships that are drawn are rather to emphasise similarities, and not to suggest a fusion. Based on my research I will present practical hypothetical examples of performing choral extemporisation with African neo-traditional choral music, utilising African indigenous characteristics of sub-Saharan- and Southern Africa as new knowledge. The rationale for utilising extemporisation in this genre is the freedom allowed in African indigenous musicking of many traditions on the continent. If it were not for this freedom, the hybrid form of makwaya would never 4 have evolved. The aim is therefore not to honour indigenous African music traditions, but to suggest a new method of engaging with African neo-traditional choral music of Southern Africa as a next step in the evolution of it.

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