EXPLORING DISPLACEMENT AS A THEORETICAL PARADIGM FOR UNDERSTANDING JOHN JOUBERT’S OPERA SILAS MARNER Stephanie Vos Thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music at Stellenbosch University Supervisor: Dr. S.J.v.Z. Muller December 2009 DECLARATION By submitting this thesis electronically, I declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the owner of the copyright thereof (unless to the extent explicitly otherwise stated) and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification. Date: 24 November 2009 Copyright © 2009 Stellenbosch University All rights reserved Abstract In a world of increased mobility, a growing number of people find themselves in places other than those that they originate from. While a strong case has been made in various disciplines for the experiences of alienation and disruption emanating from the politically tinctured notion of exile, this thesis argues that these experiences affect all émigrés alike, be it the consequence of forced or voluntary migration. It is this study’s aim to nuance the understanding of displacement and explore the ways in which the exile discourse informs a general, less extreme discourse of voluntary displacement with specific reference to the composer John Joubert and his opera Silas Marner. In the first chapter, displacement is theorized as a doubleness or ambivalence that is important in understanding creative work done by those who have been displaced and that is informed, in the South African composer’s case, by the relationship between the centre of ‘the’ art music tradition in Europe and Britain and its ‘peripheral’ practice in South Africa. The second chapter argues the ways that notions of nationality still inform thinking about composers and their aesthetic in a time that nationality is no longer a monolithic, stable denominator. This is done with specific reference to the composer John Joubert. In the third and fourth chapters, the focus narrows to Joubert’s opera Silas Marner (op. 31), and explores displacement as a theoretical paradigm for reading and studying of the opera. The third chapter discusses the choice of subject matter of the opera and the significance of Eliot’s novel as basis for an operatic text. Finally, the fourth chapter provides a brief analysis of the opera, its conception and reception history as well as a critical discussion of the ways in which notions of displacement is present in this work. Opsomming In ‘n wêreld wat meer toeganklik as ooit tevore is, bevind mense toenemend hulself in plekke elders as waar hulle vandaan kom. Terwyl die konsep van ballingskap, met sy politiese konnotasies, al deur verskeie dissiplines bestudeer en geteoretiseer is, argumenteer hierdie tesis dat die gevoel van vervreemding en ontwrigting wat daaruit spruit deur alle emigrante beleef word, synde die gevolg van willekeurige of onwillekeurige emigrasie. Hierdie studie stel homself ten doel om die begrip van ontheemding te nuanseer en die verskeie maniere waarop die ballingskapdiskoers tersaaklik is vir ontheemding, te belig. Dit sal gedoen word met spesifieke verwysing na die komponis John Joubert en sy opera, Silas Marner (op. 31). In die eerste hoofstuk word ontheemding geteoretiseer as ‘n dubbelsinnigheid wat belangrik is in die verstaan van die ontheemde se kreatiewe werk. Die verhouding tussen die sentrum van ‘die’ kunsmusiektradisie in Europa en Brittanje en die ‘periferale’ beoefening daarvan in Suid- Afrika word as bydraend tot hierdie dubbelsinnigheid gesien. Die tweede hoofstuk argumenteer dat nasionaliteit nie meer ‘n eenduidige, stabiele aspek in die beskouing van musiek en musiekestetika verskaf nie en bedink die maniere waarop nasionaliteit steeds betrekking op musiekstudie kan hê. Dit word met spesifieke verwysing na John Joubert gedoen. In die derde en vierde hoofstukke vernou die fokus na Joubert se opera Silas Marner en word die wyses waarop ontheemding tot ‘n lesing van die opera kan bydra verken. Die derde hoofstuk behandel die keuse van onderwerp vir die opera en die belang van Eliot se roman as operateks. Die vierde hoofstuk bespreek die ontstaans- en resepsiegeskiedenis van die opera, analiseer die opera kortliks en verskaf ‘n kritiese bespreking van die wyses waarop nosies van ontheemding in die opera teenwoordig is. Acknowledgments This thesis is the product of numerous persons’ intellectual, financial and personal investments in me, for which these acknowledgments can convey but a small part of my gratitude. I would first and foremost like to thank Stephanus Muller, whose encouragement, constructive criticism, enthusiasm and copious amounts of time was invaluable to this study and my interest in musicology in general. My sincere gratitude to John Joubert, who did not spare any effort in making material available to me or answering my numerous questions, whether in person or by mail. The staff of Stellenbosch University’s Music Library were unfailingly helpful in obtaining books and information, as were the archivists at the University of Cape Town’s Manuscripts and Archives section during my searches through the Chisholm Papers – to them all I convey my thanks. My gratitude also to Leonore Bredekamp, whose expertise in reproducing excerpts from the opera score is much appreciated. To the Ashcroft Trust also my sincerest gratitude for their continued financial assistance that made this study possible. I could not have wished for better personal and practical support during my travails. My family’s unwavering confidence in me was a motivation during the prosperous and difficult times; my heartfelt thanks to my father Deon, my mother Beth and sister Ena. Finally, my deepest gratitude to Chris, who was a constant source of inspiration, encouragement and support. ‘But what about outsideness? What about all that which is beyond the pale, above the fray, beneath notice? What about outcasts, lepers, pariahs, exiles, enemies, spooks, paradoxes?’ — Sir Darius Cama, The Ground Beneath Her Feet (Salman Rushdie) Table of Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................................2 Chapter 1 (Dis-)placing South African Art Music…………….………………………………………6 Chapter 2 On John Joubert’s place and nationality…………………………………………………..23 Chapter 3 From author to novel to libretto… ……………………………………………….………41 Chapter 4 ...to Opera …………………………………....... ...............................................................58 Bibliography ………………………………………………………….………………….96 Appendices Appendix I …………………………………………………………….………………...102 Appendix II ……………………………………….……………………………………..109 Appendix III ………………………………………………………………….…………114 Appendix IV ……………………………………………………………….……………121 Appendix V ………………………………………….………………………………….136 Appendix VI …………………………………………………….………………………153 Introduction Any introduction to my life and work would have to take into account of the fact that I was born and spent the first 19 years of my life in South Africa, with all that implies in terms of the political and racial tensions which have always prevailed there. – John Joubert1 John Joubert’s evocative statement that forms the epithet for this introduction and thesis is taken from the customary ‘composer’s comment’ that accompanies the entries in Contemporary Composers. After a very brief one-paragraph resumé and a selected list of works, this is the first sentence in the more lengthy discussion of Joubert’s life and oeuvre. The boldness of this statement and its prominent position in the entry indeed renders it remarkable. It is difficult not to read the rest of the discussion without constantly expecting notions place and politics to assume a central role, and thus, the discussion is veritably framed by the notions evoked by the first sentence. Amidst these expectations, it is surprising to find that Joubert had continued to live and work in England for the past six decades after his studies at the Royal Academy of Music, and had only returned to South Africa for brief visits since, the first of which was for the opera Silas Marner’s première in 1961 after thirteen years of absence. What promised to be a dramatic narrative of movement between places and the tensions that ensue, now appears to be a more deeply-felt, personalised sense of belonging to and deriving from a place that is more accurately characterised by absence than presence. It could thus be argued that the notion of place in Joubert’s regard of his life and works was spurred by nostalgia and remembrance of South Africa rather than by active engagement with contemporary ‘South Africanness’. It seems that the presence of a place is less apposite in the discussion of John Joubert and his works than the loss of place. The spatial presence which Joubert claims to be reflected in his work is indeed not the space in which Joubert has been operating during his compositional career and the greater part of his life. The more pertinent questions to ask, it seems, is how notions of place – of being in one and (admittedly) being influenced 1 See Kenneth Birkin, ‘Joubert, John (Pierre Herman)’, Contemporary Composers, eds. B. Morton and P. Collins (London, 1992), 457. 2 by another where one is absent – take shape in Joubert’s works. Apart from the interesting biographical discourses it opens up, the musico-aesthetic issues also arise. How is ‘place’ audible in music and what are the specific musical elements in which something so abstract takes shape? Turning