Repatriating Xhosa music recordings archived at the International Library of African Music (ILAM) and reviving interest in traditional Xhosa music among the youth in Grahamstown
- Authors: Madiba, Elijah Moleseng
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: International Library of African Music , Xhosa (African people) -- Music , Sound recordings in ethnomusicology -- South Africa , Ethnomusicology -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Cultural property -- Repatriation -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Rap musicians -- South Africa -- Makhanda
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MMus
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/76599 , vital:30611
- Description: This research looks at the feasibility of using repatriation as a tool for the revitalisation of indigenous music within a contemporary South African musical context. Using tracks from the International Library of African Music (ILAM), this investigation presents isiXhosa traditional and indigenous music to a group of musicians from a hip-hop background that would never have had access to this type of music before. The thesis then traces their creative use of the music within their own genres. Speaking to the legacy of the Hugh Tracey collection at ILAM and criticisms that have surfaced, this research also attempts to validate the efforts made by Hugh Tracey in collecting and documenting African music. Themes ranging from understanding the term “tradition” are addressed, as well as other technical terms in the vernacular while also exploring and analysing the results of the repatriation project. Practical issues regarding the sampling of indigenous music were interrogated carefully due to the fact that the complexity of African music was foreign to most of the participants. Their familiarity with the music, or lack thereof, either motivated or ended the musicians’ participation in the research project. An in-depth analysis of the results of the musicians’ interaction with the music is presented where this study finds, at the heart of this research, that the musicians performed as agents who easily took to revitalising the music.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Madiba, Elijah Moleseng
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: International Library of African Music , Xhosa (African people) -- Music , Sound recordings in ethnomusicology -- South Africa , Ethnomusicology -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Cultural property -- Repatriation -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Rap musicians -- South Africa -- Makhanda
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MMus
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/76599 , vital:30611
- Description: This research looks at the feasibility of using repatriation as a tool for the revitalisation of indigenous music within a contemporary South African musical context. Using tracks from the International Library of African Music (ILAM), this investigation presents isiXhosa traditional and indigenous music to a group of musicians from a hip-hop background that would never have had access to this type of music before. The thesis then traces their creative use of the music within their own genres. Speaking to the legacy of the Hugh Tracey collection at ILAM and criticisms that have surfaced, this research also attempts to validate the efforts made by Hugh Tracey in collecting and documenting African music. Themes ranging from understanding the term “tradition” are addressed, as well as other technical terms in the vernacular while also exploring and analysing the results of the repatriation project. Practical issues regarding the sampling of indigenous music were interrogated carefully due to the fact that the complexity of African music was foreign to most of the participants. Their familiarity with the music, or lack thereof, either motivated or ended the musicians’ participation in the research project. An in-depth analysis of the results of the musicians’ interaction with the music is presented where this study finds, at the heart of this research, that the musicians performed as agents who easily took to revitalising the music.
- Full Text:
Releasing the pause button on Hugh Tracey’s field recordings of 1959: repatriation and revitalisation of a selection of the Bangwaketse music held at the International Library of African Music (ILAM)
- Authors: Mojaki, Pinkie Gomolemo
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MMus
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/4267 , vital:20640
- Description: This thesis examines an attempt at repatriation and the revitalisation of archival holdings from the International Library of African Music (ILAM) to the Bangwaketse community of Botswana. I assess how the attempt may shape future possibilities for the repatriation of more recordings from ILAM to other areas in Botswana. Drawing on the narrative compiled from the various sessions of memory retrieval and recollections of the past, I establish how the Bangwaketse claim ownership of their musical heritage. Memory and nostalgic reactions to musical sound contribute to a construction of communal truths as held by the people who claim their heritage to the music from ILAM. Memory retrieval and recollection are explored in this research as a process that allows the members of the community to reconnect with their past, interpret their memories, modify and create the ideal image of their community and retell their stories. Through the interactions and exploration of memory, I explore how the Bangwaketse are motivated to engage with the recordings from ILAM. In addition, based on the observation of the recent music performances of the Bangwaketse, I examine how the approaches they used, to sustain the traditional music that they continue to play, may inform the process of returning and revitalising archival holdings from ILAM. I argue that, for the purpose of revitalising the old archival recordings, the performers require incentives that are related to social developments and their contexts. Furthermore, the revitalisation effort is a joint effort between the performers, culture bearers as well as the audiences. In addition, I argue that in order to reinsert the archival recordings in the community, the recordings should be worked through the education sector and be taught to all generations, especially the children who hold the possibility of continued music revitalisation. The research evaluates how the traditional music of the Bangwaketse is conceptualized in recent years by the different research participants. The project further describes the innate need for a continued music culture by the Bangwaketse. Some sections of the data explain how music ‘escaped’ the social practices and structures of the past. After tracing how the traditional music ceased, I study how the Bangwaketse communally construct different strategies to re-insert the music into their livelihoods in order to realise the revitalisation of ILAM recordings in their original performance contexts.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Mojaki, Pinkie Gomolemo
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MMus
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/4267 , vital:20640
- Description: This thesis examines an attempt at repatriation and the revitalisation of archival holdings from the International Library of African Music (ILAM) to the Bangwaketse community of Botswana. I assess how the attempt may shape future possibilities for the repatriation of more recordings from ILAM to other areas in Botswana. Drawing on the narrative compiled from the various sessions of memory retrieval and recollections of the past, I establish how the Bangwaketse claim ownership of their musical heritage. Memory and nostalgic reactions to musical sound contribute to a construction of communal truths as held by the people who claim their heritage to the music from ILAM. Memory retrieval and recollection are explored in this research as a process that allows the members of the community to reconnect with their past, interpret their memories, modify and create the ideal image of their community and retell their stories. Through the interactions and exploration of memory, I explore how the Bangwaketse are motivated to engage with the recordings from ILAM. In addition, based on the observation of the recent music performances of the Bangwaketse, I examine how the approaches they used, to sustain the traditional music that they continue to play, may inform the process of returning and revitalising archival holdings from ILAM. I argue that, for the purpose of revitalising the old archival recordings, the performers require incentives that are related to social developments and their contexts. Furthermore, the revitalisation effort is a joint effort between the performers, culture bearers as well as the audiences. In addition, I argue that in order to reinsert the archival recordings in the community, the recordings should be worked through the education sector and be taught to all generations, especially the children who hold the possibility of continued music revitalisation. The research evaluates how the traditional music of the Bangwaketse is conceptualized in recent years by the different research participants. The project further describes the innate need for a continued music culture by the Bangwaketse. Some sections of the data explain how music ‘escaped’ the social practices and structures of the past. After tracing how the traditional music ceased, I study how the Bangwaketse communally construct different strategies to re-insert the music into their livelihoods in order to realise the revitalisation of ILAM recordings in their original performance contexts.
- Full Text:
Religious musical performance as an articulation of transformation : a study of how the Tsonga Presbyterians of the Presbyterian Church of Mozambique negotiate their indigenous Tsonga and Swiss reformed church heritages
- Authors: Germiquet, Nicole Madeleine
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Igreja Presbiteriana de Moçambique , Sacred music -- Mozambique , Church music -- Mozambique , Church music -- Presbyterian , Tsonga (African people) -- Mozambique -- Music , Ethnomusicology , Church music -- Cross-cultural studies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MMus
- Identifier: vital:2699 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020836
- Description: The Presbyterian Church of Mozambique (IPM) has its origins in the Swiss Mission and the European Reformed Church. An ethnomusicological study was conducted on the music of the IPM in order to uncover its musical influences. The musical influences were found to pertain to an indigenous Tsonga musical character, as well as to a Reformed Church musical tradition. By situating the discussion in this thesis within the perspective that music may reflect that which is not explicitly spoken about in words, the music of the IPM was shown to reflect the dual-heritage of the members of the IPM. Thus, this thesis attempts to answer the questions: how is the music of the IPM a reflection of the Tsonga Presbyterians’ dual-heritage?; and how do the Tsonga Presbyterians negotiate their dual-heritage? It was found that the Tsonga Presbyterians negotiate their dual-heritage by blending a Reformed Church performance style with a Tsonga one. For example, the music in the form of hymns and church songs, performed by church choirs, is shown to be didactic in nature where the lyrics are the most important aspect of the music. The didactic nature of the music is a principle of the Reformation carried forth in the music of the IPM. Although music serves to transmit the Christian message and is used as a means of praising the Christian God in the IPM, it also exists on the level in which the indigenous Tsonga heritage may be incorporated into the Christian lives of the members of the IPM without having an impact on the Reformed Church belief system. This is where the members have the freedom to blend their musical heritages. Music, in this instance, is shown to be a powerful tool by which the importance of an indigenous, and an appropriated, heritage may be garnered and observed.Looking to the historical aspects of the IPM, the music and language literacy education, provided by Swiss missionaries on the mission stations, was shown to have had an influence on Tsonga hymn composition. Along with the mobile phone, the observed decrease in music literacy at Antioka was situated within a discussion that looked at the influence of these aspects on the transmission, conservation and continuation of music in the IPM. Throughout the thesis, social transformation is referred to and the manner in which the music of the IPM is conserved or continued is an indication of how musical transformation may reflect social transformation.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Germiquet, Nicole Madeleine
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Igreja Presbiteriana de Moçambique , Sacred music -- Mozambique , Church music -- Mozambique , Church music -- Presbyterian , Tsonga (African people) -- Mozambique -- Music , Ethnomusicology , Church music -- Cross-cultural studies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MMus
- Identifier: vital:2699 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020836
- Description: The Presbyterian Church of Mozambique (IPM) has its origins in the Swiss Mission and the European Reformed Church. An ethnomusicological study was conducted on the music of the IPM in order to uncover its musical influences. The musical influences were found to pertain to an indigenous Tsonga musical character, as well as to a Reformed Church musical tradition. By situating the discussion in this thesis within the perspective that music may reflect that which is not explicitly spoken about in words, the music of the IPM was shown to reflect the dual-heritage of the members of the IPM. Thus, this thesis attempts to answer the questions: how is the music of the IPM a reflection of the Tsonga Presbyterians’ dual-heritage?; and how do the Tsonga Presbyterians negotiate their dual-heritage? It was found that the Tsonga Presbyterians negotiate their dual-heritage by blending a Reformed Church performance style with a Tsonga one. For example, the music in the form of hymns and church songs, performed by church choirs, is shown to be didactic in nature where the lyrics are the most important aspect of the music. The didactic nature of the music is a principle of the Reformation carried forth in the music of the IPM. Although music serves to transmit the Christian message and is used as a means of praising the Christian God in the IPM, it also exists on the level in which the indigenous Tsonga heritage may be incorporated into the Christian lives of the members of the IPM without having an impact on the Reformed Church belief system. This is where the members have the freedom to blend their musical heritages. Music, in this instance, is shown to be a powerful tool by which the importance of an indigenous, and an appropriated, heritage may be garnered and observed.Looking to the historical aspects of the IPM, the music and language literacy education, provided by Swiss missionaries on the mission stations, was shown to have had an influence on Tsonga hymn composition. Along with the mobile phone, the observed decrease in music literacy at Antioka was situated within a discussion that looked at the influence of these aspects on the transmission, conservation and continuation of music in the IPM. Throughout the thesis, social transformation is referred to and the manner in which the music of the IPM is conserved or continued is an indication of how musical transformation may reflect social transformation.
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Haul Music : transnationalism and musical performance in the Saharaui refugee camps of Tindouf, Algeria
- Authors: Gimenez Amoros, Luis
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Bedouins -- Music -- Research Sahrawi (African people) -- Migrations Social change -- Arab countries Arab countries -- Social life and customs Civilization, Arab
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MMus
- Identifier: vital:2637 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002302
- Description: The thesis presents ethnographic data and musical analysis (in the form of transcriptions) of Haul music which is the music style performed by Bedouin societies in Trab el Bidan region (Mauritania, Western Sahara, northern Mali, southern Algeria and northern Morocco). It is based on field research undertaken in Algeria in 2004-05 in the refugee camps of Tindouf, Algeria, where Saharaui people (a Bedouin society)live in exile. This research is unique and original as Haul has not, until now, been explored in depth by any scholar. My research on Haul reveals that the changes in Saharaui music in the refugee camps of Tindouf reflect changes in the musical traditions of Bedouin societies as whole; changes that can be traced to the revolution which occurred in Western Sahara in 1975, and changes that are a result of the migrations and life in exile that followed. I argue that these changes occurred due to the transnational experiences undergone by Saharaui people in their forced exile (caused by the Moroccan state) from their homeland in Western Sahara to Algeria. Further, I assert that the invocation of memory in Bedouin musical styles is evidence of past musical practices being retained in contemporary Haul performance, although other musical changes are similarly in progress.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Gimenez Amoros, Luis
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Bedouins -- Music -- Research Sahrawi (African people) -- Migrations Social change -- Arab countries Arab countries -- Social life and customs Civilization, Arab
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MMus
- Identifier: vital:2637 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002302
- Description: The thesis presents ethnographic data and musical analysis (in the form of transcriptions) of Haul music which is the music style performed by Bedouin societies in Trab el Bidan region (Mauritania, Western Sahara, northern Mali, southern Algeria and northern Morocco). It is based on field research undertaken in Algeria in 2004-05 in the refugee camps of Tindouf, Algeria, where Saharaui people (a Bedouin society)live in exile. This research is unique and original as Haul has not, until now, been explored in depth by any scholar. My research on Haul reveals that the changes in Saharaui music in the refugee camps of Tindouf reflect changes in the musical traditions of Bedouin societies as whole; changes that can be traced to the revolution which occurred in Western Sahara in 1975, and changes that are a result of the migrations and life in exile that followed. I argue that these changes occurred due to the transnational experiences undergone by Saharaui people in their forced exile (caused by the Moroccan state) from their homeland in Western Sahara to Algeria. Further, I assert that the invocation of memory in Bedouin musical styles is evidence of past musical practices being retained in contemporary Haul performance, although other musical changes are similarly in progress.
- Full Text:
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