Thesis (MMus (Music))--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The essential embodiment of the Catholic and Orthodox religious and liturgical traditions is the celebration of the Mass. The Kyrie eleison is the opening part of this Mass celebration. The Kyrie eleison is also an element within the Catholic and Orthodox Office. In the respective Protestant and reformed traditions, the Kyrie eleison figures to a lesser extent, as is the case in the Lutheran tradition, or not at all, as is especially the case in the Afrikaans-speaking reformed denominations in South Africa. At most, the exposure to the Kyrie eleison, by any member of a church of Afrikaans-speaking and reformed persuasion, is confined to the concert hall, in which context the Kyrie presents itself in an alien guise, having been uprooted from its liturgical context which is a co-determinant in the transfer of the meaning of the text of the Kyrie to the listener. This study is an essay to convey the importance of the context of the Kyrie with regard to a successful process of communication between the performance of the Kyrie and the decoding of its message by the listener. It is an attempt to focus, via narrowing concentric circles, on the genesis of the Kyrie, from its antecedents in the Jewish religious tradition, via its manifestations in early Christan cult and chant, to its codification during the pontificate of Gregory the Great. In conclusion, the suggestion is mooted that there is an obligation devolving on the performers of the Kyrie eleison within a non-liturgical context to communicate the meaning of the Kyrie, even in its alien guise, to the audience as receivers of the text, thereby achieving a successful transaction in the process of communication. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die sentrale beliggaming van die Katolieke en Ortodokse liturgies-religieuse tradisies is die viering van die Mis. Die Kyrie eleison is die openingsdeel van hierdie Misviering. Die Kyrie eleison is verder ook ‘n element in die Katolieke en Ortodokse Officium. In die verskillende Protestantse liturgiese tradisies figureer die Kyrie eleison in ‘n mindere mate, soos in die Lutherse tradisie, of glad nie, soos wat spesifiek die geval in die Afrikaanssprekende gereformeerde tradisie is. ‘n Afrikaanssprekende lidmaat van gereformeerde oortuiging se belewing van die Kyrie is, indien hoegenaamd, meestal beperk tot die aanhoor daarvan in ‘n konsertsituasie, waarbinne die Kyrie homself in ‘n ontheemde gedaante aan die luisteraar voordoen omdat dit ontwortel is uit sy liturgiese konteks wat medebepalend vir die betekenisoordrag van die teks van die Kyrie is. Hierdie studie is ‘n poging om die belang van die konteks van die Kyrie met betrekking tot ‘n suksesvolle kommunikasietransaksie tussen die uitvoer van die Kyrie en die dekodering van die boodskap daarvan deur die Afrikaanssprekende gereformeerde luisteraar, na vore te bring. Die ondersoek is hoofsaaklik daarmee gemoeid om die liturgiese ontstaans- en vroeë bestaansgeskiedenis van die Kyrie deur middel van ‘n konsentries nouer-wordende fokus in oënskou te neem, vanaf sy antesedente in die Joodse kultus, via sy presedente in die vroeg-Christelike kultus en cantus, tot die kodifisering daarvan tydens die pontifikaat van Gregorius die Grote. Ten slotte word aangevoer dat daar selfs in ‘n konsertsituasie ‘n onus op die uitvoerendes rus om die Kyrie, ook in sy ontheemde gestalte binne ‘n nie-liturgiese konteks, vir die luisteraar tot spreke te bring.

Thesis (MMus (Music))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009 / Violin vibrato is the action by which a violinist periodically changes the frequency of a sustained note by moving the finger on the string, rapidly backwards and forwards. If it is artistically applied, it adds life, character and warmth to an otherwise dull sounding note. Although it has been used since the sixteenth century, very little research has been done on the reason why humankind would experience such periodic fluctuations as an object of beauty in violin performance. In answering the question, this study explores a variety of angles of approach in order to understand the phenomenon in its full context. The history, development and geographical origin of the technique are firstly discussed in a diachronic fashion and provide the background for the subsequent synchronic research on the physical nature of violin sound and violin vibrato. The vibrato rates and widths of four virtuosi are measured and compared to highlight the differences and individuality which are argued to be a contributing factor to the perception of beauty of the technique. It is established in the final chapter that the brain is stimulated more by sounds with periodic changes than those that are presented in the steady-state which cast some light on why vibrato may be experienced as an appreciated addition to sound. The thesis aims to present a unique view on the possibilities of interdisciplinary research of the phenomenon of violin vibrato. It further aims to present the research findings in a concise, logical, and systematic manner that could be of interest to both musician and scientist.

Thesis (MMus (Music))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH 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. / AFRIKAANSE 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.

Thesis (M. Mus.)--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study was undertaken to determine the present state of the musical practices of the youth of the !Xun and Khwe San. The study formed part of the NRF project, Mother’s Milk Mother’s Muse, of which the objective was to document and preserve the music of South Africa’s indigenous cultures. This was done by recording the music of children during a series of mini-festivals. A further aim was to develop a renewed interest in their own traditional musical culture. The writer was chosen in 2003 as the project coordinator of the San people of Platfontein in Kimberley. That project has thus formed the basis of the present study of the current musical practices of the youth of the !Xun and Khwe San. Research was done through literature study and participatory action research. General information on these research methodologies is given in the second and third chapters. The ways in which these methodologies were put into practice in the writer’s own study are discussed in the last chapter. Teachers of the !Xunkhwesa school on Platfontein were asked to give their help with the project. These teachers, who teach the Arts and Culture learning area to various grades at the school, were responsible for completing forms with information on musical items. The children were then asked to bring traditional songs to class in the period before the mini-festival. These items were recorded during the mini-festival in September 2005. Descriptions and analyses of the songs are given in chapter five. Similarities with the characteristics of traditional San music as well as general characteristics of African music are also discussed. The conclusions and proposals are discussed in the last chapter. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie is onderneem om die huidige musikale gebruike onder die jeug van die !Xun en Khwe San in Suid-Afrika te bestudeer. Dit het deel gevorm van die NNS projek, Mother’s Milk Mother’s Muse, wat die musiek van inheemse kulture wou bewaar. Dit is gedoen deur die musiek van die kinders op te neem tydens mini-feeste. Hierdeur is probeer om ‘n hernude belangstelling in die tradisionele musiekkultuur by die jeug te kweek. Die skrywer is in 2003 as projekkoördineerder vir die San by Platfontein, Kimberley aangestel binne die raamwerk van die Mother’s Milk Mother’s Muse projek. Dié projek het derhalwe die basis gevorm vir hierdie studie van die huidige stand van die musikale gebruike onder die jeug van die !Xun en Khwe San. Navorsing het by wyse van ‘n literatuurstudie en deelnemende aksienavorsing geskied. Algemene inligting van hierdie navorsingsmetodes word in die tweede en derde hoofstukke weergegee. Die wyses waarop die skrywer die navorsingsmetodes in haar eie studie toegepas het, word in die laaste hoofstuk bespreek. Onderwysers van die !Xunkhwesa skool op Platfontein is genader om hul hulp te verleen met die projek. Die onderwysers, wat elkeen die Kuns en Kultuurleerarea aan verskillende grade aanbied, moes vooraf sorg dat inligting van verskillende musiekitems op vorms ingevul moes word. In die tyd voor die mini-fees is die kinders dus uitgestuur om tradisionele liedere te gaan versamel en inligting daarvan in die klas te deel. Hierdie items is tydens ‘n fees in September 2005 opgeneem. Beskrywings en analises van die liedere word in hoofstuk drie weergegee. Ooreenkomste met die kenmerke van tradisionele San musiek asook met algemene kenmerke in Afrikamusiek word ook bespreek. Die gevolgtrekkings en voorstelle word in die laaste hoofstuk bespreek.

Thesis (MMus (Music))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / In 1994 the first democratic election took place in South Africa. Since then large initiatives have been undertaken on national level to redress the inequalities of the past. One of these areas where drastic transformation was needed, is the education system of the country. A National Qualifications Framework was created and Outcomes Based Education was used to implement a new curriculum. This required a total paradigm shift of teachers in terms of how they thought about education as well as changes in their teaching practice. The learning area Arts and Culture was included in the new curriculum to provide all learners with equal opportunities to take part in and enjoy the arts, cultural expression and conservation of heritage as a basic human right. The learning area however brought about unique problems for the teacher, as it is multidisciplinary and most teachers were not trained to facilitate it. Initially it was given to teachers who were specialists in one or the other of the arts disciplines, but these teachers progressively left the education system, and since then the learning area has fallen into the hands of nonspecialists. The Department of Education has launched various training opportunities to empower teachers, but without much success. Teachers remain inadequately qualified regarding subject knowledge and skills to bring the learning area to fruition and to reach the goals of the curriculum. In the process learners are deprived of important opportunities for experiences in the arts and teachers become increasingly demotivated. Thus, in South Africa there exists a dire need for effective in-service training and professional development of Arts and Culture teachers in order to empower them to take their place in the unlocking and transmission of the spiritual goods of the human race to our youth. This study investigates the true problems of Arts and Culture teachers in South Africa by placing the process of transformation in the education system after 1994 into context and viewing Outcomes Based Education, the learning area Arts and Culture and the development of teachers through the looking glass. Three forms of training for teachers are compared to try and find a possible best way to address these problems and to determine whether effective in-service training of Arts and Culture teachers leads to professional development, empowerment, a more positive vocational disposition and motivation. Training on a one-to-one basis lead by a specialist teacher emerges as the most effective alternative form of training.

Thesis (MMus (Music))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / The Cape Performing Arts Board (CAPAB) was one of four regional government-funded councils established in 1963, with the mandate to promote and develop the Western performing art forms (opera, ballet, music and drama) in the four provinces of the Republic of South Africa. Although the Board, and more specifically, the Music Department, made a significant contribution to the development of the performing arts in the Cape Province over more than three decades, its history remains largely undocumented. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to provide an account of CAPAB’s music activities against an outline of the organisation’s general history. Included is a discussion of the Music Department’s most significant contributions: the Department’s role as an impresario; the extensive music education programmes presented in schools and rural areas; the promotion of home-grown talent and the major part played by CAPAB’s orchestra (1971-97) in facilitating the development of the Western performing arts in the Western, Eastern and Northern Cape. Inextricably linked to these topics are a range of both positive and negative factors which influenced the development of the performing arts in this context. These include the effects of the Apartheid government’s policies on the development of the arts; the Board’s reliance on, and claim to state funding; the controversial history of CAPAB’s state-of-the-art Nico Malan Theatre Complex; the Board’s attempts to rectify imbalances of the period prior to the political transformation in the early 1990s and the events leading to a new dispensation for the performing arts in a democratic South Africa. Since CAPAB’s demise in 1998, sufficient time has elapsed to allow for a more objective evaluation of its role. Therefore, this study concludes with a brief assessment of the legacy of the CAPAB’s 35-year existence, summarising its effect on classical music in South Africa as we experience it today.

Thesis (MMus (Music))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / Community music is at the innermost heart of any music society, yet its generally informal training structures have rendered it somehow second-class in the general view. South Africa‟s formal education structures have tended to favour the elite at the cost of those who are historically deprived, a pattern which developed centuries before the advent of legal Apartheid. This lack of official favour may be the source of the intensity of community music development in the Western Cape, a locus of cultural and ethnic diversity remarkable even in South Africa. Brass instruments, with their inherent portability and relative affordability, have been at the heart of much church music in the past two hundred years. For the Salvationists, the brass band has long been the „peripatetic organ‟ for use at services indoors or outdoors. For the German-related churches, the Posaunenchor, now a brass choir, fulfils many of the same functions. These and other informal structures like them tend to reproduce themselves by means of „apprenticeship‟ of novitiate players to experienced bandsmen. A substantial number of church-trained players have become professional in the context of military bands in the Cape and elsewhere in South Africa. Some have, with more formal training, become symphonic instrumentalists of considerable rank in South Africa. This dissertation sets out to describe the milieu from which brass-players have emerged when formal instrumental instruction has been unavailable to them. It describes past and current efforts to bolster and upgrade brass training for youth, and the ways in which this couples with social upliftment for youth. Perhaps most importantly, it furnishes information and tools for South Africa to join fully with international efforts to research the phenomena of community music and to better understand their significance.

Thesis (MMus (Music))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis attempts to understand questions of our past in the present. It is broadly premised on the assumption of complicity as an interpretive frame in which the relationship between Apartheid intellectualisation and Afrikaans music historiography can be elucidated. Its protagonists are Gerrie Eloff, Geoffrey Cronjé, H.F. Verwoerd, Piet Meyer, Jan Bouws, Rosa Nepgen and Jacques Philip Malan. In each of the four chapters, I attempt to construct metaphors, points of intersection or articulation between Apartheid intellectualisation and Afrikaans music historiography. Music is never entirely absent: for Apartheid ideologues such as Geoffrey Cronjé and Gerrie Eloff musical metaphors become ways of enunciating racial theories, for the Dutch musicologist Jan Bouws music provides entry into South Africa and its discourses, for J.P. Malan music becomes a conduit that could facilitate national goals and for Rosa Nepgen music constitutes the perfect domain for and the gestating impulse of her own often ornate national devotions. Some of the themes addressed in this thesis include the language and metaphors of Apartheid intellectualisation, discourses of paranoia, struggle, purity, contamination, the ‘Afrikanermoeder’ (‘Afrikaner mother’), the cultural language of Afrikaner nationalism and the reciprocity between cultural fecundity and dominance of the land. The final denouement comprises a positing of the Afrikaans art song ‘O Boereplaas’ and the singing soprano Afrikanermoeder who emerges as the keeper of Afrikaner blood purity, guardian of her race and prophet of its fate and future. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis probeer om vrae uit ons verlede in die hede te verstaan. Die aanname van komplisiteit verskaf ’n premis en interpreterende raamwerk waarbinne die verhouding tussen Apartheid-intellektualisering en Afrikaanse musiekhistoriografie belig kan word. Die protagoniste van hierdie tesis is Gerrie Eloff, Geoffrey Cronjé, H.F. Verwoerd, Piet Meyer, Jan Bouws, Rosa Nepgen en Jacques Philip Malan. In elk van die vier hoofstukke poog ek om metafore, punte van kruising of artikulasie tussen Apartheid-intellektualisering en Afrikaanse musiekhistoriografie te konstrueer. Musiek word nooit buite rekening gelaat nie: vir Apartheid-ideoloë soos Geoffrey Cronjé en Gerrie Eloff word musikale metafore maniere hoe teorieë oor ras geformuleer kan word, vir die Nederlandse musikoloog Jan Bouws verleen musiek toegang tot Suid-Afrikaanse kulturele diskoerse, vir J.P. Malan word musiek ’n kanaal waardeur nasionale doelstellings vloei en vir Rosa Nepgen verteenwoordig musiek die ideale omgewing en teelaarde vir haar eie en gereeld oordadige nasionale lofuitinge. Sommige van die temas wat in hierdie tesis aangespreek word sluit in die taal en metafore van Apartheid intellektualisering, diskoerse van paranoia, stryd, suiwerheid, kontaminasie, die Afrikanermoeder, die kulturele taal van Afrikanernasionalisme en die wederkerigheid tussen kulturele oplewing en oorheersing van Suid-Afrika. Die tesis word tot slot gevoer deur ’n besinning oor die Afrikaanse kunslied ‘O Boereplaas’ en die singende sopraan, die Afrikanermoeder, wat na vore tree as die bewaarder van Afrikaner-bloedsuiwerheid, oppasser van haar ras en die profetes van die volk se lot en toekoms.

Thesis (MMus (Music))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / The Libertas Choir occupies an exceptional place in the history of choral music in South Africa, especially in the Western Cape. The research on this choir is presented here in the form of a historical study, tracing the details chronologically from a politically inspired mass choir in 1986 to the founding of the Libertas Choir in 1989, and then following its history until the end of 2006. The first three chapters contain highlights of the first 17 years (1989-2006) while the subsequent chapters contain compositions specifically composed or arranged for the choir, a profile of the conductor, issues that the choir faced as well as an insight into the choir as “ambassador” for South Africa. Documenting the history of this multiracial choir in South Africa, the thesis includes an account of the contribution the choir has made to the development of music in a multicultural society as well as how it has fostered the belief that music sets no social or cultural boundaries. This study also documents the choir’s contribution to the development of multicultural choir performances. The research covers indigenous South African music that has been performed by the choir, as well as new compositions and choral arrangements that were instigated and disseminated by the choir. A selection of programmes sung by the choir during this time is included.

Thesis (MMus (Music))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / The evolutionary origins of music, defined as “an intentional action in which complex, learned vocalizations (and/or instrumentally produced sound) are combined with the movement of the body in synchrony to a beat” is investigated through an appraisal of the musilanguage theory and relevant literature. The biological adaptations allowing the production and perception of music are identified and their evolutionary histories investigated. The critical adaptations that made rhythmical body movement possible evolved around 1.6 million years ago. These include habitual bipedalism and changes in the vestibular system. There is almost no fossil evidence to inform on the timing and nature of the complex, learned vocalization. However, that the thoracic vertebrate canal had modern proportions by 600 000 years ago indicates that archaic humans were able to achieve the respiratory control necessary to sing. The size of this canal is a proxy for the number of nerve cells that control respiration via the intercostal and abdominal muscles. Musicality is essential to the human mind. Infants are born with rudimentary musical skills with regard to melody, temporal sequences and vocal and bodily imitation. These capabilities are central to the newborns’ innate ability to elicit care by synchronizing their vocal and bodily actions with that of the caregivers. Musical rhythm is further used to entrain bodily and neural oscillations and this permit the creation of trust and social bonding. It is concluded that protomusic developed between 1.6 million and 600 000 years ago. Protomusic consisted of entrained rhythmical whole body movements initially combined with grunt-like vocalizations. The evidence investigated cannot be used to infer the origins of modern music. KEYWORDS: Music, Evolution, Synchronisation, Melody, Dance, Bipedality, Vestibular system, Thoracic vertebrate canal, Infant-directed communication, Neural entrainment