M.Mus. Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, 2008 / This report forms part of the output of a research team investigating the phenomenon of overtone singing as practiced by the women of the Ngqoko Women’s Ensemble in the village of Ngqoko outside the town of Lady Frere in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. This essay examines various systems of musical notation in terms of their possible application in the transcription process of overtone singing as found amongst these women. A selection of their music is transcribed using the formulated notational systems and the effectiveness of these systems is compared. A recommendation as to which system of notation is most effective for documenting this type of music is made. Utilising the soundworld of the Ngqoko recordings, an original piece of music is composed as part of this submission.

Cette thèse est une étude ethnomusicologique à dimension historique portant sur la transmission globale du höömij en Mongolie. Pour expliquer l’évolution de cette technique vocale, sont explorés les légendes, les conceptions autochtones, l’histoire des années 1950 au début des années 2010 et la mise en patrimoine pour l’avenir.La première partie montre comment le chant diphonique prend forme dans sa culture. Perçu comme un art du timbre par ses détenteurs, il entretient des relations avec la nature, ainsi qu’un ensemble de techniques vocales et instrumentales issues des contextes rituel et pastoral. Ces fondements du höömij sont ensuite examinés à la lumière de l’histoire de la Mongolie. Entre les périodes soviétique etcontemporaine, la deuxième partie brosse les changements survenus dans la pratique, entre la scène et l’enregistrement. À côté de l’usage rural, se développe une nouvelle forme professionnelle. Tous ces apports ont façonné le chant diphonique mongol dans son état actuel. La troisième partie étudie la transmission à travers l’enseignement et la patrimonialisation. Les maîtres évoluent entre deux pôles : un village de l’Altaï perçu comme le lieu des origines, et une université d’Ulaanbaatar, qui académise la pratique et diffuse son modèle au niveau national. Tout cela participe au processus de patrimonialisation du höömij, desa constitution en emblème musical sous la période soviétique à son inscription sur la liste du Patrimoine Culturel Immatériel de l’Unesco. Le höömij mongol apparaît dans toute sa contemporanéité / This thesis is an ethnomusicological study on the global transmission of höömij in Mongolia with a historic dimension. In order to explain the evolution of this vocal technique, this dissertation links the legends, the native conceptions, the history from the 1950’s to the begining of the 2010’s and the patrimonialization for the future.The first part shows how höömij takes place in its culture. Perceived as an art of timbre by its bearers, it maintains relations with nature and a set of vocal and instrumental techniques that derive from ritual and pastoral contexts. These foundations of höömij are then investigated in light of Mongolia’s history. Examinging both Soviet and contemporarytimes, the second part looks into the changes that occured in relation to the stage and recordings. Alongside höömij’s rural function, a newer professional form developed, which has primarily shaped contemporary performance.The third part studies transmission as teaching and patrimonialization. Masters evolve between two poles : a village in the Altai perceived as the very place of origins, and a university in Ulaanbaatar, which academicizes the practice and spread its model to the whole nation. All of this contributes to höömij’s patrimonialization process, from the building of a musical emblem under Soviet times, to its registration on Unesco’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list. Mongolian höömij appears in its whole contemporaneity

Part 1.Thesis: Chapter 1: The people of the Lumko district (the villages of Ngqoko and Sikhwankqeni) are AbaThembu, mostly of the Gcina clan cluster. Their history has caused them to be linked with (now vanished) San peoples in special ways, which have undoubtedly influenced their music. Chapter 2: The music of these people is centred around their religious and social life. This affects the way they classify their songs; and song classifications (and the way songs are used) affect their performance, in particular, the dance styles associated with the song classes. Chapter 3: A variety of musical instruments is used in the Lumko district, the most important being the musical bows. Once again, the use of these bows gives an insight into the musical influences that have affected the people historically. The ways the bows work are described, as well as ways to play them. Chapter 4: Overtone singing, not previously documented anywhere in traditional African music, is practised in certain ways by these AmaGcina. These, and other vocal techniques, are described. Chapter 5: From the terminology and the methods of conceptualisation about music in the Lumko district, it is possible to gain an insight into a truly Xhosa technical understanding of Xhosa music. Once again a historical insight is gained, because so many of the important terms are KhoiSan words. Chapter 6: A Western technological (i. e. musicological) understanding of the music is also necessary in a study of this nature. This chapter applies musicological concepts to an examination of the relationship between speech and song, of the usages in melody and scale, harmony theory, rhythm, polyphony, song form, instrumental roles and methods of performance. Chapter 7: This is the conclusion of the thesis. It sums up what has been studied: musical techniques, principles, the importance of Ntsikana 's song as a basis for musical comparisons, and the import of the historical aspects of the study - a possible glimpse of the music of the San. PART 2. MUSIC TRANSCRIPTIONS AND DESCRIPTIONS. The transcriptions of 62 songs provide the material for this study. The songs were chosen to represent all the major song classes used in the Lumko district, and to represent all the important music techniques as well. The songs are in fifteen categories. Each song is accompanied by its technical details, and sufficient commentary to make the song transcription intelligible and meaningful. Certain key songs are chosen as type-songs or other special examples, and are used as the bases for discussion on song style characteristics, principles of performance, bow adaptation, and so on. A general Introduction to Part 2 describes and accounts for the method of transcription, and also attempts to make it possible for the score reader not only to analyse, but also to perform the songs. In a further attempt to bring the transcriptions to life, a video recording of certain key songs and techniques, and audio tapes with examples taken from all the songs, accompany this study

MA, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, 2012 / This research-report presents a theoretical exploration of musical encoding which has its basis in general semiotic theory. By examining what this reveals about the problematic and mysterious issue of music’s meaning, I argue that the most visceral and direct form of it is found in the manner in which the composer shapes a certain kind of temporal experience (erlebnis) which is engendered by the music itself. This reveals that sensations of goal-directed movement, closure, tension and release are shaped in a phenomenological way against a background of continuity that is established by metrical cyclicity and phrasal periodisation. As a result, the interpretation of certain kinds of accumulative structural effects generated by the gestural (rhythmic and melodic/harmonic) inflections of the temporal and intonational planes become meaningful in a rhetorical, affective (affekten) and topical sense. A study of Ngqoko (Xhosa) overtone-music, as a case study into African indigenous music (as opposed to the examples cited of Western art music), shows that an intensification of the relationships between pitch and rhythm that exist in speech-tone results in the formation of melody and a culturally embedded vocabulary of intonations. I argue that this resultant edifice exists in the music of most cultures and that this ultimately serves as the basis of musical encoding. Therefore musical meaning develops in ways that are completely intrinsic to music.