Bongani Ndodana-Breen’s compositional style and techniques: piano case study in Rituals for Forgotten Faces
- Authors: Julies, Jason
- Date: 2021-04
- Subjects: Composers, Black -- South Africa , Hymns, Xhosa
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/52897 , vital:44320
- Description: Bongani Ndodana-Breen is a South African born Xhosa composer trained in Western Classical music and composition. His music is a reflection of his Xhosa heritage, and is internationally recognised. While there have been discussions of Ndodana-Breen’s individual works, the current available literature does not sufficiently investigate his compositional style. This treatise aims to address this. To determine Ndodana-Breen’s compositional style, the techniques and practices he uses in his works are investigated. This is achieved by deconstructing the compositional elements, and musical techniques and practices he employs in his compositions. They are then investigated through the use of thematic analysis and fragmentation, and are viewed through the lens of polystylism and postcolonialism. Ndodana-Breen’s composition Rituals for Forgotten Faces is used as a case study. The results of this investigation show that Ndodana-Breen, through the use of strong rhythms, light textures and simplicity in writing, creates a unique Africanness in his compositions. This Africanness overcomes the Eurocentric sound traditionally found in Western Classical composition. Furthermore, these findings suggest a hybridity of polystylistic elements found in Ndodana-Breen’s music, that could potentially be found in the works of other African musicians that are trained in Western Classical composition. On this basis, this study paves the way for further study of African composers and their works. , Thesis (MMus) -- Faculty of Humanities, 2021
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021-04
- Authors: Julies, Jason
- Date: 2021-04
- Subjects: Composers, Black -- South Africa , Hymns, Xhosa
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/52897 , vital:44320
- Description: Bongani Ndodana-Breen is a South African born Xhosa composer trained in Western Classical music and composition. His music is a reflection of his Xhosa heritage, and is internationally recognised. While there have been discussions of Ndodana-Breen’s individual works, the current available literature does not sufficiently investigate his compositional style. This treatise aims to address this. To determine Ndodana-Breen’s compositional style, the techniques and practices he uses in his works are investigated. This is achieved by deconstructing the compositional elements, and musical techniques and practices he employs in his compositions. They are then investigated through the use of thematic analysis and fragmentation, and are viewed through the lens of polystylism and postcolonialism. Ndodana-Breen’s composition Rituals for Forgotten Faces is used as a case study. The results of this investigation show that Ndodana-Breen, through the use of strong rhythms, light textures and simplicity in writing, creates a unique Africanness in his compositions. This Africanness overcomes the Eurocentric sound traditionally found in Western Classical composition. Furthermore, these findings suggest a hybridity of polystylistic elements found in Ndodana-Breen’s music, that could potentially be found in the works of other African musicians that are trained in Western Classical composition. On this basis, this study paves the way for further study of African composers and their works. , Thesis (MMus) -- Faculty of Humanities, 2021
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- Date Issued: 2021-04
An analysis of oral literary music texts in isiXhosa
- Authors: Mpola, Mavis Noluthando
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Xhosa (African people) -- Music , Xhosa (African people) -- Music -- History , Xhosa (African people) -- Folklore , Composers, Black -- South Africa , Hymns, Xhosa , Folk literature, Xhosa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3632 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012909
- Description: This study examines the relationship between composed songs in isiXhosa and the field of oral literature. In traditional Xhosa cultural settings, poetry and music are forms of communal activity enjoyed by that society. Music and poetry perform a special social role in African society in general, providing a critique of socio-economic and political issues. The research analyses the relationship that exists between traditional poetry, izibongo, and composed songs. It demonstrates that in the same way that izibongo can be analysed in order to appreciate the aesthetic value of an oral literary form, the same can be said of composed isiXhosa music. The art of transmitting oral literature is performance. The traditional izibongo are recited before audiences in the same way. Songs (iingoma) stories (amabali) and traditional poetry (izibongo) all comprise oral literature that is transmitted by word of mouth. Opland (1992: 17) says about this type of literature: “Living as it does in the performance is usually appreciated by crowds of people as sounds uttered by the performer who is present before his/her audience.” Opland (ibid 125) again gives an account of who is both reciter of poems and singer of songs. He gives Mthamo’s testimony thus: “He is a singer… with a reputation of being a poet as well.” The musical texts that will be analysed in this thesis will range from those produced as early as 1917, when Benjamin Tyamzashe wrote his first song, Isithandwa sam (My beloved), up to those produced in 1990 when Makhaya Mjana was commissioned by Lovedale on its 150th anniversary to write Qingqa Lovedale (Stand up Lovedale). The song texts total fifty, by twenty-one composers. The texts will be analysed according to different themes, ranging from themes that are metaphoric, themes about events, themes that depict the culture of the amaXhosa, themes with a message of protest, themes demonstrating the relationship between religion and nature, themes that call for unity among the amaXhosa, and themes that depict the personal circumstances of composers and lullabies. The number of texts from each category will vary depending on the composers’ socio-cultural background when they composed the songs. Comparison will be made with some izibongo to show that composers and writers of izibongo are similar artists and, in the words of Mtuze in Izibongo Zomthonyama (1993) “bathwase ngethongo elinye” (They are spiritually gifted in the same way).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
- Authors: Mpola, Mavis Noluthando
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Xhosa (African people) -- Music , Xhosa (African people) -- Music -- History , Xhosa (African people) -- Folklore , Composers, Black -- South Africa , Hymns, Xhosa , Folk literature, Xhosa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3632 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012909
- Description: This study examines the relationship between composed songs in isiXhosa and the field of oral literature. In traditional Xhosa cultural settings, poetry and music are forms of communal activity enjoyed by that society. Music and poetry perform a special social role in African society in general, providing a critique of socio-economic and political issues. The research analyses the relationship that exists between traditional poetry, izibongo, and composed songs. It demonstrates that in the same way that izibongo can be analysed in order to appreciate the aesthetic value of an oral literary form, the same can be said of composed isiXhosa music. The art of transmitting oral literature is performance. The traditional izibongo are recited before audiences in the same way. Songs (iingoma) stories (amabali) and traditional poetry (izibongo) all comprise oral literature that is transmitted by word of mouth. Opland (1992: 17) says about this type of literature: “Living as it does in the performance is usually appreciated by crowds of people as sounds uttered by the performer who is present before his/her audience.” Opland (ibid 125) again gives an account of who is both reciter of poems and singer of songs. He gives Mthamo’s testimony thus: “He is a singer… with a reputation of being a poet as well.” The musical texts that will be analysed in this thesis will range from those produced as early as 1917, when Benjamin Tyamzashe wrote his first song, Isithandwa sam (My beloved), up to those produced in 1990 when Makhaya Mjana was commissioned by Lovedale on its 150th anniversary to write Qingqa Lovedale (Stand up Lovedale). The song texts total fifty, by twenty-one composers. The texts will be analysed according to different themes, ranging from themes that are metaphoric, themes about events, themes that depict the culture of the amaXhosa, themes with a message of protest, themes demonstrating the relationship between religion and nature, themes that call for unity among the amaXhosa, and themes that depict the personal circumstances of composers and lullabies. The number of texts from each category will vary depending on the composers’ socio-cultural background when they composed the songs. Comparison will be made with some izibongo to show that composers and writers of izibongo are similar artists and, in the words of Mtuze in Izibongo Zomthonyama (1993) “bathwase ngethongo elinye” (They are spiritually gifted in the same way).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
The life and work of Benjamin Tyamzashe: a contemporary Xhosa composer
- Authors: Hansen, Deirdre Doris
- Date: 1968
- Subjects: Xhosa (African people) -- Music , Hymns, Xhosa , Tyamzashe, Benjamin John Peter (1890-1978) , Composers, Black -- South Africa
- Language: English , Xhosa
- Type: Book
- Identifier: vital:550 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020214
- Description: The present paper is a digest of the thesis submitted under the same title, by Miss Deirdre Hansen for the Degree of Master of Music of Rhodes University in 1968. This work includes a large number of musical illustrations, which illuminate in detail many aspects of the works of Benjamin Tyamzashe. The section containing these has been reduced to its essentials, but what is here given should enable the reader to understand the manner in which Tyamzashe's ability as a composer has developed, and to give him his rightful place among his contemporaries. , Digitised by Rhodes University Library on behalf of the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER)
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1968
- Authors: Hansen, Deirdre Doris
- Date: 1968
- Subjects: Xhosa (African people) -- Music , Hymns, Xhosa , Tyamzashe, Benjamin John Peter (1890-1978) , Composers, Black -- South Africa
- Language: English , Xhosa
- Type: Book
- Identifier: vital:550 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020214
- Description: The present paper is a digest of the thesis submitted under the same title, by Miss Deirdre Hansen for the Degree of Master of Music of Rhodes University in 1968. This work includes a large number of musical illustrations, which illuminate in detail many aspects of the works of Benjamin Tyamzashe. The section containing these has been reduced to its essentials, but what is here given should enable the reader to understand the manner in which Tyamzashe's ability as a composer has developed, and to give him his rightful place among his contemporaries. , Digitised by Rhodes University Library on behalf of the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER)
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1968
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