Browsing by Subject "music"

Now showing 1 - 12 of 12
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    Closure: a mind/brain perspective
    (2024) Hart, Jeremy; Herbst, Theo
    The topic of closure - that sense of logical completion and conclusion - is often given much weight in the discussion of Western Classical music. However, this discussion enters uncertain territory when dealing with works which eschew the tonal-syntactic structure of the common practice period; a challenge common to music of the Twentieth Century. This dissertation concerns itself with the question of how closure can be achieved under these conditions. Most of the literature approaches this issue by analysing musical devices or procedures which composers employ at non-tonal musical endings, but this is usually done without first establishing criteria for distinguishing between endings that articulate closure and those that do not. To address this, I begin by proposing a definition of closure as a concept and then explore the cognitive underpinnings of this sensation through a review of Event Segmentation Theory. This allows me to construct a lens through which to revisit the existing work on non tonal endings and discuss their potential closural effect. My discussion concludes that, in the absence of a well-developed or commonly understood grammatical-semantic system, music requires a linear or directed process with a limiting element (either a process which is self limiting, one that proceeds toward a previously stated limit, or one that is interrupted by a significant modification) for it to stimulate a sense of closure. A notable exception to this was the possibility of closure as a result of high processing effort when locating an ending. I believe that these conclusions are valuable to the formal analysis or composition of non-tonal works within the Western Classical tradition
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    Cole Porter: around the world on sings of Song
    (2012) Colborne, Desmond
    Of all the great American songwriters of the golden age of popular song Cole Porter was the most cosmopolitan. He owned a stylish apartment in Paris, partied with high society on the French Riviera and in grand Venetian palazzi, moved between Broadway and Hollywood and travelled widely, even visiting Cape Town on one of his many cruises. This audio lecture will be of interest to those who wish to know more about Cole Porter's life and music.
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    Cycles: exploring the intertextual relationships between Bheki Mseleku, Bokani Dyer and Thandi Ntuli
    (2022) Röntsch, Claire; Tiffin, Amanda
    Bheki Mseleku was a South African-born jazz pianist, composer and improviser. During his life-time, Mseleku had a prominent career in London and since his death his compositions have been widely performed in South Africa. In the late 1970s he went into exile and moved to London, where he received greater recognition as a composer and performer than in his homeland. From 1991 to 2003 Mseleku recorded six original albums, displaying a lyrical and technical jazz pianism. As a composer, Mseleku was prolific, incorporating a cyclical style with extensive use of harmonic sequences, as is evident in his work Aja (1997). He also employs both Zulu and European musical aesthetics, such as in Celebration (1991), as well as an introspective spiritualism such as in Looking Within (1993) and Meditations (1992). In recent years, there has been renewed interest in Mseleku's music, both from jazz musicians as well as jazz scholars. This research discusses and considers the relationships between Mseleku's compositions and those of younger South African jazz pianists Bokani Dyer (b. 1986) and Thandi Ntuli (b. 1987). Through the use of intertextual theoretical frameworks and jazz analysis, this thesis explores the notion of influence and the dialogical relationships of these artists' compositions. These intertextual structures are paired with a close reading of selected works of Mseleku, Dyer and Ntuli, to critically discuss the posthumous influence that Mseleku has had on two members from a younger generation of South African jazz musicians. This research aims to consider Mseleku's role and influence within South African jazz music. This dissertation deconstructs the intertextual relationship between the music of Bheki Mseleku and Bokani Dyer and Thandi Ntuli. In doing so, this research questions how Mseleku's musical praxis informs that of Dyer's and Ntuli's, as well as how intertextual relationships can be explored through jazz musical analytical methodologies.
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    Marketing, distribution, and consumption of popular music in the face of music piracy and the economic meltdown in Zimbabwe from 2008 to 2019
    (2021) Nyahuma, Brian; Deja, Richard
    The expansion of recording technologies in the world over the past several decades has contributed to an increase in music piracy globally in all forms. As a result, piracy has become a global phenomenon affecting the production, marketing, distribution, and consumption of music. In Zimbabwe, this has been exacerbated by the economic meltdown that the country is facing since 2008. Piracy has emerged to be a problem which has attracted a substantial amount of local and international attention over the past few decades. However, the marketing, distribution, and consumption of popular music in Zimbabwe remains largely uncharted. Thus, this study aims to examine how popular music is marketed, distributed, and consumed in Zimbabwe in the face of music piracy. It also seeks to explore how music piracy has impacted (negatively and positively) on the lives of musicians and record label owners and producers and what these music personnel are doing to combat music piracy. This inquiry is qualitative in nature. Data collection was done using structured and informal interviews as well as document analysis and literature founded research. A concise account of music piracy in select countries of the world in Europe, the Americas, and Africa, in addition to a focus on Zimbabwe, is given through literature review and information gathered through fieldwork to contribute to a new conceptual framework. Results show that music piracy is still a big problem affecting music and has changed the way in which music is marketed, distributed, and consumed in Zimbabwe. The economic situation in the country is also affecting music distribution and consumption with results showing that people would want to deal with basic needs first before embarking on anything else. It also emerged that established musicians are most affected by music piracy than upcoming ones. Key findings from this research indicate that piracy provide upcoming musicians with viable avenues to market themselves. This study is grounded on empirical findings and could be valuable by putting Zimbabwean music on the world map. Further studies should be carried out to see if the same conclusions can be reached
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    Medicine and the Arts Week 5 - An insider view
    (2015-01-21) Reid, Steve
    In this video, Professor Steve Reid reflects on the various issues covered in the previous set of videos, namely the insider view of mental illness and how poetry and music can serve to improve the public's understanding of mental illness. This is the sixth video in Week 5 of the Medicine and the Arts Massive Open Online Course.
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    Medicine and the Arts Week 5 - In dialogue about mental illness
    (2015-01-21) Reid, Steve; Baumann, Sean; Dowling, Finuala
    In this video, Professor Steve Reid engages in discussion with Finuala Downling and Sean Baumann about how poetry and music can help us understand and talk about mental illness. They discuss the insider-outsider view of mental illness, experience of the world through the eyes of psychosis, and the role of imagination and empathy when listening to first-hand accounts of mental illness. This is the fourth video in Week 5 of the Medicine and the Arts Massive Open Online Course.
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    Songs in the dust: Riel Music in the Northern and Western Cape, South Africa
    (2019) Britz, Engela; Bruinders, Sylvia
    The centuries-old southern African dance form called rieldans (reel dance), or simply riel (reel), is believed to have emerged from Khoe-San dances. It is characterised by its distinctive footwork, animal mimicry, and courtship displays. In the post-apartheid, postcolonial South African context, the riel has emerged as symbol of indigeneity through largescale public performance of Khoe-San heritage. Despite colonial influences, it represents an historical link to the Khoe-San people for its performers who are, for the most part, persons of mixed descent who were classified as 'coloured’ under colonialism and apartheid. Due to a recent riel revival, which emerged from the alignment of Khoe-San and Afrikaans identity negotiations following democracy, the riel has attracted a fair amount of informal attention both locally and internationally over the last decade. However, it remains largely unexplored in performance scholarship. This study investigates riel music of the Northern and Western Cape Provinces of South Africa. The research is qualitative in nature with data collection through participant-observation, semi-structured interviews (including feedback interviews), archival and literature-based research, and organology. A brief history of the riel is presented through a synthesis of documentary evidence and oral history gleaned from fieldwork. This includes an investigation into the history of the ramkie - an instrument that is strongly associated with the riel. By drawing on emic interpretations of riel music in conjunction with Muller’s and Impey’s ideas about 'music as archive’, this study explores how riel music is an oral/aural archive of indigenous knowledge, memory and experience. Findings indicate that contemporary practice links the riel to pre-colonial Khoe-San practices from which it may have derived. An examination of the ramkie’s history reveals that it emerged from material and cultural exchanges in the Indian Ocean that link southern Africa to a vast trade network in pre-colonial and colonial times. Moreover, the instrument provides a glimpse into gender issues that influence riel music making. Like the dance that it accompanies, riel music exhibits characteristics that are indicative of its Khoe-San influence. An analysis of the liedjies (songs) shows that they deal mostly with themes of romance, place, and death and suffering, and that the music is a powerful platform for the expression of interpersonal concerns that provide a glimpse into the lived experiences of working-class coloured communities in the rural Cape.
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    Structural analysis of the Chopin Etudes as prerequisite to physical practice
    (1990) Van Wyk, Wessel; Searle, Laura; May, James
    This study treats visualisation of the printed score prior to practice as first step towards comprehension and learning of a composition. It obviates senseless mechanical solutions to technical difficulties. The purpose of this study is to outline a systematic procedure of analysis which will enable the performer to understand the musical structure of a Chopin etude in its broader and finer detail. The analytical procedure also supports thorough investigation into Chopin's interpretative indications. The study is geared towards the pianist with a mature technique who will realise that visual analysis can also benefit technical execution. Three etudes of contrasting nature and content - Op.25, No.2 and Op.10, Nos.12 and 4 - are analysed. The analyses concentrate on the characteristic elements of form, melody, and harmony. The synthesis of these structural elements with interpretative detail attempts to provide the performer with an ideal interpretation of each work. iv Astounding, canorous, enchanting, alembicated, and dramatic, the Chopin studies are exemplary essays in emotion and manner. In them is mirrored all of Chopin, the planetary as well as the secular Chopin. When most of his piano music has gone the way of all things fashioned by mortal hands, these studies will endure, will stand for the nineteenth century, as Beethoven crystallised the eighteenth and Bach the seventeenth centuries in piano music. Chopin is a classic.
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    The 'Mandala' philosophy of music for South African schools
    (1998) Carolus, Mario Cornelius; van Tonder, James; Smith, Barry
    This thesis critically addresses the aesthetic versus the praxial philosophies of music culminating in the philosophical roots of the 'Mandala' approach to music. The 'Mandala' philosophy of music is based on Carl Jung's psychoanalytic theory as well as David Elliott's 'praxial' philosophy of music. The 'Mandala' philosophy of music rests upon two main tenets namely; that music is to be approached and taught holistically and that the significance and justification of music reside in creative thinking or creativity. A holistic approach to music is a humanistic view of education and which differs from the subject-based approach of the past. The emphasis of this approach is on what music practitioners can do i.e. their musical products, in the context of particular musical practices. Music is not esoteric aesthetic emotion producing qualities, but rather something that musicians practice within particular musical cultures and styles. The 'self as centre of the whole of the person serves as catalyst for creative products, self-growth and enjoyment in music. Creative thinking is, inter alia, tantamount to self-actualization, problem-focused learning, transformation and the higher form of integration through music education. Through descriptive illustrations, analyses, comparisons and syntheses key concepts of this approach are highlighted to support cogent arguments. This approach differs markedly from the present fragmented, one-dimensional music education approach in South African schools and which still lay stress on the sublime idealism of the aesthetic philosophy of music. The 'Mandala' approach substitutes aesthetic idealism with artistic pragmatism in the context of music practices and practitioners. The 'Mandala' approach to music emphasizes creative thinking, i.e. creative-action-learning and critical or reflective thinking, as fundamental to music making, to constitute the M.C.T.-model of music. This approach further juxtaposes creative thinking (creativity) and self-actualization as products or outcomes of both the conscious and unconscious creative thinking of humans. The tripartite interactions between the creative person, process and product, constitute the integrated condition of knowing. Knowing in music differs from knowing about music. In essence the 'Mandala' approach advocates that music, as product of the 'self, be placed at the core of the school curriculum. From this centre, self-knowledge, self-growth and enjoyment should blossom forth. The aim is not to create knowledgable musicians, but rather knowing music practitioners 'in situ', i.e. performers, composers and musician-analysers. Knowing in music focuses on the creative intentions or tangible products, i.e.performing, improvisation/composition and analysis. Creative products in class could be achieved through creative-action-learning in the context of a proposed intercultural South African Music Model and music curriculum in practice. Practical creative-action-learning music lessons are proposed as guidelines for music practitioners and to stimulate further experimentation. In conclusion, this approach to music is compatible with outcomes-based education proposed recently by the National Qualifications Framework.
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    The impact of having a choir in the community
    (2020) Sithela, Abonga Will; Sandmeier, Rebekka
    Choir singing is something that is enjoyed by many people around the communities, some are singing in church choirs, some are singing in school choirs and some are singing in community choirs. To sustain a church choir and a school choir is relatively possible because there is some sort of support coming from these institutions as the choir serves as the secondary purpose for both these institutions. People go to church to worship the Lord and decide to join the choir, so is going to school, the learners attend school to acquire knowledge and as an extra mural activity they join the school. For the community choir, the main purpose to join a community choir is to sing for the love of music and because they are not under any institution, community choirs face many challenges that include but not limited to, the money. Amongst those challenges is the lack of knowledge about the important reason why the choirs exist, which is to build unity amongst the communities and to teach individuals the soft skills that are needed to build one's career. This study will look at contributing towards civil societies in South Africa mostly in the townships where the main focus will be developing the communities through music activities such as working with choirs from the professional point of view. Turino (2008) states that in societies around the world, music creates and expresses the emotional inner life and it also can be an avenue of money and fame. I agree with Turino, as I am also a person looking to earn my living through music. Akuno (2008) mentions that in African societies, there is music for every activity, and it does not come as a surprise that there are a lot of community choirs. In addition, music as a work of art serves physical and emotional needs while cementing psycho-social and spiritual relationships (Akuno 2008) something that is forgotten and as a result choirs face difficulty and that leads to the dissolvement of the choirs.
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    The integration of creative programming in experimental music and digital art
    (2023) Pratt, Matthew; Hofmeyr, Hendrik; Herbst, Theo
    This explication presents an overview of the background, composition processes and influences involved in the creation of experimental music and digital art using creative programming. By establishing the context of my composition style, the paper will outline the methods, conceptualization and creative language used in the creation of a work of experimental music. It will also touch on the use of creative programming in digital art.
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    The resilience of labrosones in coastal communities bordering the Indian Ocean
    (2020) Kolawole, Gbolahan Cornelius; Deja, Rick
    The resilience of labrosones bordering the Indian Ocean is an investigation that has gathered and presented both findings and arguments from related scholarship that highlight the distribution of labrosones along the research region and emphasizes their socio-musical significance in sustaining cultural traditions that have helped to define these communities. Conclusions drawn from the distribution study further uncovered the religious, cultural, and social significance of labrosones. These findings were engaged in order to broaden the systematic approach of organology to form a contextual, culturally situated, and inclusive organology for labrosones. The central objective of this thesis was to provide a theoretical lens through which labrosones were viewed and studied by engaging; Bates' concept of the social life of instruments (2012), Doubleday's gendered nature of instruments (2008), Binford's analysis of material culture (1972), and Kartomi's argument for contextual organology (1990). Though previous scholarship in musicology and ethnomusicology have engaged these themes for music instruments in general, this thesis applies a geographically and culturally specific analysis for labrosones in particular. Through archival research of primary and secondary sources, the research was able to intellectually situate and acknowledge the labrosone beyond a static sound object and present it as a sound-producing object with a social life, significant to cultural practices and symbolic of cultural communities. This research has the potential to contribute to scholarship, both in labrosone organology and pedagogy at tertiary level.