Towards a mapping of the marginal : readings of art songs by Nigerian, Ghanaian, Egyptian and South African composers

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: African art music practices of western origin have oftentimes been excluded from generaldiscourses on western art music practices. In this study, close readings of selected art songsby twentieth and twenty-first century Nigerian, Ghanaian, Egyptian and South Africancomposers serve to 'map' this music through challenging existing general discourses on artmusic composition, and genre-specific discourses on art song composition in Africa. Thereadings also serve to create new discourses, including ones that promote African crossregionalengagements.In the first part of this dissertation, the readings take place in the contexts of theselected countries. The second section presents pre-selected discourses and theories as pointsof departure. Chapter 2 proposes to question how the theory of African vocalism can beexpanded, and how animist materialism could serve as an alternative context in which to readthe composition of art music in Nigeria and Ghana. Chapter 3 aims to answer whichstrategies in anti-exotic self-representation have been followed in twentieth-century Egyptianart song. Chapter 4 asks how South African composers of art song have denoted 'Africa' intheir works, and how these denotations relate to their oeuvres and general stylistic practices.Chapter 5 interrogates how composers have dealt with the requirements of tonal languages intheir setting of texts in such languages to music. Chapter 6 probes possible interpretations ofcomposers' display of the 'objects' of cultural affiliation, positing expatriate Africancomposers as diplomats. Chapter 7 asks what the contexts are in which to read specificexamples of African intercultural art music, without which the analyst might make aninappropriate (perhaps unethical?) value judgement.The conclusion presents a comparison of trends and styles in African art song to thosein certain western song traditions. A discussion on folk and popular song styles as art isfollowed by a consideration of African vocalism in the context of the dissertation as a whole.A continuation of an earlier discussion on the compositional denotation of 'Africa' leads to aconsideration of the 'duty to denote' in the context of western modernity.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University