South African Choral Music (Amakwaya): Song, Contest and the ...

134 Music at the Mission Station and the Importance ofthe Hymn
These features can be found in traditional composit1ons
like the clan songs (amahubo), or the old Zulu bow songs
performed, for instance, by Princess Magogo on the ugubhu
or umakhwryana bow (with divided string, see Figuire 5.3).52
The fundamental concept of the bow songs is the twochord
pattern, described by David Rycroft as "Root progression".
These are two major triads either a semitone
apart (for example B-C in most songs of Princess Magogo),
or a whole tone (F-G in the case of Xhosa bow
songs discussed by David Dargie).53 The alternation of
these two "roots" provides the basic tonal foundation of
ugubhu-bow
umakhwryana-bow
Figure 5.3: Differentforms if music bows.
the songs, functional equivalent of harmonic progression in Western music. Ntsikana's hymn "UIo
Tixo Mkulu", which I mentioned in the fIrst chapter in connection with the concerts of the African
Native Choir, is also based on the alternation of the two root notes, F and G (see 1.2.1, page 17).
Ulo Tixo Mkulu - Ntsikana's Great Hymn
ad lib.
U - 10 Ti - xo 0 - mku - lu ngo - se - zu - Iwi nL
Figure 5.4: Ufo Tixo Mku/u (J. K Bokwe, Amacu/o ase Loveda/e).
African music belongs to an oral tradition, which means that compositions were not notated but
kept alive and handed down to the next generation by performance. Ntsikana Gaba (c. 1780-1821)
was still part of this culture and never notated his compositions. It is therefore diffIcult to ascertain
52 Mntwana (princess) Magogo kaDinizulu Buthelezi (1900-1984) was the daughter of the Zulu king, Dinuzulu
KaCetshwayo (1868-1913). D. Rycroft describes her as the greatest living authority on Zulu music and an accomplished
performer of the ugubhu bow. For a more detailed account on the performance practice of amahubo see Bongani N.
Mthethwa, "The Re-Incorporation of Musical Instruments In the Performance of Isaiah Shembe's Hymns: A Report
on Phase 1", Paperspresented at The trl' Symposium on Ethnomusicology (Grahamstown: Rhodes University, 1991: 121), see
also D. Rycroft, "Stylistic Evidence in Nguni Song", in Music and History in Africa, (K. P. Wachsmann ed., (Evanston:
Northwestern University Press, 1971): 213ff.
53 See D. Rycroft, 1975/1976: 64-5; D. Rycroft, 1977: 221; and D. Dargie, Xhosa Music: Its techniques and Instruments, with a
Collection if Songs Oohannesburg: David Philip, 1988): 7; see also Chapters 11.2.6 and 13.1.1 for discussion related to the
music bow.