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

XVIII Preface
Ethnomusicology and the Research of Amakwaya
The study of amakwqya is still in its infancy. Little research has been done so far that acknowledges
the important socio-political role amakwqya has played in South African society since the nineteenth
century. So far scholars, as I have suggested already, have dealt with some isolated aspects of this
rather complex choral tradition and were mainly concerned with African eclectic compositions. The
works of Erlmann and Coplan are obvious examples.3D Moreover, important contributions have
been by Rycroft/ 1 and more recently by Helen Q. Kivnick. 32 Although Kivnick's book does not focus
exclusively on amakwqya, her method of capturing the voice of the people is very similar to my
own. Joan H. Waters 33 has made a useful collection of African eclectic compositions but one that
unfortunately makes little contribution to the understanding of the musical and the socio-political
context in which these compositions were written. Some research has been done on individual
composers in this choral tradition. Ntsikana Gaba (c.1780-1821), in particular, one of the earliest
converts in the eastern Cape, whose hymn-compositions became very influential in the midtwentieth
century, has received a fair amount of scholarly attention. 34 I want also to mention the
work of Deidre D. Hansen 35 on Benjamin Tyamzashe, Douglas Reid on S. J. Khosa/ 6 and George
Ndwamato Mugovhani on Mzilikazi Khumal0 37 .
The absence of a comprehensive study that deals extensively with historical, socio-political or
performance related issues of this choral tradition might be explained by considering how ethnomusicology
as a distinct discipline has emerged out of the nineteenth century conception of comparative
musicology. The latter centred on the cross-cultural comparison of musical thought, practice,
and performances. Until recently, a 'purist' motivation in research prevailed, resulting in ethnomusicologists
restricting themselves to finding and documenting traditional music presented in its
'pure', 'untainted' form. In other words, ethnomusicologists were following a custom of responding
positively only to a conception of "pure ethnic music" and negatively to "any trace of outside influence".38
For the "ethno-musico-patetnalists with a fastidious ear that championed the truly exotic,,/9
European influences on traditional music were regarded as anathema and consequently all
music that showed traces of such an influence were rejected as a subject of research. Percival Kirby,
one of the early scholars of South African music, who undertook most of his studies in the 1930s,
was "mainly concerned with the continuity of African musical practices and was only marginally
interested in the role of performance in situations of culture contact',.40 He believed that musicians
30 V Erlmann,Africatl Stars: Studies in Black South African Peiformance (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991) and
Music, Modernity and the Global Imagination (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), and D. Coplan, In Township Tonight!
South Africa's Black City Music and Theatre Oohannesburg: Ravan Press, 1985).
31 D. Rycroft, ''Black South African Urban Music Since The 1890's: Some Reminiscences of Alfred Assegai Kumalo
(1879-1966)." Journal of International Library of African Music 1991: 5-31.
32 H. Q. Kivnick, Where is the W'9': Song and Struggle in South Africa (New York: Penguin Books, 1990).
33 J. H. Waters, AnAnnotatedAnthology of Zulu and Xhosa Choral Music. Thesis submitted for the Degree of Master of
Music. Oohannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand, 1990).
34 Amongst others: J. Hodgson, Ntslkana's 'Great Hymn' A Xhosa Expression of Christianity in the EarlY Nineteenth Century
Eastern Cape (Cape Town: Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town, 1980); and D. Dargie, "The Music of
N tsikana." South AfricanJournal of Musicology (SAMUS 2, 1982): 9-27.
35 D. D. Hansen, The Life and Work of B. 1)amzashe (Grahamstown, Rhodes University: Institute of Social and Economic
Research, 1968).
36 D. Reid, "In Conversation with S. J. Khosa: Composer and Music Educator." Ars Nova, (Vol. 24, 1992): 10-28.
37 G. N. Mugovhani, The Manifestations of the 'African Style' in the Works of Mzilikazj Khumalo. Thesis submitted for the
Degree Master of Music. Oohannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand, 1998).
38 D. Rycroft, 1977: 216.
39 Ibid.:.220.
40V Erlmann, 1991: 1.