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

6.2 The Content ofMusic Education 161
Further information about education at the mission schools is provided by the school syllabuses set
up by the missionaries. So far as elementary education in general was concerned, the European
model was uncritically applied. 32 Although some missionaries may have been influenced by the ideas
of Social Darwinism, on the whole the objective of the missionaries was to enable Africans to reach
the same levels of cultural progress long attained by Europeans. 33
The Native School Report of 1876 reveals that instruction was given mainly in the elements of
speaking, reading and writing the English language, and simple arithmetic. Other subjects mentioned
are elementary geography, drawing, hygiene, sewing, music and scripture. 34 Unfortunately,
there are very few documents available for a detailed analysis of early musical training at mission
schools. From the available material it seems obvious that in most nineteenth century schools music
education consisted in the preparation of songs which formed part of the church service or were
used at school assemblies and other school functions. It was only in the twentieth century that the
school curricula for music education began to include components other than singing.
An illustrative timetable published in 1921 in the Native Teachers' Journal suggests that two periods
on two different days should be set aside for singing for the whole school, and one lesson of
"Music" assigned to the different grades. In addition the first period each day was to be devoted to
"Opening Hymns and Prayers, Drill or Games".35 Actually the schools quite frequently deviated
from the times officially allocated in the curricula to music education and singing. In a report on
Tulini sub-primary school published in 1927, S. R. Dent complains: " ... [two and a half hours] is far
too much time for singing. Three periods of [twenty] minutes each should be quite enough".36
When visiting the Government school at Howick the same year, Dent had a similar impression that
" ...too much time was devoted to singing throughout the schooL .. [t]hese matters should be ad-
. d" 37
Juste .
At most schools instrumental music was not catered for at all. One reason for this was that, with
rare exceptions, the Education Department did not provide musical instruments. 38 The use of singing
was promoted in publications like A. M. Jones's The Music Makers, which recommended to the
teachers that "most of the lesson should be spent in singing songs".39 In his handbook containing
lesson notes for music teachers, Elwyn Rees suggests the following structure for a lesson of thirty
minutes duration for Standards I to VI: 40
a) Voice exercises: 3 or 4 minutes... five or six suitable voice exercises
b) Sight Reading: about 12 minutes.
c) Songs: about 15 minutes.
Each lesson should conclude with the singing of at least one song which the class knows.
32 See P. wby, 1949: 620.
33 Refer also to my earlier discussion in 3.2.2 of how missionaries provoked feelings of inferiority in their converts; also
Yvonne Husk1sson, A Survey of Music in the Native Schools of the Transvaal, Thesis submitted for the M.A. degree in Music.
Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand: 213.
34 Native School Report for 1876, Natal Archives PMB 111129; see also 0. E. Emanuelson, A History of Native Education
in Natal Between 1835 and 1927, Thesis submitted for the degree of Masters in Education, Pretoria: University of
South Africa, 1928: 107.
35 Native Teachers' Journal Oanuary 1921): 54.
36 S. R. Dent, "Reports on Schools: Tulini Sub-primary". Native Teachers' Journal, Ouly, 1927): 190.
37 S. R. Dent, "Reports on Schools: Howick Government". Native Teachers' Journal, Ouly, 1927): 192.
38 P. Kirby, 1949: 624f.
39 A. M. Jones, The Music Makers: Suggestions on Music Teachingftr African Teachers (London: Longmans, Green, 1943): 10.
40 E. Rees, Rudiments of Music and Lesson Notesftr Teachers (pietermaritzburg: Shuter and Shuter, 1966): 15-16.