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

264 Competition: Perfonnance, Meaning and Motivation
9.4.1 Competition Discourages Sustained Choral Activity
Ma'!Y of our choirs don i see a'!Y other lifefor
a choir outside a competition 126
Magangane admits: "It's good to have competitions, because competitions force you to work to­
wards a certain standard. But then what is maybe a pity is that many of our choirs don't see any
other life for a choir outside a competition".127 Magangane suggests that the choirs take competi­
tions too seriously, and that the focus on winning tends to become an obsession for members of
the choral community. In a similar way, Nkabinde is very concerned about the fact that "some cho­
risters think music means competition".128 It is alarming, he says, that for a number of choirs the
day of the competition
marks the end of the rehearsals until the next competition comes up. To me it is a wrong approach because
it doesn't develop the choristers. But on the other hand if you just leave it to a festival all the way,
they tend to relax and say it is a festivaL They don't take it seriously; they won't show a lot of commitment
in terms of attending rehearsals because they know that even if I'm not sure of a song I can still
perform - it's just a festivaL So it drops the standards.l29
Amakwqya groups that take part exclusively in competitions tend to think of nothing else but
their image during the competition. For this one performance, Nkabinde points out, the choirs of­
ten practice many months. ''And then in the competition it only takes three minutes for that choir
either to win or lose... this is dispiriting. Some choristers leave disgruntled and they only reassemble
the following year when the competition is coming up again".130 To make a single performance determine
the success of a whole year's work is a precarious venture. Lack of success is likely to have
a negative effect on the motivation of the choir. Failure on the day of the final becomes very de­
pressing for the choirs. This is manifested, for instance, in the flow of choristers from the less suc­
cessful to the champion choirs. Two major problems connected to the exclusive concentration of
amakwqya groups on competition become apparent: firstly, the focus on a rather small body of lit­
erature, and, secondly, the restricted development of aesthetics and performance practice.
9.4.2 A Limited Body of Repertoire
The problem with the competitions is that it
doesn i widen the scope of the choristers in
terms of repertoire. Thry spend too much
time on the two or three competition songs instead
of developing and dOing other works
and widening tlieir scope of repertoire. 131
The few choral pieces prescribed by the organisers of the competitions (usually three Western
compositions and two eclectic African compositions) are on the whole the only repertoire tackled
126 Personal communication with Ludumo Magangane, SAMRO Johannesburg, July 18, 2000.
127 Ibid.
128 Personal communication with Thulasizwe Nkabinde, Johannesburg, July 17, 2000.
129 Ibid.
130 Ibid.
131 Ibid.