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

352 Westem Repertoire
the only yardstick in judging choirs' ability. It is important, not necessarily central. What I've learned is at
times we lose the spirit of a performance, we lose the warmth, we lose so much because we are so concerned
with one aspect. I'm not trying to downplay, I'm not trying to make up for one choir's inability to
maintain pitch, no. But what I'm trying to say is that there are other aspects to a performance. 18
Khabi Mngoma's statement about the problem of intonation was based on his hypothesis that
tempered pitch in which Western music is conceived, is different in its sounds from acoustical pitch
which obtains in all African singing. Tempered tuning of instruments in Western music started a little after
1700. Attuning to it is an acquired skill which comes through constant practice... African choirs usually
sing to an accompaniment of an instrument tuned to tempered pitch, resulting in unsatisfactory
sharpening of pitch. 19
Mngoma was convinced that "intonation is a matter of education - it isn't an inbred thing":20
African choirs sing in acoustical pitch and the conductor must teach his choir to sing in tempered pitch
as well. Regular scale exercises with the choristers imitating a well tuned piano or organ are indispensable
if a choir hopes to sing Western music with any success... However, the conductor must cultivate a sensitivity
for both types of tuning in his choristers, rather than destroy their inherent sense of acoustical
pitch which is a part of their cultural heritage and which they hear around them all the time in form of
folk music. 21
The measures recommended by Mngoma to improve the shortcomings of intonation eventually
led to an extreme concentration on oratorio repertoire at the expense of a cappella literature. Con­
sidering the impact of Mngoma's hypothesis on the amakwqya tradition - its aesthetic concept, per­
formance practice and repertoire - it appears necessary to investigate his ideas more closely, par­
ticularly since there seems to be some confusion among the different members of the choral com­
munity. Although it is not my intention to embark on a detailed discussion of the theoretical
background and the implications of different tuning systems, a brief clarification of the terms used
by Mngoma will help in the understanding of his hypothesis and its relevance for the amakwqya
tradition.
13.1.1 Equal Temperament and Acoustical Pitch
The system of tuning which Mngoma calls tempered pitch should more accurately be referred to as
(twelve-tone) equal temperament. During the second half of the eighteenth century, European key­
board tuning drifted closer and closer towards equal temperament at the expense of many different
tuning systems that were used at that time. In fact equal tempered pitch is a compromise, reached in
order to enable the transposition of music to any key on fixed tone instruments like the piano, gui­
tar or organ. In order to achieve this tuning, many characteristics of previous tuning systems were
lost. Hence, the establishment of an equal temperament must be seen in part as a limitation. Ken­
neth van Barthold, for instance, has warned against the consequences of the fact that
the keyboard has become to be the arbiter of intonation... [The] piano intonation equivocates; the
sounds are impure, many of the overtones lost or damped on purpose, and every interval except the
18 Personal communication with Mokale Koapeng, Johannesburg, February 13, 200l.
19 K Mngoma" 1980: 11-12.
20 K Mngoma" 1981: 18.
21 K Mngoma, 1980: 21; 12.