Guest Editor’s Introduction

Abstract

Guest Editor’s Introduction Chris van Rhyn Presenting this collection of articles about new music from Africa requires contextualization and reflection on its composition and contents, and the definition of “new music.” Although the idea was never to be representative (any such attempt on a continent this large and diverse would be futile and misguided), the contributions I received turned out to focus on and come from smaller subsections of the continent than anticipated: Sub-Saharan, English-speaking Africa, and particularly Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa. (However, not all the authors come from or are based in Africa.) On the one hand, this speaks to where my contacts are situated and context as an academic in the English-speaking world. On the other hand, it speaks to the significant disconnect between African countries where the business of music academia is concerned—some favor looking towards the global North; whereas, others aim their research mostly at local audiences. Also, in some African countries, there is almost no such business of which to speak. The establishment of Conservatories or University Music Departments based on the Western model depended on the priorities of colonial powers or post-independence governments’ colonial-inspired nationalist ideals, and socio-economic circumstances. In South Africa, the Apartheid government facilitated the disproportionately wide establishment of such training facilities. Despite Egypt [End Page 5] having a long history of formal musical training in the Western guise, North Africa is notably absent from this volume. The contributions’ contents may or may not depart from what is usually seen in Perspectives of New Music for various reasons. The extensive, unexplored archive of works by composers from Africa that do not yet form part of broader discourses sometimes requires basic research that would otherwise not have been necessary. In other cases, where composers have had more international exposure or have been the subjects of detailed scrutiny at a national level, authors could engage in more detailed analyses at a higher level of abstraction. Music studies in Africa are known for purposefully disregarding strict divisions between Music Theory, Analysis, Musicology and Ethnomusicology, which is evident in the articles presented here. The definition of “new music” (or “art music” or “contemporary classical music”) is fluid. It includes film music, contemporary choral music with strong roots in Western hymn traditions, and music of pre-colonial origins performed outside their traditional contexts or applied in new musical contexts. The first two contributions both focus on aspects of language in West African choral art music. Joshua Amuah and Hilarius Wuaku consider code-switching—a linguistic-compositional strategy already familiar in popular Ghanaian music—in choral art music by contemporary Ghanaian composers. Their article aims to tease out the reasons for these composers’ implementation of this strategy and how it aids in communicating with audiences. Short biographies of the composers in question serve to inform readers less familiar with the Ghanaian art music composition scene. Aaron Carter-Enyi considers the significance of contour and transformational theory in settings of tone language texts through his analyses of two secular choral works by Nigerian composers. These works, Óbì Dím̀kpà (1980) by Laz Èkwúèmé and Ọmọlúàbí (2018) by Ayọ̀ Olúrántí, are based on local proverbs. Issues concerning musical style and identity are approached in three diverse ways. Wilhelm Delport aims to draw Schoenberg’s notion of Abfallmaterials into conventional harmonic analysis by outlining the critical role quartal compounds play in the South African composer Hendrik Hofmeyr’s compositional language. The author analyzes Hofmeyr’s Sonata per Pianoforte (2011) for this purpose. William Fourie presents a reading of Andile Khumalo’s Bells Die Out (2013), an ensemble work by a young, Black South African composer who received European and American compositional training. Fourie’s reading argues for viewing Khumalo’s music as challenging racially defined expectations, not simply through a wholesale adoption of a European style, but by cautiously resisting the conventionalities of [End Page 6] what appears to be a European style on the surface. Emaeyak Sylvanus explores the interconnectedness between Nollywood film music identity formations and three contexts in which these identities manifest. Following this, he proposes the notion of the “Nollywood persistent...