Abstract
For nearly two decades Stefans Grové has been composing music that absorbs the cultural “Other" of Africa in a manner that defies an easy classification of ‘‘indigenous’’ principles and “exotic” appropriation. His own conception of himself as an African who composes African music challenges the inhibition of “white” Afrikaner culture and revivifies Afrikaner culture as African culture. In so doing, Grové is consciously subverting the myth of a united Africa over against a monolithic "West” - and with it the legitimacy of an autochthonous echt African culture previously excluded by “whites" and Afrikaners. This article takes a closer look at the strategies and techniques involved in this fin de siècle musical imaginings of Afrikaner identity.
Highlights
T classification of ‘‘indigenous’’ principles and “exotic” appropriation
An Africa(n) person composing Africa. How does this music sound and where does it come from? Europe, where Stefans Grové’s ancestors hail from, the United States, where he spent 18 years teaching and composing, or (South) Africa, where he has only ever lived in white suburbia? None of these, Grové seems to say when he writes of his sinem19in8a4:l Sonate op Afrika-motiewe, a work composed for violin and piano aErTDerhuaepirmsroemacsseseyocnnnuttfrasiircmtsaRtyaonlah.e.dd.oamvemiesaxgpytaetehkrAeiietnforngofcicrteoshe.ftenmIttwrwiyccoaarpnyksretbyvIIeleioasscu,meosemanspsbtoyaolssutehen,aeddwbhfratiiroidflsstgettAerttfhwrbmeicoeyatlwasses[etAetcytnfthrliiiosrkmentaiesycgebondenheid]
A theme is prepared in such a way in order that its appearance at the apotheosis of the work is perceived as “logical”. That this material is derived from an African theme is almost incidental, but noteworthy in one important respect: Grové uses his technical facility as an art music composer to make the outcome, which he imagines as the transculturated movement, sound “logical”
Summary
T classification of ‘‘indigenous’’ principles and “exotic” appropriation. His own conception of himself as an African who composes African music challenges the inhibition of “white” Afrikaner culture and revivifies Afrikaner culture as myth of a African culture. That this material is derived from an African theme is almost incidental, but noteworthy in one important respect: Grové uses his technical facility as an art music composer to make the outcome, which he imagines as the transculturated movement, sound “logical”.
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