Research Articles (Music)

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Browsing Research Articles (Music) by Author "Muller, Stephanus"

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    Miniature blueprints, spider strategems : a Michael Blake retrospective at 60
    (The Musical Times Publications Ltd, 2011) Muller, Stephanus
    SEVENTEEN YEARS after the first democratic elections in South Africa in 1994, radical voices in the country are asking the question: to what extent does the South Africa of 2011 display more continuities than discontinuities with the apartheid state that preceded it? Writing in the Mail and Guardian of 29 April 20II, for example, New Frank Talk editor Andile Mngxitama motivated his call to boycott local government elections as follows: The past 17 years of ANC rule can not longer be defended, even by elites who have benefited so handsomely from it( ... ]. When the ANC took over in 1994 and paid allegiance to the god of capitalism it meant that old white .privileges would be maintained and a politically connected black layer would be allowed to accumulate. This is not the voice of the corrupt political populists who dominate news headlines in South Africa, but of the radical intellectual inheritors of Steve Bantu Biko's Black Consciousness. Central to this debate, as Mngxitama's argument makes clear, is the belief that the 1994 negotiated settlement was a political 'deal' designed to ensure continued white privilege (fundamentally connected to acceptance of private property ownership as the basis of white wealth) and the qualified extension of that small class of owners to black politicians and, as they are known in South Africa, 'tenderpreneurs' (i.e. young black businessmen who are politically well-connected and become overnight millionaires through government tenders). However, the date '1994' and the 'democratic miracle' connected to the release of Nelson Mandela has become so dominant discursively (not only in South Africa, but also internationally) that contemporary cultural production in South Africa has also become beholden to the myths of interpretation connected with these events.
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    'n Blik op die resepsiegeskiedenis van Hendrik Hofmeyr se Sinfonia Africana
    (UNISA Press, 2009) Muller, Stephanus
    Op 19 Augustus 2004 het die Kaapse Filharmoniese Orkes onder Ieiding van die Amerikaanse dirigent Leslie B. Dunner vir die eerste keer Hendrik Hofmeyr se Sinfonia Africana uitgevoer in die Kaapstadse stadsaal. Die simfonie is gekomponeer in opdrag van die Vriende van Afrikaans. Op daardie stadium was die skrywer 'n gereelde medewerker van Die Burger in Kaapstad se kunsblad as skrywer van 'n gereelde rubriek, opiniestukke, profiele en resensies. Die skrywer het self versoek om Hofmeyr se nuwe werk te resenseer en het die komponis vroeg reeds gevra vir 'n partituur van die werk om dit te bestudeer, en het voor die eerste uitvoering een repetisie daarvan in die stadsaal bygewoon. Die resensie is op 21 Augustus 2004 in Die Burger gepubliseer onder die opskrif 'Nuwe "Africana" wek bewondering en vrae '. Op 28 Augustus verskyn door in Die Burger 'n brief van Carmen Marchetti (' "Sinfonia" was nie 'n feesviering nie ') wat 'n kritiese standpunt teenoor die Hofmeyr-werk ingeneem het, tesame met 'n brief van die digteres Lina Spies ('Dis onverdraagsaamheid') wat die resensie oor die werk sterk gekritiseer het. Hierna het briewe met reëlmaat in Die Burger verskyn: op 27 Augustus skryf Deon Knobel ('Hofmeyr se werk is monumentaal') en Janette Badenhorst ('Die kritiek was ongevraag'); op 3 I Augustus skryf Maryna Botha ("'Sinfonia" 'n grootse werk') en weer Deon Knobel ('Lees Afrikaans korrek'); op 2 September skryf Chris Walton ('Taal het nie vyande nodig ') en John en Collena Blanckenberg (' 'n Verruimende boodskap '); op 3 September skryf Jozua Serfontein ('Trant van resensie verbaas ') en Veranza Joubert ('Roerende luisterervaring'); op 4 September is dit nogmaals Deon Knobel wat skryf ('Kritiek berus op hoorsê') en op 7 September skryf Pierre Joubert ('Komponis had vrye opdrag '). Met die uitsondering van Marchetti en Walton se briewe, was al die onder bydraes sterk krities oor die resensie. Die debat wat deur die werk en die resensie ontketen is, is ook elders as in briewekolomme voortgesit. Op 8 September verskyn 'n berig van Liza Albrecht in Die Burger met die opskrif 'Kwaai reaksie op "Sinfonia" verras hom, se Hofmeyr '. Ook op 8 September word 'n onderhoud tussen Hofmeyr, Lina Spies, Hans Huyssen en Coenraad Walters op LitNet Paneelklopper geplaas. Op 28 Oktober is die publieke gesprek oor die Sinfonia Africana op die spits gedryf in 'n open bare debat tussen die skrywer en Hofmeyr in die Jannaschsaal van die Departement Musiek op Stellenbosch. Die geleentheid was die jaarlikse Colloquium van die Departement Afrikaans en Nederlands, wat aangebied is onder die opskrif 'Hoe word Afrikaans vandag musiek? Die referaat wat die huidige skrywer tydens die geleentheid gelewer het op uitnodiging van dr. Etienne Britz, word hier op versoek van Musicus vir die eerste keer gepubliseer.
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    Orientalizing Europe, Europeanizaing Africa : the fantastical lives and tale of Jan Gysbert Hugo (The Marquis) (Louis de) (Vere) Bosman di Ravelli, also known as Gian Bonzar
    (Department of Musicology, Faculty of Music, University of Arts in Belgrade, 2010) Muller, Stephanus
    Before he was being invented by others, or started imagining himself in autobiographical texts, he was creating new names for himself. Born Jan Gysbert Hugo Bosman on 24 February 1882, the first of these names was the Italianate Vere di Ravelli, a name made up for the concert stage. Combining the name he had read in a book with a shortened form of the Spanish for "Gysbert" or "Gilvere", he was using the stage name in 1902 during his second concert tour of the cities of Berlin, Magdeburg, Paris, Strasbourg and Cologne. A letter to Johannes J. Smith of 15 November 1912,includes two Sapphic reconstructions by "Gian Bonzar" for translation into Afrikaans and possible publication. The letter, signed by Bosman with his invented stage name, "Vere di Ravelli".
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    Twelve notes, twelve endnotes
    (Brendon Bell-Roberts, 2011) Muller, Stephanus
    "Exile" is always the narrative of one person or entity, an "I" or an "us". Therefore we speak not of "exiles" (the condition, that is), but of "exile". It is not that exile cannot be other than its volatile laws of signification dictate, but it can only be other in a violently interventionist way.