Browsing by Author "Schonken, Philip Antoni"

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    Authorship and ownership of UShaka KaSenzangakhona
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2013-03) Schonken, Philip Antoni; Muller, Stephanus; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Music.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: UShaka KaSenzangakhona is a work of about sixty minutes for choir, soloists and orchestra, composed by Mzilikazi Khumalo, orchestrated in 1994 by Christopher James and revised in 1996 by Robert Maxym. The composition is a setting of a Zulu text by Themba Msimang. The racial and cultural differences between UShaka’s three authors bring binaries into play that define certain aspects of the composition. UShaka’s main developmental trajectory (1982-1996) places it within a volatile political space and time in South Africa‟s recent history. Somewhere, hanging in an unstable balance between these diverse factors, exists a musical work that is struggling to find a voice. This thesis highlights these factors by critically evaluating two aspects of UShaka’s existence, namely its authorship and ownership under Khumalo, James and Maxym. This is achieved through thorough quantitative score analyses of the original composition and its two orchestrations. Results of the analyses are used to draw conclusions about the contributions of each of its three authors to the final musical product. By implication of the findings produced by the analyses, broader themes within South African musicology are touched on and highlighted in new and meaningful ways.
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    Towards a Generalised Theory of Orchestration Practice: a Grounded Theory Approach
    (2015-12) Schonken, Philip Antoni; Roosenschoon, Hans; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Music.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: A number of authors have attempted to devise a set of principles according to which symphonic orchestration practice takes place. However, these authors have routinely failed to acknowledge the differences between a personal outlook on orchestration and a generalised study of orchestration practice. In this dissertation, Grounded Theory methodology was adopted and adapted in order to study a large number of text fragments from the most commonly used and respected orchestration textbooks of the twentieth and twenty-first century. Analysis of 6672 text fragments in open coding led to the discovery of eight core principles, or perspectives, of symphonic orchestration practice. These eight perspectives do not describe the techniques of orchestration, but rather reveal the underlying mechanics that inform and shape contemporary orchestration practice. A number of South African orchestral scores by Van Wyk, Fagan, Klatzow, Zaidel-Rudolph, Roosenschoon, Temmingh, Grové and Hofmeyr were consulted to provide musical substantiation of a number of findings and to serve as referenced examples throughout the dissertation. Personal correspondence with a number of South African composers aided in further development and corroboration of findings. Three addenda that document A) the collective instrument ranges from a number of textbooks, B) a compiled list of music examples from eight textbooks, and C) a comparative chart of instrumental saliency in low, middle and high registers, aided in providing further description of a number of important concepts throughout the thesis. The findings provide a generalised view of orchestration practice that includes historical, aesthetic, pedagogical and music-