Masters Degrees (Music)

Permanent URI for this collection

https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/646

Browse

Browsing Masters Degrees (Music) by Subject "Afrikaans songs"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Afrikaanse liederwysies : 'n bestekopname
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2013-03) Smith, Aletta Margaretha; Grove, Izak J.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Music.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: “Liederwysies” (folk hymns) are spiritual folk songs that emerged in the Afrikaans culture at the beginning of the 19th century, and were used in isolated cases until the late 20th century. These hymn tunes were sung by isolated rural families during their family worship and were passed on via oral tradition. The origin of such melodies can be traced to various sources, and like the similar process affecting folk music traditions all over the world, they emerged as variations of official settings of psalms, hymns and other spiritual songs as well as secular melodies. The process is comparable with the medieval centonization and contrafacta: in the first case fragments of typical melodic contours may be used, and in the second, secular melodies are appropriated for spiritual texts. (In the latter case the 19th century Anglicisation policy and the influence of American revival hymns probably occasioned e.g. the American folk song Clementine to be used as the basis of a folk hymn.) In some instances specially composed melodies which had become obsolete, were retained as “liederwysies”, as happened with F.W. Jannasch's setting of Psalm 130. The demands of performance practice called for melodic variation, and one might even identify instances of elementary neologism. Much of the variation draw upon extensive decoration, such as melodic and rhythmic deviation, often by means of auxilliary notes, passing notes (known as “draaiers” (“turns”) in the vernacular), and apparently random rhythmic adaptations of unknown sources of melody. Dutch researchers led research into this folk music genre at the beginning of the 20th century. The first known notation of “liederwijzen” was done by Hendrik Vischer in 1896, followed by two booklets by Willem van Warmelo published in 1948 and 1958. These excited much interest, and G.G. (Gawie) Cillié stepped forward as Van Warmelo's avid (if musicologically less erudite) successor. Although Cillié opposed the folk hymns originally from church musical convictions, since he saw them as jeopardizing the “purity” of Afrikaans church music, he did collaborate with the inclusion of some such tunes in the Liedboek van die Kerk (2001). His last publication, reviewing 70 folk hymns, appeared in print in 1993. For the purposes of this thesis all known research on the topic was collected and evaluated critically. The researcher provides the broad historical background to the development of spiritual folk songs and identifies problems involved in such research. A total of 176 melodies (including variants) are examined and described individually, and where possible, they are placed in context with regard to their origin and composition.