Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa最新文献

{"title":"African music research and the new empiricism","authors":"Barry Ross","doi":"10.2989/18121004.2018.1558952","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2989/18121004.2018.1558952","url":null,"abstract":"The past thirty years have seen a resurgence in empirical, data-driven research focused on human musical behaviour. Some researchers have gone so far as to describe this as the ‘comeback’ of systematic musicology (e.g. Honing 2004), while others have noted the potential of empirical methodology in shaping other areas of music research (Parncutt 2007). The most visible example of this is the explosion of music-related research in the cognitive sciences. And, as if by some stroke of fortune, calls for the cross-cultural expansion of empirical data beyond Western materials and subjects have come along at just the same time that African musicology finds itself at a self-reflective crossroad. South Africa represents Africa’s largest musicological community, and to say that it is in crisis is an understatement. The causes of this crisis are many and varied: decreased funding in the tertiary sector in general, calls for decolonisation of curricula and research programmes in the wake of #FeesMustFall, persistent disputes over research ethics, clashes between academics and the university management, and rather unhealthy levels of intradisciplinary office politics. Indeed, the crisis itself has already generated so much literature that there are probably more self-reflective articles on the state of the discipline than published research on a major genre like motswako, or the Nigerian hip hop industry, or even on increasingly threatened traditional African musical cultures. That in itself goes to show that something is very seriously wrong with the way we go about the business of music research. Elsewhere (Ross 2018), I have commented that one overlooked aspect of this crisis has to do with standards of scholarship. In my view this is the greatest long-term threat facing not only musicology in Africa, but the position of musicology within the global academy. We have a discipline divided and under financial pressure, and proposed solutions seem constructive and destructive in equal measure. It is not all doom and gloom, however. African music researchers are in a prime position to take advantage of the rise of empirical methodologies in the study of music. Such methodology is present in an increasing number of fields, from music education and music technology, to market research and music information retrieval. I will here use as my primary example the field of music psychology, not only because it is my own area of specialisation, but also because it represents the largest and most influential empiricallyminded field in current music studies. Music psychology in particular points toward a return to strong, evidence-based argumentation when dealing with music research. Its nature is broadly positivist – that is, it relies on the generation of observable data as a premise for further modification of hypotheses. But at the same time, this positive data is interpreted against the backdrop of theory and carefully articulated philosophical positions about the bi","PeriodicalId":41064,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa","volume":"27 1","pages":"(ix) - (xiii)"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90359604","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The act of listening is the art of giving voice: on Andile Khumalo’s Tracing Hollow traces for solo clarinet","authors":"Scott Gleason, Andile Khumalo","doi":"10.2989/18121004.2018.1560561","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2989/18121004.2018.1560561","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Andile Khumalo’s Tracing Hollow traces for solo B♭ clarinet (2014) presents ‘sound’ in multiple senses as a primary parameter of musical attention. Sound in this piece exists as the typical parameters (pitch, rhythm, timbre), but also as gesture, shape, resonance, sonority and as a kind of space in which to explore one’s listening. This listening opens out onto multiple subjectivities and ultimately onto a notion of freedom.","PeriodicalId":41064,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa","volume":"47 1","pages":"111 - 117"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90800417","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"MuseScore","authors":"M. Watson","doi":"10.2989/18121004.2018.1534342","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2989/18121004.2018.1534342","url":null,"abstract":"© 2018 NISC (Pty) Ltd ISSN: 1812-1004/ EISSN 2070-626X Bonte, T, Froment, N & Schweer, W (Development Team) (2018). MuseScore version 2.2.1. MuseScore BVBA. Available at <https:// MuseScore.org/en/download>. For Windows 7 and higher, macOS 10.7 or higher, and multiple Linux distributions. Legacy versions available. <https://MuseScore.com/> Free download and open source. Supplementary data for this article are available at https://doi.org/10.2989/18121004.2018.1534342","PeriodicalId":41064,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa","volume":"1069 1","pages":"143 - 147"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72676711","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The second symposium of the ICTM Study Group of African Musics: selected highlights","authors":"George Worlasi Kwasi Dor","doi":"10.2989/18121004.2018.1556900","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2989/18121004.2018.1556900","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41064,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa","volume":"7 1","pages":"153 - 161"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76508742","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Popularising comic opera in Cape Town: the 1887 season of the Searelle Opera Company","authors":"F. Hale","doi":"10.2989/18121004.2018.1534337","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2989/18121004.2018.1534337","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The transplantation of nineteenth-century comic opera to South Africa remains largely undocumented. This article takes steps towards addressing this lacuna as part of a larger contribution to the relatively inchoate field of South African opera studies. By examining the first extended season of light opera in Cape Town, namely that put on by the British and Australian Searelle Opera Company in 1887, it is argued that the company’s successful staging of more than a dozen works in a season which lasted over six months and encompassed 162 performances can be attributed to several factors. Among these were its emphasis on comic operas of chiefly French and British origin (especially those by Gilbert and Sullivan), which had attracted large audiences in the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States of America and elsewhere. Other contributing factors were the flexibility of the company’s repertoire and the use of ancillary entertainment, not the least of which were violin performances by the Hungarian virtuoso, Ede Reményi.","PeriodicalId":41064,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa","volume":"142 1","pages":"41 - 58"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82267916","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Listening for Africa: Freedom, Modernity, and the Logic of Black Music’s African Origins","authors":"Claudia Jansen van Rensburg","doi":"10.2989/18121004.2018.1556891","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2989/18121004.2018.1556891","url":null,"abstract":"Book Title:  Listening for Africa: Freedom, Modernity, and the Logic of Black Music’s African Origins Book Author:  Garcia, David F. (2017). ISBN 978-0-8223-6370-5. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. xii, 376 pp. Illustrations, bibliography, index. $27.95.","PeriodicalId":41064,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa","volume":"328 1","pages":"141 - 142"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77199532","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Audiation, aural training and the visually impaired pianist in South Africa","authors":"Silvia van Zyl","doi":"10.2989/18121004.2018.1556897","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2989/18121004.2018.1556897","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article explores the concept of ‘audiation’ as conceptualised by Edwin Gordon (2012 [1988]) and its relevance in the training of visually impaired piano students. The theoretical framework for this study incorporates psychological and learning theories such as developmental, Gestalt and positive psychology, the apprenticeship method and implicit learning. Data were collected through listening-based experiments and interviews with participants, which included both visually impaired and sighted piano students as well as an experienced piano teacher. Research findings from the case studies suggest that the long-standing aural training and music teaching practices implemented in South Africa may need re-evaluation, in particular for the visually impaired. The limited emphasis on the aural training of the latter students and the excessive concentration on sight-reading activities required by Gordon’s audiation training need to be reconsidered. New teaching insights may be gained from the integration of emerging learning and psychological theories such as the dynamic systems theory within a multidisciplinary framework. The adoption of such a framework within aural and music teaching methodologies in South Africa may benefit not only the visually impaired, but also sighted music students.","PeriodicalId":41064,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa","volume":"32 1","pages":"119 - 130"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79279744","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Meki Emeka Nzewi at 80: a commemorative interview","authors":"C. Onyeji, E. Onyeji","doi":"10.2989/18121004.2018.1534336","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2989/18121004.2018.1534336","url":null,"abstract":"Undertaking any presentation on the Nigerian musicologist Meki Nzewi, no matter how short, is a daunting task. Surely volumes are required to adequately present the life and works of Nzewi, yet so far there has been no major work dedicated to him. Kofi Agawu’s article (2008) in celebration of Nzewi’s 70th birthday briefly summarises his scholarly and creative output, conceptual definitions, arguments and viewpoints. In this tribute Nzewi’s background and musical activities are also discussed just briefly. This is followed by an interview1 with the scholar on various aspects of his career that reflect some of his celebrated views on African musicology.","PeriodicalId":41064,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa","volume":"63 1","pages":"131 - 136"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83846406","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Remembering Mitchel Strumpf (1943–2018)","authors":"B. Kigozi, Dawn Joseph, Anri Herbst","doi":"10.2989/18121004.2018.1556899","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2989/18121004.2018.1556899","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41064,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa","volume":"57 1","pages":"137 - 139"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78362636","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Leveraging poetry on the airwaves: appropriating linguistic creativity in Nigerian hip hop lyrics","authors":"Niyi Akingbe, P. Onanuga","doi":"10.2989/18121004.2018.1534335","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2989/18121004.2018.1534335","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Lyrical ingenuity has been influential in the rise and global spread of hip hop. This has extended to Nigerian hip hop artists, who battle for supremacy and relevance on the airwaves. In carving a niche for itself, Nigerian hip hop has appropriated globalised elements from its American counterpart, while simultaneously accentuating elements of domestication. The result is a hybridised variant, as is significantly foregrounded in the lyrics of Nigerian hip hop. The study presented here, which is text-based, analyses twenty selected Nigerian hip hop lyrics with a focus on its lyrical creativity. Relying on critical linguistic stylistics as a theoretical framework, the paper’s overarching concern is the foregrounding of the creative use of language, particularly with regard to functional conversion, neologism, lexical regeneration or extension of meaning, and syntactic ingenuity. These realisations, alongside influences from indigenous oral traditions, are significant in the propagation of the ‘glocal’ – that is, a blend of the global and the local – Nigerian hip hop variety.","PeriodicalId":41064,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa","volume":"12 1","pages":"19 - 40"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84925756","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}