Finding Home: An Exploration of South African Art Music through the Classical Saxophone and Collaborative Practice
(2024)
author(s): Josie Mc Clure
published in: KC Research Portal
This research project explores South African Art Music through collaborative practice and the classical saxophone. It begins by investigating the discourse surrounding South African Art Music through testimony collected from various conversations with South African composers, musicians and academics such as Dr Kevin Volans, Dr Antoni Schonken, Professor Hendrik Hofmeyr, Dr Cara Stacey and Arthur Feder. I began collecting the scores of South African saxophone compositions which led to the development of an online catalogue system to document these works -The South African Saxophone Catalogue. This catalogue forms the base - as well as the network - for how this research was developed.
To further investigate the South African repertoire, I embarked on creative journeys with four South African composers through performer-composer collaboration. I decided to use this means of investigation as the relationship formed between myself and these composers shows a different level of engagement with this music, first-hand experience in the creation of this music as well as creating an open space for discourse. These collaborations were documented through reflections, audio and video recordings and are investigated in the form of case studies. The final artistic product was a concert featuring these new compositions in Cape Town, South Africa.
The data collected was organised through an amalgamation of critical reflection and thematic analysis.
Through this collective music-making, I discovered the variety in thought surrounding South African Art Music and paradoxically those who vigorously deny this term. I discovered the complexity both politically and socially that the term South African Art Music implies. In conjunction with my personal reflections, this exposition explores the ideas, opinions and art of individuals in various fields in the South African classical music scene who represent a variety of South African cultural backgrounds and generations.
The Place of Shade [The Place of Shade (Draft) - 2024-01-11 21:37]
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Dibble and Bjarne
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
At first, the plan was simple – to be home by Christmas. To begin to view the very concept of home as built upon nostalgia. Imagining home is a pastime of any immigrant. If, as Breton suggests, ‘The imaginary is that which tends to become real,’ what were our imaginings bringing to life?
The Place of Shade is an artistic research inquiry into contemporary Norwegian culture in South Africa. Norwegians began operating within the British colonial framework around 1840—the same period as the migration to America. Lutheran missions, whaling, farming, business and family characterise this almost 200-year Afri-Norge diasporic heritage. It has been almost entirely overlooked in visual culture, until now.
Following the depletion of Whales in the Nordic seas, Norwegian immigrants almost single-handedly established the whaling operations in Durban from 1908 onwards. Their legacy remains an integral component of the city and the province's socio-cultural fabric to this day. With this in mind, we sought out the ghosts of Larsen, Hermansen, Egeland and more from New Pier to Kwambonambi; we found them.
The project is an act of psychogeography, insofar as it hinges upon ‘the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behaviour of individuals.’ The images and text that make up the exposition are the culmination of this process. The attempt by a disparate group of individuals, at once insiders and outsiders, to understand how legacy takes shape and how it has reshaped our understanding of Home.
By living with and meeting Norwegian decedents on their farms and homesteads this project was possible. We thank all who were so kind and eager to connect again with their roots.