'Never the twain shall meet' : Africanist art music and the end of Apartheid
Art music composition in South Africa was an increasingly contested artistic and ideological space through the late apartheid period (1980-1994). Rapidly declining institutional and political support threatened activities long associated with white 'superiority' and distinctiveness under Afrikaner Nationalism, and threw the field into crisis. 'Africanist' art music became the vehicle through which composers negotiated this crisis. Here I present a short history of this phenomenon and the debates that punctuated its emergence during the late apartheid period. This is framed by discussion of the larger political context, the emergence of analogous 'cross-over' styles in popular music, and art music as symbol of apartheid ideology. I then focus on specific composers' responses beginning with the first major works in the 'Africanist' idiom: Kevin Volans's 'African Paraphrases' (1980-1986). I compare his model to Stefans Grové's monumental 'Music from Africa' series (1984-) and Hans Roosenschoon's 'African-inspired' works (1978-). The reception of such works precipitated a politically charged debate and power struggle over what a 'reconciliation of aesthetics' could or should entail, and Volans was heavily criticized by establishment figures. 'Reconciliatory' composers like him were ostracized and several left the country for lack of opportunity. 'Establishment' composers retained both their Western-orientation and their positions of power, including the support of influential commissioning bodies like the Southern African Music Rights Organization and the Foundation for the Creative Arts; and together championed a very different Africanist paradigm. Their 'new Africanism' employed self-consciously 'African' titles, texts, programmes, and 'elements' in a largely exoticist and 'accessible' mode of representation. In adopting this idiom establishment composers continued to enjoy the support of the apartheid state while at the same time securing the prestige of art music for a new and very different Nationalism after 1994
Article, 2010