Moving Around

Dinakangwedi Choir of St. Mark's Catholic Church, Bloemfontein

The songs are starting to sound very familiar, as I have visited some of the same choirs, though not always in the same location.  As they move around to compete and participate in festivals, I also try to cross paths with them as I’m moving around to meet other musicians and scholars.  Sometimes, I’m working on an “ice-breaking” meeting with a director, while that same day, bringing the “goodbye and thanks” cake to a choir who may happen to be in the same general area.  My recent travels to Johannesburg were kept short, for reasons of practicality and therefore in one day, I interviewed a director, held a directors thank-you meeting, audio-recorded some sectional rehearsals for clarification of voice parts and attended a concert in the evening, where The University of Johannesburg Kingsway  choir held a short video session just prior to the concert for purposes of my research. 

The UJ Kingsway Campus Choir with African Music Specialist Sidumo Jacobs

Moving quickly around Johannesburg has become my modus operandi, due to the expenses of getting to Johannesburg, getting transportation in Johannesburg, staying overnight in Johannesburg and paying for professional services such as videographers and sometimes facility fees.  I love the UJ Kingsway Campus choir for the excellent sound and discipline, but I also love that they hold two rehearsals per week, with two directors who specialize in composed and folkloric songs respectively.   I usually take a day or so upon my return to level out, but in doing so this time, I absent-mindedly missed an appointment to visit a local school where a marimba ensemble was awaiting me.

Suzi with Renette Bower, UJ Kingsway Choirmaster

So, I can say that I am ready for a break.  The semester is over and I won’t be teaching any more classes, though I will be moderating 72 practical exams for three music education classes.  In addition to an instructor giving a practical exam, the South African university system requires a moderator to be present for practical exams (demonstrations, micro-teaching lessons, presentations, lab experiments, etc.) who verifies the activities and provides an external pair of eyes on the whole process. 

Speaking of students,  grad research assistants Meaghan and Lee have begun the process of integration into South African culture.  They have made friends quickly and mastered the art of getting around without a car quite well.  Their research is going well in both the public history and music areas.  I could not ask for better company or better research assistants.  I think that ASU can be very proud of their accomplishments as researchers, service learning interns and ambassadors for our university.  Meaghan has sung in two school performances and taught several classes in the past three weeks and Lee has interviewed elderly residents of the first township established in this area and photo -  documented many of our events.  Both students have uncovered deeper complexities about South African life than tourists and television viewers might see.  They are getting a well-deserved reward this weekend as they set out on their Safari in the Kruger National Park. 

Being a choir gyspy has continued to educate me on the nuances of musical traditions that we carry with us as we cross cultural and geographical boundaries.  I was in the township of Galeshewe, Kimberley, in 2001 as part of a teaching team called “The Kimberley Project” funded at that time out of the Eastman School of Music and Temple University.  Songs that I leaned in Galeshewe were performed with a different type of presentation flair in Johannesburg, and in some cases, varied texts as well.  Choirs that win in the indigenous folkloric categories of choral competitions may also be choirs who sing in the western art tradition with tempered scale degrees, balanced tone production and European expressive customs equally well.  But I’m starting to see some things that always look Sotho to me, or that always remind me of certain Zulu sounds or moves.

Suzi and Hannes getting the Video details organized

The most completely different experience of this past week was the Afrikaans folk music played and sung by members of a club of  “players” who gather at Sentraal Primary School each week.  Like the folk dancing club led by Mrs. Irene Broyles of Somerset, Kentucky where I grew up, this club gathers and sings weekly, and occasionally invites members of other clubs.  Their tradition is nearly one hundred years old and has ties to Swedish folk dancing and games.  So the Danish dances and singing games I learned in Denmark and in Berea, Kentucky have finally had some relevance in my travels here.  The dances are called games and the dancers/singers say that they are playing, not dancing.  Though the piano and other instruments play, each game is also sung with words.  This week I played the guitar along with the pianist - - not my forte, exactly, but it got me in the band and into the music.

My favorite singing game is called “Sukerboisse” – which means “Sugar Bush” or “Suga Bush” – referring in one sense to an indigenous shrub, but the song was picked up by some well known South Africans and Americans in the 1950s – among them Doris Day, who recorded the song on an album.  The music teachers and players here say that it comes from the Anglo-Boer war days, as do many of the documented Afrikaaner folk songs.  The games, however, do not.  It seems that Afrikaaner

At the end of the evening, (but before pudding if there is any), there is a sing-a-long, so you know I love this part.  Everyone links arms and rocks back and forth, one foot slightly forward, to keep the rhythm, while they sing old folk songs.  Like the black folkloric traditions, the songs include stories about long lost love, living far away, working hard, and protesting the powers that be.  I plan to bring back a couple of the games I can share at Christmas Country Dance School this year in Berea.

Just for fun, here's a teaser for the next blog - yep, that's Elene again in the photo, and this time she is kicking up her heels at the wedding of a cousin in the beautiful farm country of the Eastern Cape.  I'll describe the wedding in a sentence or two, but the reception deserves its own blog discussion, complete with new terminology and the meaning of fetching the baboon from behind the mountain!

Elene and her dance partner Aubrey at a family wedding