One of the major challenges we face as South Africans is redefining our identity as a republic. The remains of apartheid have scarred and crippled our understanding of each other. My understanding of Afrikaans culture and its representation in musical scores is limited to my high school Afrikaans literature education. Each musical score that I record into the SAMRO archiving system has a rich story to tell. A portion of our South African musical heritage lies therein. At times, that portion is inspiring. At times it evokes some negative memories. At times it is humorous and eye-opening.
There are benefits in analysing Afrikaans music from a score rather than physically participating in the Afrikaner community and observing their lifestyle from an “insider’s” point of view. The advantage is that a musical score will not prejudge me or mistrust my intentions in wanting to understanding Afrikaans music from an Afrikaner’s perspective. A musical score will not be reluctant to express the creator’s emotions and attitude towards certain issues that he or she values. This endeavour is therapeutic to me because it is helping me in resolving some negative attitudes I had towards the Afrikaans speaking community. This is the beginning of my road to self redefinition
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2 comments:
Very interesting, I always knew you were a deep thinker! I have no idea what a score is but you sure make it sound like something I need to read. I am glad you are not just growing skills wise but as a person as well.
Ah, Nomusa is wise...
But I agree: please take a moment here to tell us what a score is!
And then, how about giving an actual example of an Afrikaans piece of music, and then also telling us what memories it invoked for you? I'd be interested because I also remember some Afrikaans music (mostly from primary school) and it may be interesting to see if we have the same or different memories.
I'm inspired by how you are engaging with the work you are doing...
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