2. POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA’S ROLE IN REPOSITIONING MODERN AFRICAN ART MUSIC IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Ayọ̀ Olúrántí, PhD

3. Introduction Does African art music exist as a distinct genre?
Art music was indeed in existence as an integral part of African traditional music prior to the events that re-shaped the African musical landscape through Christianity, Islam, apartheid and colonization.
Does African art music exist? Is there truly a body of art musical works, which constitutes a genre that identifies Africa? If it does exist at all, is there a long-standing tradition of art music that warrants the use of the term, ‘modern’ in describing the contemporary form of the music? To proceed from this point of enquiry, this paper will establish a vital point:

4. Introduction
“Some people will argue…that art music did not exist in Africa before the emergence of the western-derived idioms. This notion is based on the belief that art music implies contemplative listening and, because African traditional music
is mainly utilitarian (being integrated with ceremonies and other social functions), there are not prototypes in traditional culture for what present-day composers are doing. This notion is wrong…for although African traditional music is often utilitarian, not all of this music is functional.”
(1970)
Art music, broadly defined as the category of composed music, written or otherwise, which employs well defined formalized, structural and theoretical considerations, was indeed in existence as an integral part of African traditional music prior to the events that re-shaped the African musical landscape through Christianity, Islam, apartheid and colonization.
According to Euba (1988: 93),
“Some people will argue…that art music did not exist in Africa before the emergence of the western-derived idioms. This notion is based on the belief that art music implies contemplative listening and, because African traditional music is mainly utilitarian (being integrated with ceremonies and other social functions), there are not prototypes in traditional culture for what present-day composers are doing. This notion is wrong…for although African traditional music is often utilitarian, not all of this music is functional.”
There are some types of African traditional music intended for meditative listening e.g. court music and praise songs for traditional rulers, which fulfill the same role as Western art music. But more importantly, “African traditional music, even when assigned a utilitarian role, nevertheless possesses aesthetic qualities akin to those found in contemplative music.” (Euba 1988:94). This paper thus admits the existence of traditional African art music as a subset of African traditional music and differentiated from modern African art music, which emerged in the early 20th century as a result of the complex interactions between colonial Europe and Africa. Influenced by the surge for nationalism in different parts of Africa, modern African art music exists as an intercultural concept amalgamating African and Western musical elements. This is inevitable as modern African art music composers, typically products of the Western pedagogical institutions who received training in idioms specific to Western musical cultures, seek to portray their “Africanness” in their creative output. Although, most of their compositions are generally intercultural (or entail intercultural activity) there is no singular definition for the way they combine elements of other musical traditions with that of Africa as they pursued individual expression through a diverse variety of ways and styles. However, based on the nature of the creative output of African composers to date, there are ongoing debates as to the viability of African art music as a genre that truly identifies Africa. (no pause)
Akin Euba

5. IDENTITY DEBATE
“Modern art music composers aim to eliminate or subdue the social functional aspect of traditional music and elevate the contemplative quality, which, though present in traditional music, seems often to play a secondary role. In other words, the composers seek to extract the new ‘art’ music from the event-performance situation of traditional music and confine it to the concert platform where there would be a clearer distinction between the audience and the performers.”
(1992)
IDENTITY DEBATE
Firstly, the probe lingers as to the relevance of this concert hall-based genre to Africans who are more used to the event-performance concept of traditional music. Joshua Uzoigwe observes that modern art music composers aim to eliminate or subdue the social functional aspect of traditional music and elevate the contemplative quality, which, though present in traditional music, seems often to play a secondary role.
Joshua Uzoigwe

6. IDENTITY DEBATE
“Compositions written by Africans…even when they have… utilized elements of African music have generally conformed
to European ideals to such a degree that the African elements have been overshadowed by the Western. The influences at work here are so forceful that the music produced must be regarded as representing an almost total rejection of African norms.”
(1970)
Secondly, there is the issue of musical content as it does not suffice to assign an African identity to a work because it is composed by an African. There is the need to consider the component of pitch and time organization as well as timbre in assessing identity. To this end, Euba says “Compositions written by Africans…even when they have…utilized elements of African music have generally conformed to European ideals to such a degree that the African elements have been overshadowed by the Western. The influences at work here are so forceful that the music produced must be regarded as representing an almost total rejection of African norms. (qtd in Konye 2005 p.20)
Akin Euba

7. IDENTITY DEBATE
“…When African composers are not writing within the Western tradition…they seem unable to produce works…that are idiomatically African. At best they hover between Western and African traditions without achieving a satisfactory integration of both.” (1993) “African (art) music, in the sense of a conscious and elaborated art form with distinguishable stylistic conventions is not possible.” (1993)
Abiola Irele further laments the inability of African composers to write works that are aesthetically valid and recognizably African. He further declares that African (art) music, in the sense of a conscious and elaborated art form with distinguishable stylistic conventions is not possible.
Abiola Irele

8. Repositioning African Art Music
To achieve a tradition of art music that is distinctively African, composers must develop appropriate compositional frameworks that will enable them deal at deeper structural levels with the details of musical form and language.
(Euba, 1970 & Nketia, 1995)
Akin Euba
REPOSITIONING MODERN AFRICAN ART MUSIC SLIDE 7Amidst the expression of skepticism relating to a true modern African art musical culture have different scholars called for new directions for African composers to pursue so as to evolve a genre that will reflect a stronger African connection and heritage. Euba and Nketia have proposed that in order to achieve a tradition of art music that is distinctively African, composers must develop appropriate compositional frameworks that will enable them deal at deeper structural levels with the details of musical form and language. Nketia further admonishes African composers “to achieve the depth that is Africa’s in compositions” by gaining a “deeper familiarity with African musical language and its idiom,” (1995, ). Euba opines that “African composers who genuinely want to maintain strong links with African culture in their works should take a closer look at the principles governing African traditional music” (qtd. Konye 2005 p.20). NKETIA, K. (1995). Exploring African Musical Resources in Contemporary Compositions.
Kwabena Nketia

9. Repositioning African Art Music
ADVOCACY
The repositioning of modern African art music to be more strongly rooted in the principles, theory, structure, instrumentation and practice of traditional African music.
RATIONALE
Traditional African music, incorporating traditional African art music, distinctively identifies the people of Africa. Therefore, the possibility of establishing a modern art genre that will strongly identify Africa is feasible with the traditional genre as the main source and point of departure.
In resonance with Euba and Nketia, this paper advocates the repositioning of modern African art music to be more strongly rooted in the principles, theory, structure, instrumentation and practice of traditional African music. As traditional African music distinctively identifies the people of Africa, the possibility of establishing a modern art genre that will strongly identify Africa is hence feasible if the traditional genre is employed as the main creative source and point of departure.
This paper further proposes South Africa to champion this cause. Why?

10. South African’s Re-Birth
“Re-establishing political, economic, and cultural ties with the region and the continent as a whole has been one of the goals of the post-apartheid government in South Africa.” “The constitution of South Africa is one that strives to represent and protect the linguistic, cultural, religious, economic, and legal rights and interests of all its peoples.” (2009)
SOUTH AFRICA’S RE-BIRTH
The constitution of post-apartheid South Africa is one that strives to represent and protect the linguistic, cultural, religious, economic, and legal rights and interests of all its peoples. (Muller 2009, p.16) One of the missions and visions of the new South African government has been to promote previously marginalized peoples’ arts and culture (Mugovhani, 2012). According to the 2003 RSA Government White Paper, the re-assertion of people’s cultural heritage is a national imperative. This is in line with the mandate that some South African institutions of higher learning were given as early as 2003 and lately in 2012 to collect, document and preserve indigenous music while stimulating interest in research on South African indigenous knowledge systems at these institutions. South Africa has consequently been experiencing an exponential growth of research, recoding, and publication on many of South Africa’s most popular and enduring musical traditions and commercial genres in the decades following the end of apartheid. ibid
Carol Muller

11. South African’s Role
Thus, emerging from apartheid, South Africa is experiencing a renaissance in virtually all aspects of her social, cultural and political existence. This coupled with the national mandate to redress the past imbalances in the arts of the previously marginalized South African people provides a strong platform for the country to champion the cause of repositioning modern African art music for the attainment of a status that is more “African” via the development of new art music idioms that will be derived from traditional African musical genres.
Thus emerging from apartheid, South Africa is experiencing a renaissance in virtually all aspects of her social, cultural and political existence. This coupled with the national mandate to redress the past imbalances in the arts of the previously marginalized South African people provides a strong platform for the country to champion the cause of repositioning modern African art music for the attainment of a status that is more “African” via the development of new art music idioms that will be derived from traditional African musical genres.

12. South African’s Role
A major challenge in post-apartheid South Africa has been to generate local music products that can compete with, and perhaps be sold to, international markets.
Already, there is an ongoing consciousness to repackage music in South Africa, which resonates with this paper’s call to reposition modern African art music. Gary Baines (1998), Randall Abrahams (2003) and Muller (2009) have acknowledged the generation of local music products that can compete with, and perhaps be sold to, international markets to be a major challenge in post-apartheid South Africa.
This paper thus proceeds to discuss three major strategies South Africa should adopt to lead Africa’s repositioning of modern art music to further strengthen the genre as an African culture identifier.
Gary Baines
(1998)
Randall Abrahams
(2003)
Carol Muller
(2009)

13. Repositioning Strategies
Revision of Music Curriculum
Study of Traditional Music & Instrument (Primary & Secondary educational systems)
Creation of Indigenous Musical Arts Centers
Collection, Documentation, Preservation, Development & Promotion of South African Indigenous music
STRATEGY FOR REPOSITIONING ART MUSIC
1.Revision of Music Curriculum in educational institutions:
Primary and Secondary educational systems to embrace the study of traditional music and instruments.
Students should be introduced first to the music of their ethnic group, then to that of other groups in the country and finally to the music of other African groups as a whole.
2.Creation of Indigenous/Traditional Musical Arts Centers (Stand-alone government institution or Affiliate of institutions of higher learning)
Collection, Documentation, Preservation, Development & Promotion of South African Indigenous music
Facilitate scholarly & performance collaboration between “village” professors, composers and scholars
Promote the holistic (analytical, theoretical and cultural) study of South African traditional musical genres
Promote the concept of creating new idioms from traditional music
Promote a shift in ideology to embrace the audience-participation concept within the context of art music creation
Facilitate infrastructure for the promotion of traditional and modern African art music performance & recording
Create a network with other African art music institutions
3. Expansion of Tertiary Institution Scholarship System
- Creative Musicology practice
- Adoption of “Practice-based research” system
Expansion of Tertiary Institution Scholarship System
Creative Musicology practice
Adoption of “Practice-based research” system

14. Creative Musicology
Based on Bartók’s approach to art music composition
Principle rooted in ethnomusicological theory
Composers to do fieldwork as part of compositional activity
The application of musicology to composition
The process of moving from analysis to synthesis
The transformational zone between research and composition
“Creative musicology”, defined by Euba (1989) is based on Bartók’s approach to art music composition, which itself is a principle rooted in ethnomusicological theory. As exemplified through practice, Bartók’s advocacy is that composers should live with the “custodians” of the folk music they wish to employ as the basis of composition to hear the music in its cultural context. That is, like ethnomusicologists, composers should do fieldwork as part of their compositional activity/research.
According to Euba (2014), creative musicology may be defined in several ways:
First, it is the application of musicology to composition. In scholarly musicology, the product of research is the publication of its results in the form of speech discourse, whereas in creative musicology, the product is a composition. In creative musicology, theory of music and the analysis of the sound of music are the main focus of attention, as compared with ethnomusicology (and some recent studies in historical musicology) where the social context is prime focus
Secondly, creative musicology is the process of moving from analysis (being a critical dissection of the parts that make up the whole and the rationalization of how parts fit into the whole) to synthesis (being an artistic recombination of parts, with a view to replicating the object analyzed or creating a variation or metamorphosis of it).
Thirdly, creative musicology is the transformational zone between research and composition
An embrace of creative musicology as a scholarly field in South African music academia offers the much need tool with which composer-scholars can study and internalize African indigenous genres. The practitioners of the concept of creative musicology are therefore proposed to be absorbed in academia via “practice-based research” track in which their creative output defines their scholarship.
Akin Euba

15. Conclusion
To realize a stronger African identity there is the need for African composers to consider a new compositional direction. A re-definition of African art music based on African traditional music potentially offers a feasible approach to achieving a stronger African identity.
A focus on the excavation of the architectural designs that operate at the background of African traditional genres, which can be employed verbatim (or further developed) as a template to create art music while incorporating the sound world (instrumentation, pitch, tuning et al) unique to these indigenous genres is therefore advocated.
To summarize, this paper acknowledges modern African art music as a product of persons whose cultural experience is a combination of the African and the Western, and the idiom of the compositions is correspondingly bicultural. While scholars have questioned the theoretical basis of modern African art music as an African genre, it is true that modern African composers have often attempted to Africanize their works…but in their preoccupation with Western forms, the impact of such borrowing has been quite minimal and their works must thus be regarded as an extension of Western art music rather than a continuation of African traditional music. To realize a stronger African identity there is the need for African composers to consider a new compositional direction. And to this end, a re-definition of African art music based on African traditional music potentially offers a feasible approach to achieving a stronger African identity. A focus on the excavation of the architectural designs that operate at the background of African traditional genres, which can be employed verbatim (or further developed) as a template to create art music while incorporating the sound world (instrumentation, pitch, tuning et al) unique to these indigenous genres is therefore advocated. In this there is the potential for a possible musical evolution that will ultimately lead to a modern art music culture that will stand for what it is. With the spirit of re-birth, post-apartheid South Africa is positioned to lead the drive for a stronger African identity in the modern art music industry. This paper has proposed 3-pronged strategy to be adopted in the South African music academia for this to be achieved.
With the spirit of re-birth, post-apartheid South Africa is positioned to lead the drive for a stronger African identity in the modern art music industry.