Department of Music

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https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/55

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Browsing Department of Music by browse.metadata.advisor "Eato, Jonathan"

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    Encountering Bheki Mseleku: a biographical-analytical consideration of his life and music
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03) Makhathini, Nduduzo; Vos, Stephanie; Muller, Stephanus; Eato, Jonathan; Stellenbosch Unviersity. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Music.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis presents a study of one of the seminal figures in South African jazz, Bheki Mseleku (1955-2008). Born in South Africa, Mseleku is notable for his compositions, virtuosic pianism, recordings with leading jazz figures including Abbey Lincoln, Pharoah Sanders, and Joe Henderson, as well as his musical influence locally in South Africa and in London where he lived in exile. By drawing on journalistic accounts and interviews with Mseleku’s family members, fellow musicians and acquaintances, as well as my own perspectives as a performing jazz pianist, this thesis constitutes the first academic study of Mseleku’s life and music. The opening chapter documents Mseleku’s biography, drawing on disparate sources from print media and documentary film, alongside personal interviews. This provides the backdrop for the next two chapters, which explore two constitutive aspects of Mseleku's life and music: his exile from South Africa in the 1980s and early ’90s, and his deep spirituality. Chapter Two situates the sound of exile in Mseleku’s music, comparing his experiences and music with that of the earlier generation of South African exiles from the 1960s, particularly Louis Moholo. A consideration of his album, Home At Last (2003) plots the coordinates that inform the notion of “home” for Mseleku. I argue that exile, read against the notion of “home”, represents a disconnect from community, but also signals the turn from home as a physical space to home understood as a spiritual construct. The introduction of spirituality in this chapter opens onto a prolonged exploration of spirituality in Mseleku’s life and music. Chapter Three explores the diverse influences – from Mseleku’s Zulu upbringing and his engagement with Eastern spiritual practices – that shaped Mseleku’s conception of spirituality, and how these influenced his piano pedagogy and compositional style. Chapter Four is an analysis of Mseleku’s album Meditations (1992). Here I highlight the importance of spiritualism in his music, but also trace the other influences audible in his sound, including African music practices and American jazz. Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za 8 I close the thesis with my personal reflections on Mseleku, based on my experiences with his music and teachings through our brief friendship. It is my hope that this study lays the foundation for future scholarship on Mseleku, whose life and music has been neglected in South African jazz historiography.
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    Interrogating the own: a practise-based, auto-ethnographic reflection on musical creation with reference to the work of Abdullah Ibrahim, Zim Ngqawana and Kyle Shepherd
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03) Shepherd, Kyle; Vos, Stephanie; Muller, Stephanus; Eato, Jonathan; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Music.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis examines my artistic practice as musician, improviser and composer as a research process. Auto-ethnographic reflections on my performances, whether on the jazz bandstand, in the recording studio or in informal improvisation sessions, enable me to illuminate and analyse the artistic process, thereby contributing to artistic research in jazz. Discussions of practice-based research (also known as artistic research) and auto-ethnography as methods serve as theoretical points of departure. I situate this study as practice-based research, and argue that auto-ethnography offers a particularly suitable mode to reflect on the deeply individual nature of improvisation as an exploration and realization of the self. In the first chapter, I explore the processes of learning, transmission and artistic development in jazz practice, particularly with reference to two musicians who shaped my artistic development, Abdullah Ibrahim and Zim Ngqawana. Situated outside of formal institutions, the artistic development I describe emerges as an improvisatory process in itself, since musicians select their own musical models and influences to hone their practice. The second chapter presents a reflection on the processes involved in creating my practice of improvising, composing and performing. I consider the importance of what I call a situational awareness, and the different dynamics and challenges inherent in three modes of my work: solo playing, ensemble playing, and film music composition. In the third chapter, I explore how the above influences and dynamics (discussed in Chapters 1 and 2) come into play in the performance portfolio that forms the practical component of this degree. This thesis, therefore, forms one component of a practice-based Masters degree, which compliments and expands the performance portfolio submitted.