Department of Music

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Browsing Department of Music by Subject "Afrikaner identity"

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    Cosmopolitanism in early Afrikaans music historiography, 1910-1948
    (Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2010-12) Stimie, Annemie; Muller, Stephanus; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Music.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Current musicological discourses in South Africa seldom engage with Afrikaans content and contributions, even though there is an acknowledged large body of writing on music in Afrikaans. These writings could significantly inform music and general historiographies in South Africa. This study discusses music-related articles in the following Afrikaans magazines and newspapers of the early twentieth century: Die Brandwag (1910-1921), Die Burger (1915-1948), Die Huisgenoot (1916-1948), Die Nuwe Brandwag (1929-1933), Die Brandwag (1937-1948) and Die Transvaler (1937-1948). The subject matter of a large proportion of these music-related articles comprises the history of Western European music. This includes biographies of composers and histories of stylistic periods, genres and instruments. Despite the physical distance between Europe and Africa, Afrikaners‘ attraction to Europe borders at times on a feeling of belonging to this tradition. This cosmopolitan notion of belonging has received little attention compared to themes of race, language and nationalism in twentieth-century South African historiography. A neglected Afrikaans discourse on music, however, presents an opportunity to explore the possibilities of cosmopolitanism in a further interpretation of Afrikaner identity and understanding of South African history. It is for this reason that the current study is primarily concerned with tracing the role of musical discourse in Afrikaner society between 1910 and 1948 by investigating notions of cosmopolitanism. The two theoretical strands of cosmopolitanism that will guide this study concern the work of Friedrich Meinecke (an early twentieth-century German scholar), and Kwame Anthony Appiah (who is still active in the field of philosophy). Meinecke‘s work is mainly concerned with the role cosmopolitan values played in the development of the National State, with specific reference to Germany from the late eighteenth century to the late nineteenth century. What attracts Appiah to cosmopolitanism is the freedom it provides for the individual to create her own identity. To be a citizen of the world need not be a rootless existence, but allows anyone to be a patriot of the country of her own choice. Meinecke‘s and Appiah‘s theories of cosmopolitanism, and their different positioning of the intersecting points between the spheres of the individual, the nation and the globe, will provide two theoretical frameworks informing the present author‘s attempt to interpret some of the materials collated for this study. The present writer believes that cosmopolitanism will prove an appropriate theory to uncover some elements of Afrikaner identity that has hitherto been ignored.