Faculty of Humanities
School of Arts
Department of Music
Selected Highlights from Research Findings
The researcher has previously written about aspects of the oeuvres of the Afrikaans authors Hennie Aucamp, Karel Schoeman and Lina Spies. In 2009, he was the first person to complete an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Pretoria. For this degree, he offered a volume of short stories and a dissertation on the references to music found in Marlene van Niekerk’s acclaimed Afrikaans novel Agaat (2004). This novel won the foremost literary prizes for Afrikaans literature and has been translated into Dutch and English. Two articles emanated from the analysis of Agaat.
References to music and music activities are often found in the novel. Van Niekerk’s views on the inclusion of music references are discussed in the first article. In an interview and in written responses to questions, Van Niekerk supplied explanations about her ideas on the power and value of music, the use of references in general, and the specific use of music references. Van Niekerk often listens to music while writing. The music becomes a provocation, a type of stimulus to find the right frame of mind. Music also functions as a controlling agent to prevent her from writing too “easily”. Although Van Niekerk declares that she uses music to colour her characters, she is of the opinion that no connection should be drawn between herself and the characters in Agaat. She nevertheless confirms that music plays a major role in her life, as well as in the lives of the characters in the novel. Singing is often described as a creative activity in Agaat. Van Niekerk explains that singing and the image of a singer are important matters to her. Van Niekerk’s views contained in this article form an important text concerning her ars poetica.
The second article investigates the references to classical music in Agaat. Van Niekerk possesses a sound knowledge of music and of the repertoire. She can, therefore, make a variety of references to musical terminology, musical instruments, music making, South African culture in which music plays a decisive role, Afrikaans folk songs and songs from the FAK song book, psalms and hymns, popular songs, and compositions from the repertoire of classical music. Concealed, translated quotations of lines from German poems set to music as art songs are also included in Agaat. In these cases (poems set to music by Brahms, Mahler, Schubert and Schumann), the word text is incorporated in a complex manner. Her craft in the inconspicuous inclusion into the text of changed and/or adapted lines from poems is possibly the highlight of her art of allusion and reference.
Contact person: Prof HH van der Mescht.
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