Faculty of Humanities
School of Arts
Department of Music
Selected Highlights from Research Findings
Since 2009 and in 2010 Prof Meki Nzewi has been consolidating and applying his findings in classroom sites: In his university teaching (approached as a research site) he has successfully stimulated 2nd year students to engage in group creation and production of original integrated musical arts sketches since 2001. His 4th year students have been inspired to originally conceive, script, compose, choreograph and present full length integrated musical theatre works lasting about one hour without prior study in the production tasks. (There are DVD recordings and essays of both the 2nd year and 4th year productions).
In the SADC countries, the Centre for Indigenous African Instrumental Music and Dance Practices (CIIMDA) project applies the same educational philosophy and theoretical premise to engineer music teachers and learners in schools to express their innate creative/productive potentials in experiential classroom transmission activities. The ensuing explications of the soft science of the indigenous musical arts, validated in humanity experiences inform his research analyses products (theoretical and practical).
A number of practical workshops and short courses on the above theme were offered in 2010, including assisting the South African Department of Education with designing the curriculum framework for a comprehensive African music stream for Grades R-12.
Contact person: Prof ME Nzewi.
His first aim was to determine which South African born music students studied during the forty years between 1878 and 1918 at the Dr. Hoch’sches Conservatorium in Frankfurt am Main, and to place them in the context of the development of the Conservatory. Surprisingly, there were very few students of South African origin: Hetti Goldschmidt from Cape Town (1888-9, or only 1889), Cäcilie Manikus from Cape Town (1899-1901), Nesta Wells from 'Grahamton' (Grahamstown?, 1901-3), Lydia van Raalte from Bethlehem (1904-5), Frank Struben from Cape Town (1907-9) and Helmuth Rolfes from Kimberley (1908-9)
For the second topic, he attended to two institutions: the Königliche Musikschule 1867) and its successor, the Königliche Akademie der Tonkunst (1892), in Munich. The following nine persons are discussed: Hugo Lentz (born in Keiskammahoek, studied 1881–2), Florence Fraser (Philippolis, 1886–7), Violet Whiteford (Fort Beaufort, 1893–4), Jeannie Muller (Graaff Reinet, 1895–6), Johanna Singenberger (“St. Francis”, 1896–8), Mabel Wuesto (Kimberley, 1902–4), Vera de Villiers (Pretoria, 1902–4), Daisy Bosman (Bloemfontein, 1906–8) and Irma Lohner (Pretoria, 1907–9).
Contact person: Prof HH van der Mescht.
Prof Caroline van Niekerk undertook research during 2010 on protest music, and with particular reference to Zimbabwe, in preparation for a paper presented at the International Society for Music Education conference held from 1-6 August in Beijing, China. Ongoing research continued, with special emphasis on the African continent, as part of her membership of the AIRS (Advancing Interdisciplinary research into Singing) international team of over 75 researchers. This seven-year project is funded by the Canadian government.
Further research in the field of translation as negotation, together with doctoral student René Human, resulted in a publication in the Journal for New Generation Sciences. Two other articles were accepted for publication during 2011: one on Arts Education, a continuing research interest, and another on music outreach projects, a field in which an article has previously been published. That article was written together with a fellow Finnish researcher; the current article is with another Finnish researcher.
Contact person: Prof C van Niekerk.
Together with Prof Wessel van Wyk and Prof Ruth Goveia: Presentation of piano master classes and performances (solo and ensemble). Stellenbosch International Piano Symposium, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, February 2010.
Contact person: Prof HJ Stanford.
Presentation of Piano Master Classes. Varna, Bulgaria, August 2010
Contact person: Prof HJ Stanford.
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