Sunday, December 12, 2010

CALL FOR PAPERS

Music and Exile: Songs, Styles and Sub-texts
4-5 February 2011
Goethe-Institut, Johannesburg

The Johannesburg International Mozart Festival (JIMF) in partnership with Goethe Institute invites participation in a Symposium on the theme Music and Exile: Songs, Styles and Sub-texts that will take place from 4 to 5 February 2011. This event follows the Music and Exile: North-South Narratives Symposium that was held at Goethe-Institute in January 2010. Whereas the latter event had initiated the discussion on exile and had moreover focused on exile as a discourse, the rich discussion that opened up around this topic will be continued in 2011, but with a particular focus on notions of exile in vocal music and the way these are articulated by composers and performers.

South Africa has a rich history of song that has supported and reflected various notions of exile. Iconic figures like Miriam Makeba have become customary examples of the power that song has exerted on the South African and international soundscape as an expression of exile. But beyond these over-familiar icons are many other instances of exile that are often overshadowed by more famous presences. It is these lesser-known instances of exile that this symposium is aimed at. Exile is not only something of the past, and this symposium acknowledges the continuing relevance of this topic today. Current cases of exile include emigrations from South Africa as well as large-scale immigrations to South Africa due to dire socio-political or economic circumstances elsewhere, especially in Africa; and it is often women who bear the brunt of suffering, and whose voices are unheard. The interpretation of exile may be extended to include other instances of displacement, such as the voluntary migrations prevalent in a globalized world. All instances of displacement may profitably draw on discourses of exile if the latter are understood to embody politically motivated migration only. The notion of inner exile (without physical migration) is a case in point, where the senses of displacement and alienation experienced within familiar environments necessitate a nuanced interpretation of exile, inaugurating a set of themes that include considerations of ‘those who stayed behind’ and the practice of art forms that are at (or are pushed to) the peripheries of a dominant culture.

In line with the JIMF’s celebration of vocal music in its concert series of 2011 – which will feature works of its first resident composer, Mokale Koapeng – the symposium will engage with the role of songs (1) and choral music in voicing themes of displacement and exile. Textual and stylistic interrogations become important here, as references to exile or displacement can be embedded in subtext or metaphor, or implied by musical style, making the songs politically charged.

Themes that would link to the topic outlined above include:
o Definitions and meanings of exile and/or displacement
o Women in/and exile music
o The relationship between performance spaces and musical meanings
o Definitions of inner exile
o Music on the margins of contemporary culture
o Contemporary composition as an expression of exile
o The role of song in experiences and expressions of exile
o Black choral music in inner exile during the 20th century
o Relationships between music and text

(1 The word ‘songs’ for the purposes of the symposium is used in a very broad sense and is intended to encompasses a wide range of vocal music.)

o The importance of notions of textuality in music strongly reliant on text
o The role of style in the articulation of musical meaning
o Stylistic influences and adaptations as a result of exile
o The appropriation of styles as subtexts
o Folkloristic aspects of song
o Discourses around national anthems
o Song and resistance
o Contexts and subtexts in the controversial songs such as Umshini Wami, De la Rey etc.

Although the symposium will have a strong South African emphasis, it also aims to engage and find points of
intersection with international discourse on the topics outlined above. The discussion sessions that follow the
presentations are therefore of particular importance. The theme lends itself to interdisciplinary approaches and also to various modes of presentation (papers, panel discussions, interviews, personal reflections on creative output, creative responses to the theme like as performances etc.). Furthermore, the symposium situates itself between ‘academic’ and ‘public’ discourse, and strives to establish dialogue between these often-separated spheres of discussion.

We invite 20-minute papers or presentations as well as proposals for panel discussions or live interviews (please include a list of the proposed participants). Longer time slots could be considered depending on the programme – please contact us if you wish to request this. Send a proposal of your contribution (no more than 300 words in length) to Stephanie Vos at stephe.vos@gmail.com or musicandexile@gmail.com by 4 October 2010 to be considered for inclusion in the programme. For further information, contact Stephanie at +27 84 520 5919 or e-mail stephe.vos@gmail.com.

Background on the Symposium
The Music and Exile Symposia form part of the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival (JIMF) and are held in partnership with the Goethe-Institut. The Johannesburg International Mozart Festival is a concert series that has taken place in Johannesburg annually since 2006 and the first symposium held in conjunction with the JIMF concert series was in 2010. The Symposia provide a ‘think-tank’ around topics related to the JIMF concert series and are intended to generate ideas and stimulate initiatives for future JIMF events. This approach strives to establish a productive dialogue between music practice and discourse.

How does Mozart fit in? Constantly pushing the boundaries, departing from and developing the canon and creating new frameworks of experimentation, Mozart regarded almost anything as an invitation for his creative genius and even today remains one of the most versatile yet profound musical figures of all times: as composer, arranger, performer, conductor, teacher, writer, commentator and scholar. It is the ambition of the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival to reflect upon Mozart’s genius and ingenuity and to create a setting that might translate at least some of Mozart’s truly inspiring characteristics into the twenty-first century. The Music and Exile Symposia proceed from this philosophy of innovation, and aim to traverse the boundaries that frequently exist between different music genres, disciplines and discourses.

Visit www.join-mozart-festival.org for more information about the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival and the Music and Exile Symposium, and visit www.goethe.de/johannesburg for more information about the Goethe Institute.

Monday, December 6, 2010

MUSIC AND EXILE: NORTH-SOUTH NARRATIVES SYMPOSIUM (27-28 January 2010)

MUSIC AND EXILE: NORTH-SOUTH NARRATIVES SYMPOSIUM (Programme)

Wednesday 27 January 2010

09:00    Welcome and introduction

  Session 1: Exile, Literature and Music
09:15    Muff Andersson
              The nomad sings, the nomad walks, the nomad rests: the ‘condition’ of exile

09:35    Matildie Thom-Wium
  ‘My country, my dry, forsaken country’: On exile in Arnold van Wyk’s, NP van Wyk           Louw’s and Ovid’s Tristia

09:55    Pamela Tancsik
              Joseph Trauneck or the Wanderings of a Persecuted Man

10:15    Questions/comments/discussion

10:45    Tea
  
  Session 2: Identities
11:15    Michael Haas
              From Bach to Schönberg: How “German” was music from fin de Siècle Vienna?

12:05    Xoli Norman
              The paradox of exile and the creative state

12:25    Stephanie Vos
              Interpreting the notion of nationality in the case of John Joubert

12:45    Questions/comments/discussion

13:15    Lunch

  Session 3: In conversation
14:00    Stephanus Muller, Steve Dyer, Warrick Sony, Michael Blake and Mokale Koapeng
              Discussion panel

15:30    Tea

  Session 4: Exile in composition and performance
16:00    Jean-Pierre de la Porte
              Exile on the spot: how does one recognize minor music?

16:30    Pre-concert talk by Mokale Koapeng (on Moerane)
              The problem with Mosoeu Michael Moerane

17:00    Keynote address: Timothy Jackson
  Biographical and Analytical Perspectives on Friedrich Hartmann's Song of the Four  Winds

18:00    Symposium ends

20:00    Concert at the Linder Auditorium - Moerane, Hartmann and Mozart

Thursday 28 January 2010

  Session 5: Places
09:00    David Coplan
              S.A. Jazz in Exile: Exporting Sophiatown and District 6

09:20    Hilde Roos
              Opera in exile: the Eoan Group

09:40    Gwen Ansell with Steve Dyer
              So close to home: South African jazz in African exile

10:00    Questions/comments/discussion

10:20    Tea

  Session 6: People
10:50    Performers workshop: Timothy Jackson in conversation with Thomas Sanderling
              Hartmann's Song of the Four Winds

11:40    Aryan Kaganof
              Blue Notes from Johnny

12:00    Chris van Rhyn
  The wingless flight – A consideration of Priaulx Rainier and her Requiem in the context  of exile

12:40    Colette Szymczak
              Jonas Gwangwa, musician and cultural activist

13:00    Questions/comments/discussion

13:30    Lunch

  Session 7: Perspectives
14:15    Christine Lucia
              The smell of a grass fire

14:35    Chats Devroop
              Emotional displacement amongst South African Jazz Musicians who stayed behind

14:55    Mokale Koapeng
              Composing in South Africa

15:15    Questions/comments/discussion

15:45    Closing remarks

16:00    Symposium ends