MUSIC AND EXILE: SONGS, STYLES AND SUB-TEXTS SYMPOSIUM
4 and 5 February 2011, 9:00-17:00
Goethe-Institute, Johannesburg
The Music and Exile: Songs, Styles and Sub-texts Symposium is a follow-up on 2010’s Music and Exile: North-South Narratives Symposium. The rich discussions about music and exile that had opened up at the 2010 symposium will be continued in 2011, but with an emphasis on the role of songs in South African and global exile. The programme includes presentations and discussions by scholars, performers and composers, and covers wide variety of musical styles, including Western art music, jazz, South African traditional and pop music.
Some themes that will be considered are the contexts and debates in international and local exile, and the impact that cultural exchanges resulting from exile has on musical styles, particularly on jazz. On the local front, the programme will feature a panel discussion with musicians Roger Lucey and Steve Gordon about their experiences of exile. A session is devoted to the musical connections between South Africa and the United Kingdom effected by South African musicians’ exile, including presentations on the South African jazz opera King Kong that was performed in London in 1961 (which for many musicians marked the first step to exile), Gwigwi Mrwebi and the adaptations of mbaqanga in the United Kingdom and Stanley Glasser’s Songs of Exile. To cast the net slightly wider than the local, the symposium will also reflect on instances of international exile such as German musician Eisler and writer Brecht’s exile in Hollywood during the Second World War, and the impact of the Second World War on some of Stockhausen’s vocal compositions.
The line-up of speakers include, among others, Albrecht Dümling (founder of the internationally acclaimed ‘Entartete Musik’ project), Sophia Serghi (composer from Cyprus), Mokale Koapeng (Johannesburg-based composer), Lefifi Tladi (composer, poet and artist), Jean-Pierre de la Porte, Chats Devroop (Tshwane University of Technology) and David Coplan (University of the Witwatersrand).
Members of the public are welcome and attendance is free. Kindly send an e-mail to reserve your place at the symposium to dpt@johannesburg.goethe.org.
The Music and Exile Symposium forms part of the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival, and is linked to a concert featuring the songs of Brecht, Eisler and Weill performed by Eva Meier and Paul Cibis on 4 February 2011 at the Wits Theatre. For more information on the concert and the symposium, visit www.join-mozart-festival.org.
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-Institute. 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 music writing and debate.
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.
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