Doctoral Degrees (Odeion School of Music)
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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Odeion School of Music) by Advisor "Viljoen, M."
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Item Open Access Choral techniques for children's choirs: a qualitative approach(University of the Free State, 2008-11) Verster, Huibrecht; Viljoen, M.; Niemann, R.English: Children's choirs gained recognition during the twentieth century as an acclaimed category in Western choral music. This choral category's subsequent dynamic evolvement has brought to the fore the need to broaden the knowledge of specialised rehearsal and conducting techniques, especially in view of its internationally competitive nature. As part of the growing body of knowledge in the field, conductors have contributed to the development of the instrument through the design of didactic methods generating specific artistic results. The evidence of studies on the topic, and in particular, the lack of qualitative data, highlighted the need to systematically investigate and document all music-technical foundations of children’s choral singing as practised by leading conductors in the field. It is the aim of this study to explore a range of theoretical, practical and didactic issues by way of a qualitative investigation. In order to contribute to the body of knowledge on the development of the vocal instrument of children, and to provide a substantive framework for conducting methods generating specific artistic results, this study documents the responses of a number of world-renowned conductors of children’s choirs. The study is introduced by a brief overview of the historical background to the evolvement of the children’s choir. In this regard it has been found that the remarkable development of this choral category during the course of the last century was stimulated in particular by various inputs from the educational and compositional field, from which a unique choral pedagogy for children that included both voice skills and voice health training was realised during the 1980s. It also became clear that conductors contributed considerably to the evolvement of this choral category by means of their active engagement with the field, and by disseminating experience and knowledge through publications, symposia and workshops. A literature study first examined general aspects of choral directing, which were then particularised in terms of the children’s choir. A qualitative study followed that documented the views of various renowned conductors, which amplified the preceding literature findings on certain techniques the conductor should apply to build the child’s voice expertly as an instrument of musical excellence. The data chapter not only reiterated the important role of the conductor, but confirmed that the conductor's role extends beyond the musical director's function to that of nurturer and educationalist, which also includes a strong psychological dimension. It was made clear that the role of the conductor is vital already during the auditioning and repertoire selection processes, where the potential success of the choir originates. The musical ability of children carries more weight than the quality of an individual voice, and therefore has to be assessed in a variety of effective ways. It was also stressed that the repertoire for this choral category has to be suitable for children, taking into account aspects such as level of performance, language and cultural background, as well as musical variety. The findings showed a strong correlation between the literature and the qualitative data, although the latter provided a rich individualistic account. It was clear that choral techniques for this instrument should be holistic in approach, starting with the body posture and working towards the creation of a desired homogeneous choral sound through touching on numerous physical and psychological aspects. As part of this process, the conductor needs to focus on elements of choral sound such as relaxation, breathing, registers, vowels, phrasing, legato singing, pronunciation, articulation and agility, resonance, pitching and intonation. Finally the study offered recommendations for present and future conductors of children’s choirs to enhance this art form, and extend the excellence of this type of choral singing at national and international level.Item Open Access Music and discourse archaeology: critical studies of GDR 'Rote Lieder' and Afrikaans 'Volk- en Vaderlandsliedere' as based on a model of interacting philosophical sub-theories(University of the Free State, 2014-01) Schutte, Charla Helena; Viljoen, M.; Visagie, P. J.English: Indoctrination through music is a well-known phenomenon which has been used for centuries as a strategy to influence society and instil certain beliefs and attitudes in people. Extensive research over the last few decades confirms music as a propagandist method to promote ideology. In this study, it is my aim to focus on two specific instances of such indoctrination, namely the “rote Lieder” which were sung in the German Democratic Republic, as well as Afrikaans “Volks- en Vaderlandsliedere” as deployed before and during the apartheid era in South Africa. After National Socialism, people were once again exposed to propaganda in the German Democratic Republic. Several mass organisations were formed by the SED (Socialist Unity Party of Germany), including youth organisations such as the Young Pioneers, the Thälmann Pioneers and the Free German Youth, and society was introduced to songs of an ideological nature, encouraging belief in the communist system. These GDR “rote Lieder” were published in songbooks used especially by youth organisations. In this way the GDR government managed to gain support for the communist regime and a successful endeavour was initiated to circulate ideologically-loaded folk songs amongst the GDR citizens. In South Africa an Afrikaner ideology of racial segregation slowly emerged during the first decades of the 20th century, reaching a climax with a political take-over of the National Party in 1948. The songbook of the FAK (Federation of Afrikaans Cultural Associations), published in 1937, quickly gained popularity and promoted patriotism and nationalism among white Afrikaners, finding its way into Afrikaner homes, churches, organisations and schools, thus becoming unanimous with Afrikaner culture. Similar to the GDR, these songs were sung especially by the youth in schools and youth organisations. The governments of both the GDR and South Africa never formally disclosed the implementation of ideologically-driven songs to indoctrinate people, but this does not mean that they did not understand the value and effectiveness of using music and song text to sway large groups of people, and actively used these to convey political ideas. An ideology-critical analysis of a selection of folk songs taken from the GDR and FAK songbooks could therefore uncover underlying ideological structures which may have had a profound but possibly distorted effect on those who sang these songs. Against this background, this thesis investigates the extent to which ideology is present and operative in GDR songs and FAK “Volk- en Vaderlandsliedere” by distorting reality through misrepresenting the conditions of a particular set of social-historical circumstances; expressing the interests of those in power; mobilising meaning so as to establish and perpetuate relationships of domination, and concealing relationships of domination. In order to uncover such ideological content, the theoretical framework for ideology analysis, as presented by John Thompson with his depth-hermeneutical, multi-level critical approach, and sub-theories of Discourse Archaeology as proposed by Johann Visagie, are applied. By combining Visagie's Discourse Archaeology with the discourse of critical musicology, the underlying and sometimes hidden ideological deep structures found in political folk songs revealed deep-seated ideological beliefs concealed within these songs and unmasked hidden relationships of domination. The conclusion reached is that ideological indoctrination is present in both the ‘rote Lieder’ and the ‘Volks- en Vaderlandsliedere” to a substantive degree. This confirms that the sub-theories of Discourse Archaeology are highly-complex ideological-critical tools with which deep-rooted ideological meanings in political folk songs were identified and exposed in this study within two very specific socio-historical environments. Moreover, when utilised in combination, each of the models introduced and applied in this thesis offers its own below-the-surface analysis on different levels and in different fields using their own language to describe structures and systems in a way that is not possible with ‘everyday’ language, thus providing the analyst with an all-encompassing, powerful analytical framework with which to expose the philosophical deep structures of indoctrination through music that might have gone unnoticed in a more traditionally-oriented mode of musical analysis.