Composing Apartheid: Music for and Against Apartheid

by Grant Olwage

Composing Apartheid is the first book ever to chart the musical world of a notorious period in world history, apartheid South Africa. It explores how music was produced through, and was productive of, key features of apartheidÂ’s social and political topography. The collection of essays is intentionally broad, and, the contributors include historians, sociologists, and anthropologists, as well as ethnomusicologists, music theorists, and historical musicologists. The essays focus on a variety of music (jazz, music in the Western art tradition, popular music), major composers (such as Kevin Volans) and works (HandelÂ’s Messiah). Musical institutions and previously little-researched performers (such as the African National CongressÂ’s troupe-in-exile Amandla) are explored. The writers move well beyond their subject matter, intervening in debates on race, historiography, and postcolonial epistemologies and pedagogies.

Paperback

First published May 31, 2007

Reviews

[Amogelang Maledu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of course, judging by the title of this book, this might strike you as one of those important books in South African (music) history — AND