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Cape Town Harmonies: Memory, Humour and Resilience
Contributor(s): Gaulier, Armelle (Author), Martin, Denis-Constant (Author)
ISBN: 1928331505     ISBN-13: 9781928331506
Publisher: African Minds
OUR PRICE:   $47.03  
Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats
Published: July 2017
Qty:
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Music | Philosophy & Social Aspects
- Social Science | Popular Culture
- Music | History & Criticism - General
LCCN: 2020398787
Physical Information: 0.82" H x 6.14" W x 9.21" (1.24 lbs) 368 pages
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:

"Cape Town's public cultures can only be fully appreciated through recognition of its deep and diverse soundscape. We have to listen to what has made and makes a city. The ear is an integral part of the 'research tools' one needs to get a sense of any city. We have to listen to the sounds that made and make the expansive 'mother city'. Various of its constituent parts sound different from each other ... T]here is the sound of the singing men and their choirs ("teams" they are called) in preparation for the longstanding annual Malay choral competitions. The lyrics from the various repertoires they perform are hardly ever written down. ...] There are texts of the hallowed 'Dutch songs' but these do not circulate easily and widely. Researchers dream of finding lyrics from decades ago, not to mention a few generations ago - back to the early 19th century. This work by Denis Constant Martin and Armelle Gaulier provides us with a very useful selection of these songs. More than that, it is a critical sociological reflection of the place of these songs and their performers in the context that have given rise to them and sustains their relevance. It is a necessary work and is a very important scholarly intervention about a rather neglected aspect of the history and present production of music in the city." -- Shamil Jeppie, Associate Professor, Department of Historical Studies, University of Cape Town


Contributor Bio(s): Gaulier, Armelle: - ARMELLE GAULIER holds a doctorate in political science from the Bordeaux Institute of Political Studies. She conducted research on the musics of the Kaapse Klopse and the Malay Choirs in 2006 and 2008, and was granted two masters degrees from the University of Paris 8-Saint Denis for dissertations based on her fieldwork in Cape Town. She is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the Bordeaux Institute of Political Studies. Her research focuses on the relationship between music, politics and identity, with a particular interest in the symbolic power of music, and in musical practices and experiences of citizenship, especially within groups of migrants.Martin, Denis-Constant: - DENIS-CONSTANT MARTIN was until 2016 an Outstanding Research Fellow of the French National Foundation for Political Science. He was successively attached to the Paris Centre of International Studies, then to the Bordeaux centre Les Afriques dans le monde. He was a Fellow of the Stellenbosch Institute of Advanced Studies (STIAS) at Stellenbosch University (2007, 2013 and 2015). His research focused on the relationship between culture and politics. After doing fieldwork in Eastern Africa, the Commonwealth Caribbean and the United States, he studied the New Year Festivals in Cape Town, with a special interest in the musics of the Kaapse Klopse and the Malay Choirs. He has published many academic articles and books, including: Coon Carnival, New Year in Cape Town, Past and Present (David Philip, 1999) and Sounding the Cape: Music, Identity and Politics in South Africa (African Minds, 2013).