Nightsong: Performance, Power, and Practice in South Africa (Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology CSE) - Softcover

Erlmann, Veit

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226217213 ISBN 13: 9780226217215

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1996

Synopsis

Popularized by Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Paul Simon, the "a cappella" music known as "isicathamiya" has become celebrated as one of South Africa's most vibrant and distinct performance traditions. This text provides an interpretation of isicathamiya performance practice and its relation to the culture and consciousness of the Zulu migrant labourers who largely compose its choirs. In songs and dances, the performers oppose the class and racial oppression that reduces them to "labour units." At the same time, Erlmann argues, the performers rework dominant images to symbolically reconstruct their "home," an imagined world of Zulu rural tradition and identity. By contrasting the live performance of isicathamiya to its reproduction in mass media, recordings and international concerts, Erlmann addresses issues in performance studies and anthropology, and looks to the future of isicathamiya live performance in the new South Africa.

About this title

Product Description:

Nightsong This text provides an interpretation of isicathamiya performance and its relation to the culture and consciousness of the Zulu migrant labourers who largely compose its choirs. It addresses issues in anthropology and looks to the future of live performance in the new South Africa. Full description

About the Author:

Veit Erlmann holds the Endowed Chair of Music History at the University of Texas at Austin's Butler School of Music.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0226217213
• ISBN 13: 9780226217215
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 472