THINKING IN CHORDS & VOCALS

From 19 to 20 November 2024, SO | The Academy for the Less Good Idea hosted Thinking In Chords and Vocals, a two-day workshop programme culminating in a public performance.

Thinking In Chords and Vocals entails a re-working of Neo Muyanga’s composition, eMthini we Mbumba, commissioned by the Signum Quartet, as part of their Bridge the chasms that divide project, marking 30 years of democracy in South Africa.

Over the two days of the Thinking In workshop, Muyanga adapted the composition, originally composed for a string quartet, into a work for strings and voice through a workshop process with the Signum Quartet and three vocalists – Pertunia Msani, Nokuthula Magubane, and Nosipho Mtotoba.

THE OPEN MOMENT

On Wednesday 20 November, Thinking In Chords and Vocals culminated in the Open Moment, a public showing of the material explored and generated in the workshop process.

Divided into two 45-minute sections, The Open Moment begins with a framing of the Bridge the chasms that divide project.

A spirited composition by South African composer and jazz pianist Paul Hamner, who watches on from the audience, opens the evening. Following this is a sharing by South African pianist and vocalist Thandi Ntuli of her experience of composing for this project. Taking inspiration from the Xhosa church congregation, Ntuli explains how the process of re-imagining this musical style and tradition for strings is a rare and exciting challenge. The resultant composition is equal parts compelling and plaintive.

Following this is some insight from Muyanga into the workshop process, as well as what it means to think through and engage with the complicated story that is South Africa 30 years into democracy. The composition itself is an experimental dance between strings and voice, with the vocalists serving as an enduring undertow to the string quartet. Following the performance, a suggestion from William Kentridge, also seated in the audience, sees the vocalists expanding their range to embrace the pace and activity of the strings and to follow their flourish. It is a moment alive with free-spirited improvisational energy.

In the second half of the evening, the Signum Quartet takes to the stage once more to perform a variety of compositions from the bridge the chasms that divide project, each one alive with experimental flair and with a collective focus on South African history and contemporary ways of being.

Besides bringing together a classical string quartet to perform a programme composed entirely by South Africans, Thinking In Chords & Vocals manages to also feature the work of three women composers – a rarity in the music world, both locally and abroad – and herein lies the success of such an experiment.

Similarly, this is an experiment that invites a renowned quartet to take the idea of classical music, break it down, and put it together again through the influence of indigenous South African sounds and aesthetics, rather than aiming to mimic a European style of 200 years ago, thus confidently speaking back to a classical canon from an authentic perspective, in an authentic voice.

CREDITS:

SIGNUM QUARTET | Florian Donderer (violin), Annette Walther (violin), Xandi van Dijk (viola) & Thomas Schmitz (violoncello)
VOCALISTS | Pertunia Msani, Nokuthula Magubane & Nosipho Mtotoba
COMPOSERS & SPEAKERS | Thandi Ntuli & Neo Muyanga
MOMENTEUR FOR THE SO ACADEMY | Athena Mazarakis

COMPOSITIONS:

Paul Hanmer: Untsiki (2003)
Thandi Ntuli: in the land where she is king
Neo Muyanga: eMthini we Mbumba

***Interval***

Dizu Plaatjies with Matthijs van Dijk: 21:30
Lise Morrison: Unfettered and Alive
Monthati Masebe: LEFA
Denise Onen: Demockracy
Abel Selaocoe: Umthwalo
Enoch Sontonga: Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika (1897)