Focus: Music of South Africa

Focus: Music of South Africa provides an in-depth look at the full spectrum of South African music, a musical culture that epitomizes the enormous ethnic, religious, linguistic, class, and gender diversity of the nation itself. Drawing on extensive field and archival research, as well as her own personal experiences, noted ethnomusicologist and South African native Carol A. Muller looks at how South Africans have used music to express a sense of place in South Africa, on the African continent, and around the world. Part One, Creating Connections, provides introductory materials for the study of South African Music. Part Two, Musical Migrations, moves to a more focused overview of significant musical styles in twentieth-century South Africa -- particularly those known through world circuits. Part Three, Focusing In, takes the reader into the heart of two musical cultures with case studies on South African jazz and the music of the Zulu-language followers of Isaiah Shembe. The accompanying downloadable resources offer vivid examples of traditional, popular, and classical South African musical styles.

Carol Ann Muller is Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Pennsylvania.

List of Figures, About the Author, Series Foreword by Michael B. Bakan, Preface, PART I: Creating Connections, Introduction, 1. South African Music: The Lion Sleeps Tonight, 2. Twentieth-Century Political History, 3. Twentieth-Century Entertainment History: Live and Mediated, 4. Graceland (1986): World Music Collaboration, PART II: Twentieth- Century Musical Styles: Music in Migration, Introduction, 5. Representing the Past in South African Music, 6. South African Music: Brief Definitions, 7. Labor Migration: Isicathamiya, 8. Labor Migration: Maskanda, 9. Labor Migration: Gumboot Dance, PART III: Focusing In: Two Case Studies, Introduction, First Case Study: Cape Jazz, 10. Post-World War II Cape Town, 11. Sathima Bea Benjamin's Cape Town: Popular Culture in the Post- World War II Era, 12. Sathima Bea Benjamin as Jazz Musician, 13. Mission Hymns and the Founding of the Shembe Community, 14. Shembe Hymns, AFTERWORD, 15. Final Reflections, Appendices, 1. A Guide to African Music: A Music of Encounters, North, South, East, and West, 2. Key Dates in South African History, 3. Selected Websites and Guide to Recordings: South Africa and Its Music, 4. Themes Common to the Study of African Music: 1980s to Present, 5. Discussion of Musical Examples on CD, Glossary, References, Notes, Index