[Mokale Koapeng]
AfriClassical is deeply appreciative of the credit given to its companion website, AfriClassical.com, by Mokale Koapeng. We particularly appreciate the article's title, “A Hidden Cultural Picture,” which was taken from a Guest Book comment made by a visitor to the Edmond Dédé (1827-1903) page of the site. The comment was added to the page on Dédé, and Mokale Koapeng informed us of his intent to use it as a title for his effort to make South Africans more aware of the history of diversity in classical music.
http://classicfeel.co.za/
February 1, 2011:
“Mokale Koapeng, a member of the distinguished music department at the Wits School of Arts, was recently appointed the composer-in-residence for the Johannesburg International Music Festival (JIMF). CLASSICFEEL’s Lore Watterson and Warren Holden spoke to him about the appointment and the mission that drives his work.
“South Africa – indeed Africa as a whole – is a land of many myths; myths that we, as South Africans casually believe about our country’s past, present and future, about our place in the world, and about each other; myths disseminated and perpetuated by South Africans themselves. This is true of all sectors of our society and arts and culture is no exception. One man who dedicates his career to shattering those myths is Mokale Koapeng. As a composer, performer and educator, Koapeng has often felt the frustration of living with an industry, government, and general public that are fraught with widely accepted misconceptions about the music that is his passion. These misconceptions essentially amount to the belief that classical music is a Western genre, the reserve of the European and neo-European upper and middle classes, and has no place in African society. Koapeng’s knowledge of some of the lesser-known facets of classical music history has convinced him that such a belief has absolutely no basis in fact. As a result, much of his work in composition and teaching forms part of a crusade to inform all sectors of South African society of the inclusive nature of classical music. He calls the philosophy behind this mission ‘A Hidden Cultural Picture’.
“Although Koapeng had felt for a long time that the official and public line with regards to classical music was not consistent with his own experience, his philosophy really took shape when he was introduced to a website called AfriClassical, researched and written by American music enthusiast, William J Zick. ‘It’s a website that highlights classical composers of African descent,’ Koapeng explains. ‘It was really interesting for me to discover that, in the time of Mozart, of Haydn and Beethoven, there were black composers, conductors and performers who formed an integral part of the musical scene of the day. History has been very unfair to that legacy. The man who conducted the premiere of Haydn’s Parisian Symphonies was the Chevalier de Saint-George, who was black. Beethoven’s ‘Kreutzer’ Sonata was originally written for, and dedicated to violinist George Bridgetower, who was black. When I started researching, I was mainly interested in 20th and 21st century composers, but soon I realised that even in the 18th century, there were already a number of black musicians who were instrumental in the classical music arena. So I set to work collating information on that. The opinion among all races seems to be that black musicians are more intruders in this genre of music. Even our politicians have the audacity to say that classical music is white man’s music. My aim is to dispel those myths.’
“Aside from the historical research that he uses to combat these misconceptions, Koapeng also cites personal experience. ‘When it comes to matters of both race and class, I always make an example of my father, who had only two years of education but still taught himself to read and write staff notation, joined a choir and ensured that we could get musical tuition. If he was able to do that with only two years of education and being a labourer all his life, clearly there is something wrong with the conventional perception. So I really just love to destroy these myths. We need to start celebrating that legacy. It makes me angry that I only discovered this history a few years ago and I spent all my four years of undergraduate studies being completely unaware of it. Moving forward, it’s about creating awareness of, and taking pride in that legacy, this part of classical music that has remained hidden for so long.’
“Tying in closely with this artistic philosophy are Koapeng’s efforts to extend empowerment opportunities to the country’s black composers and musicians. ‘The whole question of educating black composers is critical for me,’ he says. ‘The power of the song, the power of music has been used, at times in the past, as a colonising factor, but I think that it can also be used a decolonising factor. There are very few black composers who have had the benefit of studying composition, but we actually have thousands of composers. It’s just that for many of them it’s happened by accident, they’re self-taught. They may have been given access to a choir and started arranging songs for it and then graduated naturally to composition. There’s nothing wrong with that but I think that, at some point, you’re going to want to start learning theory and new techniques. So what I’d like to see happen is a series of composers’ workshops. I ran one last year at Arts on Main – I opened my office for composers to come in and analyse various scores with me. It’s not a coherent programme at the moment but I’m trying to make it happen. I’ve been lucky enough to get some funding from the Apollo Music Trust I just hope that from next year onwards, I will be able to get more help in fundraising because that on its own is a serious project.’”
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