Last weekend’s National Choir Festival reflected waning interest in an important art form, writes VUYO MVOKO
MOST South Africans, even those who claim to have the interests of the arts at heart, probably won’t bother to try and understand why the National Choir Festival at the Standard Bank Arena in Johannesburg almost flopped last weekend.
The majority of music writers do not take black choral music as seriously as they do classical. It’s a phenomenon that angers music fundis, and more so those ordinary men and women whose determination to rise above the handicaps of not being able to read staff notation, and a lack of resources and formal training in music, has never held them back.
If one thinks of the exuberance with which critics have received Ge Kosten and Mimi Coertse, as well as the Drakensberg Boys and SABC choirs, one wonders why Isabella Masote, Imilonji ka Ntu and The Matthews Singers remain nonentities, despite the fact that some of them have made an impact overseas.
The mainstream media, black and white, have relegated choral music to 100-word filler articles, or standalone pictures of black men and women sporting dashikis. The music form has never had the benefit of savvy marketing or extensive airplay — except for some haphazard approaches by the ethnic radio stations. And on CCV-TV’s Mathe-Malodi, previously Unqambothi, a 30-minute programme aired once a week, the quality of the music is pathetic.
The head of Wits University’s school of music, Professor Carl van Wyk, finds it appalling that one does not find reviews of black choral music in newspapers, when it has such a huge following. It’s a pity,” he says, “it should be covered.
In fact, a lot of whites do attend choral music performances — that is, if someone like Richard Cock is conducting the mass choir in Christmas carols, or during the newly conceived Sowetan-Caltex Massed Choir Festival. Needless to say, Cock is the one who will be showered with praise. How often has credit gone to Professor Mzilikazi Khumalo, who has done what no other South African has ever done? He added orchestral accompaniment to African pieces, thereby not only bringing out the dynamism of that music, but contributing significantly to the spirit of national reconciliation that is thematic in the Massed Choir Festival.
The 5 500-seat Standard Bank Arena — which for the past 15 years has been home to the National Choir Festival on the first weekend of December — used to be filled to capacity. Over the past three years, however, supporter apathy has slowly become evident.
Only seven choirs participated in each of the two sections of the contest this year, compared to 11 choirs last year, and 14 the year before. Part of the reason for this year’s downswing was a boycott by groups in the Western Cape and the former Transkei areas over the introduction of new rules for the competition. The festival’s management committee, which played into the hands of personal vendettas and long-standing problems in the Cape, had insisted that each choir had to be auditioned on tape — despite inadequate access to recording facilities — before it could participate in the regional
Van Wyk, who is a member of the adjudication panel, admits that a badly recorded tape can be a turn-off, but is adamant auditions should go ahead. Unisa’s head of musicology, Professor Douglas Reid, agrees: “After 17 years of the festival’s growth, it has come to a point where we would like to see the very best entering the final round … Auditioning sets those standards.”
Ironically, the standard of music this year was heartbreaking, probably the worst in the competition’s history. And failure to recognise this will lead to a repeat
Choral music has come a long way since, 19 years ago, the University of Zululand’s Professor Khabi Mngoma managed to convince Ford to put up the money for a choir contest. It remains to be seen whether Old Mutual, now the sole sponsor, will continue funding the contest, and for how long.
This scenario puts the new government’s arts funding policy in the spotlight, once again. Should the taxpayer continue to foot the bill for the masters and madams at the State Theatre while choral music, a tale of love fulfilled through years of suffering, seems to be heading for the gallows?
Choral music is important to this country. We need to sustain it, as well as our premier choral event, the Old Mutual National Choir Festival. Otherwise, we can watch this country’s talent heading for the dustbin.