Performers: East Parade Malayalam CSI Church Choir from Bangalore: An Ensemble of 32 Voices
Culture: South African Hymn, African Language of "Zulu"
Instrumentation: SATB Choir
As I was reading our readings this week, there was a huge theme regarding "Authenticity" in regards to performing music from other cultures. The choir has a nice sound for the most part. The voices are well blended and the choir is very engaged and trying very hard to convey the meaning of the piece. The sound is also very full which compliments the meaning of the text very nicely. The choir also seems to have a fairly decent understanding of the South African Zulu language.
The Koops article discussed "absolute authenticity" where music essentially loses its authenticity when it is taken out of cultural context, especially if you change the language. The reason I chose this video is because this video is because it does not demonstrate absolute authenticity because the choir sings the piece in English in addition to the Zulu language. I just wonder why the choir would try to so hard to be authentic when they just lose it in a sense when they sing it in English. Why not just sing it in the Zulu language? Especially since they clearly spent a lot of time on it.
What concerns me most in regard to authenticity is the lack of movement. Movement and music are not often separated in South Africa.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you the lack of movement makes it so robotic and separates us from the South African characteristics.
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