Nightsong: Performance, Power, and Practice in South Africa

ISBN: 9780226217208 (0226217205)
Edition Information: 2nd ed.
Edition Type: Hardback
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Pages: 462
Date Published: 16th Apr 1996
Series: Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology

Out of stock at the UK distributor

You may order it now but please be aware that it may be six weeks or more before it can be despatched

Video Contents Figures and Musical Examples Note on Orthography and Translation
Preface
Introduction Joseph Bekhizizwe Shabalala: A Unifying Force 1: Performance Theorized 2: Isicathamiya Performance Represented 3: The History of Isicathamiya, 1891-1991 4: The Unhomely: Performers and Migrants 5: Ekhaya: The Past, the Home, and the Nation R
Glossary
References
Index

About
Explore

About

Popularized by Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Paul Simon, the "a cappella" music known as "isicathamiya" has become celebrated as one of South Africa's most vibrant and distinct performance traditions. This text provides an interpretation of isicathamiya performance practice and its relation to the culture and consciousness of the Zulu migrant labourers who largely compose its choirs. In songs and dances, the performers oppose the class and racial oppression that reduces them to "labour units." At the same time, Erlmann argues, the performers rework dominant images to symbolically reconstruct their "home," an imagined world of Zulu rural tradition and identity. By contrasting the live performance of isicathamiya to its reproduction in mass media, recordings and international concerts, Erlmann addresses issues in performance studies and anthropology, and looks to the future of isicathamiya live performance in the new South Africa.

Book

Contents

Download queue