Protesting Relevance: John Joubert and the Politics of Music and Resistance in South Africa

Abstract

Accusations of disingenuous opportunism arising from overtly political stances can be difficult to counter, and politics thus may not be a particularly convincing point of departure from which to generate satisfactory readings of art music anywhere. Yet the filtering of music through a political prism at a specific time and in a specific place is perhaps a useful and even necessary opportunism. John Joubert's Second Symphony provides an opening for a political reading of a musical text in a South African context. While this reading, needless to say, is not 'the correct' or 'the definitive' reading, it is a legitimate reading nonetheless. It begs the question: why banish politics from musicological discourse in present day South Africa as a matter of principle when music strategically stands to gain by establishing the connection. In this sense this article is as much about the strategic politicization of musicology as it is about art music. Reinventing a traumatic past and negotiating a difficult present through musicological discourse and musical texts is not to create a paradigm or theorize a systemic approach. It is a temporary strategy intended to benefit its stakeholders, which in this context include those active in both art music and musicology.


(SA J Musicology: 1999/2000 19/20: 33-46