Contextual Readings of Analysis and Compositional Process in Selected Works by Arnold van Wyk

206 Pages·2013·11.13 MB·English

Contextual Readings of
Analysis and Compositional Process
in Selected Works by Arnold van Wyk
(1916-1983)

Magtild Johanna Thom Wium

Dissertation presented for the Degree of Doctor in Philosophy at Stellenbosch University

Promotor:
Prof. Stephanus Muller (Stellenbosch)

Co-promotors:
Prof. Timothy Jackson (North Texas)
Prof. Nicholas Cook (Cambridge)
March 2013
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Declaration
By submitting this dissertation electronically, I declare that the entirety of the work contained
therein is my own, original work, that I am the authorship owner thereof (unless to the extent
explicitly otherwise stated) and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it
for obtaining any qualification.

Signature: ........................................ Date: ...................................

Copyright © 2013 Stellenbosch University
All rights reserved

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Abstract
In this project, contextual readings of four works by Arnold van Wyk are developed. They are
the Symphony No. 1 in A Minor, the First String Quartet, the Duo Concertante and the Missa
in illo tempore. These readings are grounded in richly detailed descriptions of the
compositional processes, drawing on material such as sketches, autographs, diaries,
correspondence and reception documents, as well as in structural analyses of Van Wyk’s
music and of certain peer compositions. Each reading is set in a separate theoretical frame,
resulting in a multi-perspectival consideration of Arnold van Wyk’s music that partakes in a
range of current disciplinary discourses.
The First Symphony is discussed in the discursive context of English Sibelianism, and Arnold
van Wyk’s dialogue with Sibelius’s symphonic works is investigated through comparisons of
Van Wyk’s and Sibelius’s applications of two-dimensional sonata form and tragic reversed
sonata form. The reading so developed sheds new musical light on the difficulties of Van
Wyk’s position as a colonial composer residing in the centre of a crumbling Empire.
The compositional process of Van Wyk’s First String Quartet is described in juxtaposition
with the compositional process of Bartók’s Sixth String Quartet, and the similarities and
differences of the two narratives and the two compositions highlight a second aspect of Van
Wyk’s colonial identity, namely the ambiguity of his return to South Africa from England,
neither of which place could signify “home”.
The reading of the Duo Concertante focuses on the Elegia from that work, interpreting the
piece as part of a network of intertextual connections, including Van Wyk’s model for this
piece, Martin Peerson’s (1580-1650) The Fall of the Leafe, Gerald Finzi’s Elegy for Orchestra
Op. 20, entitled The Fall of the Leaf, as well as Van Wyk’s own theme for the Rondo of the
Duo, to which he made various musical references in the Elegia which are associated with the
concept of “prophecy”. This intertextual reading considers Van Wyk’s continuing problematic
identification with the English musical culture and tradition, compounded by his
uncomfortable place in the stifling cultural establishment of apartheid South Africa.
Van Wyk’s Missa in illo tempore is interpreted in a post-apartheid context. The work purports
to react to the conditions in London in 1945 at the end of the Second World War (when Van
Wyk first started to work on it) as well as the conditions in apartheid South Africa in 1977-
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1979 (when he completed the work as a commission for the Stellenbosch Tercentenary
Festival). The reading considers the ethics of art that intends to respond to situations of
suffering, drawing on post-Holocaust art scholarship as a theoretical frame.
In developing interpretations of compositions that have never been studied in such detail or
with such theoretical rigour before, the thesis makes a significant contribution to Arnold van
Wyk studies, and in its application of a range of methodological tools in order to construct
poetic hermeneutic readings that are grounded in musical and contextual materials, it also
represents a meaningful methodological innovation.

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Opsomming
In hierdie projek word kontekstuele lesings van vier werke deur Arnold van Wyk ontwikkel.
Hulle is die Simfonie Nr. 1 in A Mineur, die Eerste Strykkwartet, die Duo Concertante en die
Missa in illo tempore. Hierdie lesings is gegrond in ryk-gedetailleerde beskrywings van die
komposisieproses, waarby materiaal soos sketse, outograwe, dagboeke, korrespondensie en
resepsiedokumente gebruik word, asook in strukturele analises van Van Wyk se musiek en
van sekere eweknie-komposisies. Elke lesing word in ʼn afsonderlike teoretiese raamwerk
gestel, sodat ʼn veelperspektiewelike oorweging van Arnold van Wyk se musiek resulteer wat
deelneem aan ʼn verskeidenheid hedendaagse dissiplinêre diskoerse.
Die Eerste Simfonie word bespreek in die diskursiewe konteks van Sibelianisme in Engeland,
en Arnold van Wyk se dialoog met Sibelius se simfoniese werke word ondersoek deur
vergelykings van Van Wyk en Sibelius se toepassings van twee-dimensionele sonatevorm en
tragies-omgekeerde sonatevorm. Die lesing wat sodoende ontwikkel word, werp nuwe
musikale lig op die moeilikhede van Van Wyk se posisie as koloniale komponis woonagtig in
die sentrum van ʼn verkrummelende Ryk.
Die komposisieproses van Van Wyk se Eerste Strykkwartet word beskryf in jukstaposisie met
die komposisieproses van Bartók se Sesde Strykkwartet, en die ooreenkomste en verskille
van die twee narratiewe en die twee komposisies belig ʼn tweede aspek van Van Wyk se
koloniale identiteit, naamlik die dubbelsinnigheid van sy terugkeer na Suid-Afrika uit
Engeland, twee plekke waarvan geeneen die betekenis van sy “tuiste” kon dra nie.
Die lesing van die Duo Concertante fokus op die Elegia uit daardie werk, en dit interpreteer
die stuk as deel van ʼn netwerk van intertekstuele verbindings, insluitende Van Wyk se model
vir hierdie stuk, Martin Peerson (1580-1650) se The Fall of the Leafe, Gerald Finzi se Elegie vir
Orkes Op. 20, getiteld The Fall of the Leaf, asook Van Wyk se eie tema vir die Rondo van die
Duo, waarna hy verskeie musikale verwysings in die Elegia gemaak het wat geassosieer word
met die konsep van “profesie”. Hierdie intertekstuele lesing beskou Van Wyk se aangaande
problematiese identifisering met Engelse musiekkultuur en –tradisie, vererger deur sy
ongemaklike plek in die verstikkende kulturele establishment van apartheid Suid-Afrika.
Van Wyk se Missa in illo tempore word in ʼn post-apartheid konteks geïnterpreteer. Die werk
stel sigself voor as reaksie op die toestande in Londen in 1945 teen die einde van die Tweede
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Wêreldoorlog (toe Van Wyk die eerste keer daaraan begin werk het) asook die toestande in
apartheid Suid-Afrika in 1977-1979 (toe hy die werk voltooi het as ʼn opdrag vir die
Stellenbosch Drie-Eeue Fees). Die lesing oorweeg die etiek van kuns wat ten doel het om te
reageer op situasies van lyding en gebruik post-Holocaust kunsstudies as teoretiese raam.
In sy ontwikkeling van interpretasies van komposisies wat nog nooit in soveel besonderhede
of só teoreties nougeset bestudeer is nie, maak die tesis ʼn beduidende bydrae tot Arnold
van Wyk studies, en in sy toepassing van ʼn verskeidenheid metodologiese hulpmiddels om
poëtiese hermeneutiese lesings te konstrueer wat gegrond is in musikale en kontekstuele
materiale, verteenwoordig dit ook ʼn betekenisvolle metodologiese vernuwing.

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Acknowledgements
My first expression of thanks is to my promotor, Prof. Stephanus Muller, who lived through
this doctorate with me, helping me to develop its arguments through intellectually
energising conversations that also shaped my academic thought in a broader way, and
providing the moral support that one inevitably needs in the ups and downs of a five-year
project such as this. For me, it was especially meaningful to receive such support from a
fellow Arnold van Wyk researcher, who often gave encouragement more in the spirit of
collegiality than of supervision.
His co-promotors, Proff. Timothy Jackson and Nicholas Cook, each guided me with their
expertise and advice. I would like particularly to thank Tim for his invaluable help with the
analyses of Chapter 1, and Nick for his expert eye in structuring the argument of Chapter 3.
Proff. Nicol and Martina Viljoen, my colleagues at the Odeion School of Music, UFS, gave of
their time and expert knowledge of analysis and critical musicology to comment on portions
of the text, and were wonderfully supportive and encouraging towards me throughout.
I was able to embark on this project during a year’s study leave as a visiting student at Royal
Holloway, University of London, for which I thank those OSM colleagues who took over my
teaching responsibilities (I know that Nicol had a lion’s share), as well as my employer, the
University of the Free State. The study leave was additionally funded by the Skye Foundation,
and I would like to express my gratitude towards that institution.
Santie de Jongh, the archivist of the Documentation Centre for Music in Stellenbosch,
patiently attended to all my requests for copies of and information about various materials in
the Van Wyk Collection, and Dorothea Pelser and Estie Pretorius of the UFS Library ordered
countless inter-library loans for me. The secretary of the OSM, Anchen Froneman, also
assisted with book purchases related to this research. The staff of the Finzi Trust and the
Bodleian Library were extremely helpful when I needed to consult Finzi sketches and
correspondence for Chapter 3.
I presented an excerpt from Chapter 1 as a paper at the 2011 SASRIM conference in
Grahamstown and thank the audience at that event for their feedback, and I similarly thank
the audience who heard a previous version of Chapter 3 at the 2009 IAML/IMS conference in
Amsterdam. A version of Chapter 3 was published in SAMUS in 2010/11, and the two readers
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who reviewed the contribution helped me improve through technical and disciplinary
criticism. Stephanus Muller’s postgraduate seminar group read through a version of the
entire document, and I am very grateful for all their comments.
I was privileged to grow up in a home where many of the dinner-table discussions involved
music (my mother Elmien is a music teacher) and how hermeneutics proceeds from exegesis
(my father Jaco is a Dutch Reformed minister), two modes of thought that continue to inform
my identity as a musicologist. I honour my parents for the unique intellectual environment
they created for me and my sisters in which to discover our thinking selves, and thank them
and my sisters Maryke and Elmientjie for the love that gives the intellectual environment its
warmth.
My husband Daniël lovingly supported me all through this project, which has spanned the
first five years of our marriage. I thank him for making our marriage an encouraging,
empowering space for me. I also thank him for his self-sacrificing attitude towards my
studies and career, and for sharing enthusiastically and proudly in this aspect of my life.
Finally, I am indebted to Martie, Amelia, Velka, Anne, and all their families, who were
instrumental in the retention of my sanity and perspective during this project.

SDG.
Bloemfontein, October 2012.

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Table of Contents
Introduction............................................................................................................................................................. 15
Context I: Post/Colonial ................................................................................................................................. 15
Context II: Post/Apartheid ............................................................................................................................. 17
Objectives ............................................................................................................................................................ 19
Methodologies .................................................................................................................................................. 20
Chapter Summaries ......................................................................................................................................... 22
1: Symphony No. 1 in A Minor (1943): Peripheral Departures, Peripatetic Arrivals ..................... 26
I. Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 27
II. “A Shrinking Island”, English Sibelianism and English musical modernism ........................... 30
Van Wyk and Sibelius (1): Van Wyk in the context of Sibelianism ............................................ 33
III. Van Wyk’s First Symphony as a Two-Dimensional Sonata Form ............................................. 40
Van Wyk and Sibelius (2): Sibelius’s Seventh Symphony as a Model of Two-Dimensional
Sonata Form ................................................................................................................................................... 52
IV. Van Wyk’s First Symphony as a Tragic Reversed Sonata Form ................................................ 56
Van Wyk and Sibelius (3): Sibelius’s Fourth Symphony as a Model of Tragic Reversed
Sonata Form ................................................................................................................................................... 63
V. Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................................... 66
2: Arnold van Wyk, Béla Bartók and Music of Migration: Retrospective Dialogues and
Resonances .............................................................................................................................................................. 69
I.a. Compositional Processes ........................................................................................................................ 70
I.b. Compositional Processes ........................................................................................................................ 71
II. Beginnings and Endings in Van Wyk’s First String Quartet ......................................................... 84
III. Van Wyk’s First String Quartet as Beginning and Ending ......................................................... 100
IV. Homes .......................................................................................................................................................... 103
3: “Arts-brothers should help one another”: An intertextual reading of the Elegia from the
Duo Concertante (1962-1976) ........................................................................................................................ 107
I. Background and Theoretical Perspectives ......................................................................................... 108
An Intertextual Family .............................................................................................................................. 108
Perspectives on Musical Intertextuality ............................................................................................. 110
II. Van Wyk & Peerson, 1962 ...................................................................................................................... 114
III. Finzi & Peerson, 1929-1945 .................................................................................................................. 125
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IV. Van Wyk & Van Wyk, ca. 1950, 1962-1976 .................................................................................... 144
V. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................... 153
4: Redeeming the Individual: A post-Holocaust Critique of the Missa in illo tempore (1945-
1979) ........................................................................................................................................................................ 157
I. A Mass in that Time: Contextual Exploration ................................................................................... 158
Post-Holocaust Ethics and Art (1): Adorno’s Double Imperative ............................................. 162
Post-Holocaust Ethics and Art (2): James Young’s Antiredemptory Aesthetic ................... 164
II. Yearning for the Universal: Structural Interpretation ................................................................... 168
III. Trapped in the Particular: Post-colonial Reflection ..................................................................... 177
Post-Holocaust Ethics and Art (3): Michael Rothberg’s Materialist Critique ....................... 178
Post-Holocaust Ethics and Art (4): Adorno and Post-Apartheid Criticism in Durrant...... 180
IV. Yearning for the Particular within the Universal: Deipetal Contemplation ........................ 185
Post-Holocaust Ethics and Art (5): Aharon Appelfeld’s Redemption of the Individual ... 186
Works Cited ........................................................................................................................................................... 192

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