Xhosa (South African) Music: Singing , Dancing, & Hand Clapping (Excerpt from 1981 Dissertation By Deirdre Doris Hansen)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post presents an excerpt from a 1981 dissertation by Deirdre Doris Hansen, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. I happened upon this PDF while searching online for information about the body stances and movements that were done and are done while singing and dancing to isiXhosa music.

The content of this post is presented for historical, socio-cultural, and educational purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Deirdre Doris Hansen for her research and writing. Thanks to all those who contributed to this research and thanks to the person or persons who published this dissertation online.
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DISCLAIMER
I am an African American who knows very little about South African culture other than what I've read online and offline and what I've watched in YouTube videos.

I recommend that people interested in traditional Xhosa music read that entire dissertation. In addition to the valuable cultural information and observations about amaXhosa culture, this dissertation includes riveting accounts about how Deirdre Doris Hansen, a White South African woman, eventually was accepted by some and then by other (but not all) amaXhosa, which enabled her to do ethnomusicology fieldwork among that population during apartheid (1969-1972).  

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1981 DISSERTATION EXCERPT 

[from fieldwork among the amaXhosa in 1969-1972].  

The text of this dissertation is given "as is" (with typographical errors or misspelled words). 

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/188774534.pdf

THE MUSIC OF THE XHOSA - SPEAKING PEOPLE

Deirdre Doris Hansen 

A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg,

for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Grahamstown 1981

 […]

"CRAPTER 2

XHOSA MUSICAL CONCEPTS AND BEHAVIOUR

Definition and concepts of Xhosa music

The Cape Nguni are generally communicative and expressive about their music. The most outstanding feature is that the different chiefdo~ clusters share similar if not identical concepts, viz:

'Music is something that is done only by human beings.
It consists of words and certain sounds which are sung
to a number of beat~ which are clapped, and we call this
singing - ukuvuma,.l

This view is widely held among the Cape Nguni as is the following one expressed in the words of Angelinah Mgudlwa

( 14: 10: 69 ):

'Olubini uhlobo lokuvuma; ukuvuma ngelizwi kanti kukho ukuvuma ngezinto ezikhaliswayo' ('There are two ways of singing; there is Singing with the voice; on the other hand there is singing with "things made to cry", i.e. musical instruments' ).

These two widespread opinions emphasize that music is regarded as a social fact, and that it is organized around the rhythmical expression of words and sounds and the physical movements employed when clapping, or playing an instrument.

Although dancing is not specifically mentioned in these views, it is an integral part of musical activity. Indeed, it is so highly integrated with music - making that many informants did not bother to mention it in their explanations about music, because they assumed ( as I subsequently found out) that I knew that ' singing and danCing are the same thing , and that , the two go together '.

All songs, whether they are sung or played on an instrument, are called I songs in the Xhosa language I, i.e. Xhosa music ( ingoma yesiXhosa pl. iingoma zesiXhosa). Many individuals speak of their music as being specifically I the songs of the Thembu people I or I the songs of the Xhosa people I ( iingoma zabaThembu, iingoma zamaXhosa ) and so on. A few older men and women described their music as I the music in the Mfengu language I ( iingoma zesiMfengu) but this type of description is rarely used. 2

During fieldwork among the Bhaca, I seldom heard the term -Xhosa used when they spoke about their music, which they always described as I the songs of the Bhaca people I iingoma zamaBhaca ). The people belonging to the older chiefdom clusters - the Xhosa, Thembu, Bomvana and Mpondo alternately referto their music as I the music of the sons of Xhosa I ( iingoma zikwaXhosa ) because I we are all people of Xhosa and our music is his music I During the past ten years a strong feeling of national unity, fostered to some extent by the Transkei's constitutional progress and subsequent attainment of indepen dence, has brought about changes in attitude and terminology.

Today a large percentage of Cape Nguni describe their music asI the songs of the Xhosa nation I ( iingoma zesizwe samaXhosa ). According to informants the term ingoma pl. iingoma ( meaning I song, music I) is I a very old word I, and I the only word we have ever used when we speak of music I Nowadays it is used to describe traditional Xhosa music and the secular music which has been added to it as a result of European influence.

This includes (i) I school music I ( iingoma zesikolo ) which consists of choral songs by Xhosa, Zulu, Sotho and Swazi

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composers, and (ii) township music ( umbaqanga ) comprising traditional songs which have been given new arrangements ( , dressed up I ) by urban musicians, and modern jazz, dance music and European pop music played by urban bands. All these are loosely referred to as iingoma. The same term is used in
the description of the music of Separatist churches, e.g. Zionists' music ( iingoma zamaZiyoni ) and Bhengu music iingoma zamaBhe:lgu ), referring to the church of Bhengu.

All music performed in European - run churches, such as (i) European hymns whose texts have been translated into Xhosa, and (ii) sacred choral songs and carols by Xhosa composers, are called iculo pl. amaculo ( song, hymn ).3 One voluble informant made the following di distinction between , ingoma ' and' iculo ,. , Ingoma is for all music that has nothing to do with the missionaries and haE got to do with all Christian church music' ( Sigidimi Xundu, 22: 6: 69 ).

Statements and evidence collected during my research confirmed the validity of this distinction, which is made by all Cape Nguni.

Among them it is generally accepted that music is not conceived apart from <-lords, and that' all songs have word::' , or at least ' names' ( titles) which express the emotions that underlay their composition or are at least associated with their performance. Even instrumental music is automat ica lly conceptua lized with words, which mayor may not be sung whenever this music is performed. 4 Verbalization depends on the social situation in which the music is produced, e.g.

'When a girl goes to the shop and has to walk a long way, she will take her umrhubhe ( mouth bow) or ifleyiti ( harmonica) and she will make the road shorter by playing a song. But she will not be able to sing the words of this song because she has to us~ her mouth to play'
(Nobandla Ivy Qhetswana, 14: 8: 70 ).

In this case the song will be wordless owing to the circumstances surrounding its performance. The same informant cont inues: , But if she meets friends, they will join her and sing words to her song '. Thus the presence of others, however few, will ensure that at least some words of the song wi 11 be sung.

Instruments are normally either played ' solo' ( by a single instrumentalist, with assorted vocalists improvising ad. lib. ), e.g. umrhubhe and accordion, or used in self -accompanied solo singing, plus or minus other supplementary non - instrumental performers, e.g. uhadi ( gourd bow), guitar and concertina. These performances seldom remain' solo' for long, because they invariably attract people who will listen and join in with singing and/or clapping. 5

Many informants imparted a great deal of information about the importance of words in songs, and all of them agreed that many of the songs played on instruments such as the umrhubhe, accordion and concertina, and certain uhadi songs, were really instrumental versions of vocal songs, and therefore had under -lying texts. Some of these informants were themselves performers on one or other of the aforementioned instruments. From them I was able to collect a number of instrumental songs which I was

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able to compare with the sung versions with which they associated them. They told me that ALL vocal songs could be instrumentalized, but that ' respect ' and good taste dictated that certain songs should be ' left alone '. The music they played for me included instrumental versions of Mfengu dance music, divination music, children's dance music, a lullaty, Beer songs and indlamu dance music for Mpondo young unmarried men. During the performance they were supported by participants who sang and clapped for them.

[…]

The detailed explanations of many informants, including several who were acknowledged to be good at singing and dancing, revealed the following general attitudes to music:

(i) it is primarily concerned with the expression of high spirited feelings of togetherness, and its participants are affected mainly by its sound and its production, i.e. the activity that produces it.

(ii) although it is always conceived with words, these are not necessarily retained or even sung throughout a performance; words are crucial in certain types of music, but they are less important and even expendable in others.

(iii) it is able to express certain definite feelings with or without the help of words, e.g. joy, sorrow, fear, yearning and despair.

[…]

According to the Cape Nguni, intense feelings of joyous, exalted excitement are always experienced by people when they sing and dance together. Although they say that the music itself induces such feelings, it is in fact the musical process that does so. Music is appreciated and liked for its own sake,
and its sound does affect people, but it is the meaning of that sound, and above all, the process of making music, that has the greatest impact. Music is something which is so vibrant, strong and compulsive, that everyone who hears it feels compelled to sing and dance along with it. It is ideally performed on a

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large scale: a large number of people combine in singing and dancing and achieve what is required of any good performance, a shared .transcendental experience in which the participants are I raised up I, and I go right out of themselves " and a , big' ( -khulu ) sound. Examples are the different styles of music performed occasionally by different groups within the society: umngqungqo and umyeyezelo performed by married women at girls' and boys' initiation celebrationsj intlombe or , doctors ' music performed by diviners and their associates at seancesj intlombe music performed by young unmarried adults at their dance - party of the same namej and umtshotsho music performed by teenagers at their dance - party, umtshotsho (cf. chap. 3). Both the communal activity and the sound it. produces affects the individual performers so powerfully that they reach a state of being that is transcendental. This condition is known as ihlombe and it is induced only by music and music mar.~ng. '.' 8 Informants were adamant about this, and I myself never heard it mentioned in non - musical contexts. It is something which' people become full of when they sing and dance together, and even those who watch them get it '. Their joy in associated action as well as their reciprocal response unites all of them - performers, audience and onlookers alike - in a very close bond of ihlombe. An Mfengu young man, James Mtho, gave the following statement after a successful performance which won his team first place in a dance competition:

'Of course there are always words to a song, and we usually sing these at the beginning. But when things warm up and we start getting ihlombe, we forget the words and we just sing our own, or we sing sounds. At the same time we dance until we are moving allover'

( 19: 7: 69 ).9

The many highly successful performances which 1 witnessed provide plenty of Justification for this explicit statement. Ihlombe becomes apparent when the singing becomes louder, when the pitch rises,lO when the dancing becomes hectic and violent and when the music becomes more expressive, with improvised words and sounds. At this stage the words of the song are no longer of importance and singers either add their own' new' words, or vccables which allow for greater freedom of musical expression. 

Today ihlombe is a synonym for' song' or ' mucic particularly among the urban Africans. The announcers on Radio Bantu ( the Xhosa and Zulu units) who present musical request programmes usually say they are going to ' play ihlombe ' ( betha/shaya ihlombe ) rather than' playa song' ( betha/shaya ingoma). Also, one has only to attend school concerts, during which serious choral Singing alternates with more light - hearted musical items; when these are performed one will always find some members of the audience singing along with the performers, or even on the stage with them.

(ii) In small - scale musical performances, such as ' solo' voca l songs with an instrurr,enta 1 accompaniment, performer( s) and audience share a similar experience of music - making, but they mayor may not attain ihlombej it depends on the nature of the music, and whether or not it is intended to induce the condition. If the music is an instrumentalization of a dance song, people will attain ihlombe, but then the degree of ihlombe will be comparatively smaller than that which is induced by large - scale performances. As one

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informalt put it:' the bigger the music, ti-le bigger the ihlombe ' Rose Jakuja 2: 3: 71 ).

One may contrast the excitement and enjoyment of audiences at this kinrl of music, with their more sober reactions to instrumental ' songs of sorrow 1 which are intended' to make people cry 1 or at least evok~ sympathy from ~hem. Because they are concerned main ly with person,d fee lings, they are known as , personal songs' ( igwijo pl. 9.magwi;i£ ) and they are COIl sidered to be the most emotionally expressive music in the

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Xhosa musical repertoire. Composers of these songs usually pe~form them themselves, either as vocal songs with an instru mental accompaniment, or as instrumental songs with short refrains which an audience may sing at appropriate moments. The songs may be new or variations o~ old ones, but in both cases they are treated as a medium for self - expression. In fact, the general tone of this musical style and the songs that belong to it express emotions about events with references to personal experiences. Women were the only performers I encountered using traditional instruments for such music, these being the uhadi and the umrhubhe. More recently men have taken to composing such songs which they accompany with modern European instruments such as the guitar, the accordion and the concertina. They have brought a wider range of experience in their music, which expresses adverse feelings of joy in living, aggression, resignatioYl, mockery, criticism and love. In this respect they differ from the women's instrumental music in which the prevailing emotion is sorrow.

[…]

It wiLL be evident from the foregoing discussion that the musical expression of definite thoughts and feeLings is something that is co~sciousLy attempted by Cape Nguni musicians. This is most important in their' personal' instrumentaL songs, in which specific emotions are expressed

[…]

What distinguishes speech from song is rhythm. Any pattern of words Eung or recited to a regular metre is mUEic. Many dance songs have sections consisting of rlythmically recited words. These occur either tetween sung repetitions of the songs or as closing sections to ttem. I did not find any songs whicll are rhythmic[l. tly rEcited throughout, as is the case in some Zulu, SWcti arjd Venda songs ( cf. Rycroft 1968: 11 & ibid. 1971: 237 - 238; Blacking 1967: 38sE ).17

Similarly, all pc.tterr1s of non - mUEic2.1 sour_ds, barks, yetls, shouts, exclamations, snorts and grunts - are accepted as music when included in a musical context, as in the performance of cheral dance songs. The traditional ox -.horn, isigodlo, whicfl yields one tone, was formerly used as a signal horn to annOULce an important event in the commur.ity - a vial', a meeting of the chief in council, or a hunting't,edition. It was also used at the boys' initiation ceremo~ c~ of the Bomvana, who called it butyu ( Kirty 1965: 79). The term isigodlo is rarely heard today. ALso, the Eomvana appear to have dropped the use of the horn in their initiation ceremonies for boys, which are today celebrated in an attenuated form. Its present - day prototype", uphondo ( Lit. 'horn' ), is sti 11 used, pE.rticl) lar ly by some Zionist groups in their re Ligious music, and the single tones, which are of course non - rhythm iCed, but which occur at certain points in the music, are accepted as music.

[...] 

Wher. asked to describe a song, peop le begar. t.y stating when the sor.g is SULg, and therefore wbat kind of song it is. They would then indicate its basic metrical pattern by clapping, entering with the vocal part after a few claps. Most people er.tered with the 'chorus' part of the song, b~t in fact they could sing any part of a sor.g, with or without claps. When I asked women to sing ar. u~ngqungq~ song, they immediately assumed a body posture, began to dar.ce in a stately manner characteristic of the dance ( it is always performed by the IIlarried womer.,), and then sang, for this music has no clap accorr,panimer.t.

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Rhythm rot only differentiates speech from music, it is a , law in music, and if you do not have it, then all you have is noise' ( James Mthamo, 18: 6: 69). It is the fundamer.tal regular beat in Xhosa music which is known in the vernacular as 'ngqor.ggo ( 'beat' ), an onomatopoeic term derived from ingqongqo, the stretched ox - hide which was beaten by women with sticks as an accorr.paniment to their singing, at events celebrating the initiation of boys, and which today has been replaced by more easily available substitutes. This basic beat is expressed manually, that is, by hand - clapping ( uku qhwaba ) and/or by physical movements made wi,en dancing, e.g. stepping frorr. one side to the other, kicking up and down and stamping to a regular metre. Apart from the usual way of clapping ( with the arms bent at the elbows), singers may extend the arms forwards and upwards prior to striking the hand~ together; or they may clap in the usual w~3, alternately striking the thighs with the palms of the hands. This was sometimes done during performances of the divination song urnhlahlo by Thembu and Xhosa singers, the hands being struck together and then struck on the skirt or lap, but it is not prescriptive of this music. The late Hugh Tracey mentioned a style of clapping knowr, as umngcutsho, which he witnessed when he recorded a song by young Mpondc married women in 1957, in Tabankulu district, Transkei ( PJlIA TR-33: A.l). The clapping was done by striking the open palm of the right hand on the fist or cuppec fingers of the left hand. I travelled in the same area in which this song had been recorded man~r years before, and neither there nor anywhere else did I encounter this term, nor did I find anyone who knew it or could tell me anything about it. Clapping styles suct as those I have described are regional.

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They do not accompany any specific type of music, and they are often done because they are in vogue in certain areas. In the period 1969 - 70 clapping with extended arms was very fashion -able at teenage parties ( imitshotsho) held in Engcobo district, and informants told me that it had been star1ed by a group living in a neighbouring district ( Cacadu ), and that its popularity had spread rapidly. A Xesibe group wto also employed this form of clapping told me that they had been doing it ' for some time' and that they thought that it came from their neighbours, the Mpondo. They added that they favoured the style because it ' looked well and showed of the singers' arms and beads t ( 8: 3: 71 ).

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Whichever style of clapping is e~ployed, aLL the singers will clap the same rhythmic patterns. Such a pattern can be varied by subdivisio~ of the main beat, e.g.: but it is never combined with a~other totally different rhythmic pattern. The pri~ciple of polyrhythm, in which I several rhythmic versions of the one metre are co~bined 18 together', is not applied to Cape Nguni clap patterns. Handclapping remains constant throughout a song. It does not impart any rhythm to the song - melody, w1ich has its own rhythmic scheme, but it is a~ organizing principLe in that it permits the polyrhythmic process to be appLied vocally to a m2.ximum degree.

Po lyrhythmic performe..nce in Xhosa music depends on , a number of peop Le ho lding separate pc..rts within a framework of metric unity I. This framework is determined by the number of handclaps, the total number of which constitutes the metrica.l framework of the song. In songs which are not accom -panied by clapping, the framework is fixed by a specific number of dance steps or instrumental beats. When performing poly rhythmically, individual singers sing eSEentially the same melody, but in a slightly different manner, thereby varying it. The variations are usualLy melodic and/or rhythmic, and may arise from variations in the words ( cf. chap. 6: 220 ).

Singers may introduce new words and phrases whose speech - tones and - rhythms generate contrasting vocal patterns. Singers may also produce vocal noises - yelps, grunts, barks, exclamations -with rhythmic regularity, but in doing so each singer is careful to adhere to the ta~ic metre of the song, as defined by handclaps or their equivalents. Cross accents occur wten the main accents of the basic meLody and aLL its varied repetitions do not agree with each other. The total effect of a large number of people performing at a high level of co - crdination and singing many different versions of the same melody at the same time, can be very complex, but it 1S in fact the result of considerable
individuatioL.The ctoral dance songs of unmarried and married adults of the older chiefdom clusters are typicaL examples of this polyrhythmic vocalization. When I heard and reccrded them for the first time, they seemed to me to be nothing but highly unified choruses led by song leaders whose individual parts were soon swallowed up in the group sound. I became aware of the leader - chorus reLatiocship and the rhythmic interaction of the individual singers only when I moved among them to reccrd their
individual vocal utterances. l9

The Thembu people of Engcobo district have a saying which describes this process of making music: , Bayongeza amanye amagama ukongeza urrnandi engomeni ( They add different words in their Singing to make taste of their song'). I heard this saying for the first time when I attended a girlsV initiation ceremony and had a chance to chat to many of the pecple present.

The married women in particular were very informative when I asked them to tell me ' how they do their singing and dancing' Nowinile Nkelecgeshe quoted the saying and added, ' But of course we are always guided led ) by the number of dance steps that we do when singing' ( 6: 9: 69). Several performances of the u~ngqungqo dance took place that day, and during them I was able to observe how the singing group organized its musical activity round the basic metre of the song, w1ich is expressed in dance steps to the left and to the right alternately. Furthermore, this left - right movement is reflected in the shifting tona lity of the song ( cf. ctap. 7: 548ss ).

The same process is employed in all the other styles of  Xhosa music to a gr~ater or lesser degree. This is deter -mined by the social situation in which the music is performed and the number of people who participate. In every style, Olm metre prevails throughout the song. This is the , "ground plan", whicl: serves as a point of reference for the infinite variety of detail possible within the scheme' ( Lomax 1968: 49). With the exception of ritual institutional music ( boys' and girls' initiation ), this basic metre is always expressed by handclaps.

At the home of Headman Kundlase Nomtsheketshe in the district of Kwa]3haca, the leader of a young men's group ( iindlavini ) explained the ]3haca style of singing with these words:

'Actually everyone does his own thing, but it must fit in with the others. You cannot sing just anything. A song has a certain sound ( tune ), and a beat, and all of us have to sing around tha.t' ( 3: 12: 70 ).

The Xesibe speak of singing in terms of ' each one throws her voice into the song I. O~ one occasion a quarrel broke out at a work party ( isitshongo ) when a fra.il old lady failed to establish the basic metre of a song. She clapped in a rather erratic fashion, and the other women complained that they would not be able to I throw their voices into the song I properly if she did not clap with more precision. The 

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old lady was eventually persuaded to let another woman lead the singing.

Clappin,rr is comnonly described as 'ne:ok"ler;z' imiphetho ngezandla ( making borders/ rims/edges with the h~nds ' ), a phrase which "Jas further e Lucida ted by a Bhaca gir I whom I met at the Great Place of Par: mount Ctief Wnbana Makhaula: 

'Umphetho is the long rope which women use when thatch ing a roof; they wind it round and round. This rope is imrortant as it holds the whole roof together. So it is with claps; they hold the song together by forming a boundary or edge round it. Anyone can do I'Jta t she like s when singing, but she must not go over thi~ edge'

( 2: l2: 70 ).

Thus in any musical situation the melodies arise with, and are controlled by, the motion of the rhythm, wtich also gener ates the clapping. Thp claps remind each singer that while he/she is free to do what hp/she likes when singing, he/she is still part of the group. Their comtined vocal patterns must always be rhythmically grouped and related to one another, and this is ensured by clapping, an integrating factor that keeps everyone harnessed to the rhythmic scheme of the m~sic.  The pclyrhythmic rrocess is essentially a process of , variation of the repetition, unity in the diversity , 20 in which each person retains his individuality but agrees to co - operate with others. It is also active in Xhosa instrumental music in which it is applied in a similar way with different results. For example, in uhadi music, which takes the form of acccmpa~ied song, the vocal line has its own rhythm, but it must synchronize with the rhythmic pattern of the instrumental accompaniment. Thus both voca.l and instrumental parts, whose starting and ending points usually differ, have independent but nevertheless strictly related rhythmic patterns"...

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