Noted, September 1,2022
"Noted" is a South African Seven Day Adventist a capella group.
Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9o_jNMgKMU for a 2015 YouTube video of this song sung by a South African choir. The song begins at .50 in this video
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Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents information about South African Prophet Ntsikana and showcases the composition entitled "Great Hymn" that is attributed to him.
The content of this post is presented for historical, religious, cultural, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Prophet for his religious and cultural legacies. Thanks to the choir that is featured in this post. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to the publisher of this video on YouTube.
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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/10/2010-journal-excerpt-sing-on-ntsikana.html for the closely related pancocojams post entitled "2010 Journal Excerpt: "Sing on, Ntsikana: The Story of Christian Music Among the Xhosa people of South Africa" By Jonathan Knight"
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INFORMATION ABOUT PROPHET NTSIKANA AND THE COMPOSITIONS THAT ARE ATTRIBUTED TO HIM
Excerpt #1
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ntsikana
"Ntsikana (born 1780-1821) was a Christian Xhosa prophet, evangelist and hymn writer who is regarded as one of the first Christians to translate Christian ideas and concepts into terms understandable to a Xhosa audience.[1]
[...]
Music
Ntsikana also composed Christian hymns in isiXhosa which included “Intsimbi” (Ntsikana’s Bell),“Dalibom (Life-Creator), “Ingoma engqukuva” (Round Hymn) and “Ulo Thixomkulu” (“Thou Great God” - the Great Hymn).[2]
(Some of the so called hymns he “composed” have been proved to have been sung by the Xhosas king way before he was born.)
Legacy
Ntsikana is regarded as one of the first Christians who tried to adapt Christianity to African culture."....
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Excerpt #2
From
© 2010, Jonathan Knight, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND "Sing on, Ntsikana: The Story of Christian Music Among the Xhosa people of South Africa"
[by] Jonathan Knight, Cedarville University
"... 26 Knight ⦁ Sing on, Ntsikana
As the missionaries attempted to reshape the Xhosa concept of music, they immediately encountered significant difficulties. As the missionaries translated Protestant hymn texts directly into Xhosa, they failed to recognize the tonal nature of the language.3
Words in Xhosa have different meanings depending on changes in tone. In some Xhosa phrases, each word has its own individual tone! This is a linguistic characteristic shared by other nearby peoples, including the Zulu and Sotho.
[...]
It does not appear that any missionaries at this time considered teaching the Xhosa people to write Christian music in their own tradition. Instead, it was Ntsikana who embarked into uncharted territory, composing songs for his congregation (Stone, 763). He personified his peoples’ attempts not to be culturally whitewashed by Western influences. His first and greatest song, now known as the “Great Hymn,” was composed the night following his conversion in 1814. He claimed to receive the Holy Spirit immediately, and stayed awake the entire night singing the chorus of his great composition (322). His contact with missionaries was minimal, so he “composed” in the only style he knew: the style of his people. It was not long before Xhosa choirs began performing the song, accompanied by dance (Somniso, 135). It has been passed on orally to this day (Stone, 763). In fact, his “Great Hymn” is “regarded as the summit achievement of Xhosa song” (Elphick, 322). It is also considered “the prototype of church music in a Traditional Xhosa style” (Hawn, 128). In fact, his “Great Hymn” is “regarded as the summit achievement
of Xhosa song” (Elphick, 322). It is also considered “the prototype of church
music in a Traditional Xhosa style” (Hawn, 128). Here is a portion of the text of
this hymn, “Ulo Tixo mkulu” as translated by David Dargie:
You are the Great God who dwells in the heavens.
You are the true shield.
You are the true fortress.
You are the true forest [of refuge].
It is you who dwells in the highest.
You created life, you created on high.
You are the creator creates the heavens.
You created the stars and the Pleiades.
A Star flashed forth, being us your message.*
You created the blind – did you create them for a purpose?
3. These translated hymn texts were set to a variety of European melodies, and at times the
combinations bordered on ridiculous. Hawn writes that, “totally absurd pairings of text and tunes
sometimes resulted, such as singing the Latin hymn “Tantum Ergo’ in Latin to the tune of ‘My
Darling Clementine.’” (108)
Musical Offerings
[*Pancocojams Editor's note: "being us your message might be a typo for "bringing us your message."]
2010 ⦁ Volume 1 ⦁ Number 1 27
The trumpet sounded, it has called for us.
You’re the hunter who hunts souls.
You gather together flocks rejecting each other.
You are the Great Blanket with which we are clothed.
Your hands are wounded.
Your feet are wounded.
Your blood – why is it streaming?
Your blood was poured out for us.
Are we worthy of such a ransom?
Are we worthy to enter your homestead?
(Hawn, 134)
From the outset, this text reveals traditional Xhosa literary forms. For instance, rhyme in Xhosa songs consists in repeated words or phrases that give poetic as well as musical rhythm of the song. This can be seen in the first stanza, where the words, “You are” give continuity to this unit of text. The original word order actually brings this out with further clarity. Here are the first four lines of the first stanza in Xhosa:
Ulo Thixo oMkhulu, ngoseZulwini
Unguwena-wena Khaka leNyaniso
Unguwena-wena Nqaba yeNyaniso
Unguwena-wena Hlathi leNyaniso
(Somniso, 137)
The parallelism stands out clearly in the repetition of “Unguwena-wena,” in lines one through three, and “leNyaniso” in lines two and four.
Rhythmically, this song employs the additive rhythm 3+3+2, which is common in Xhosa music style. Clapping from the congregation reinforces the rhythm. The choir sings a basic three-voice cycle on the words, “Ahomna, homna, hom, homna, hom.” The leader then sings out the stanzas above the pattern of the choir and accompaniment (Hawn, 133). Harmonically, it begins on an F Major chord, moves to a G Major chord, and ends on an F Major chord. It would therefore have been well-suited for accompaniment by the uhadi, (musical bow).
By the mid-1800s, the song was already widely known through
oral transmission, and had been solidly established as a national song, and a
freedom song for the Xhosa (Elphick, 323). It stands out significantly that
Ntsikana’s songs, like his theology, are complex hybrid of African, European, and Christian.
Stone writes that Ntsikana’s style “strikingly infuses protestant hymnody
with the stateliness of Xhosa melody, harmony, and rhythm” (Stone, 763).
[..]
In the late 1800’s, a man named John Knox Bokwe played an
important role in reinvigorating the musical legacy of Ntsikana, and adapting
Xhosa music to the solfege system. His parents and grandparents were faithful
disciples of Ntsikana, and he was the first Xhosa to be ordained, serving as a
choirmaster in the Presbyterian church (Stone, 763). Bokwe spent much time
studying Ntsikana’s musical works, and published a series of transcriptions of
Ntsikana’s hymns between 1878 and 1914 (Elphick, 323)."...
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Excerpt #3
From https://hymnary.org/text/ahomna_homna_lentsimbi_kantsikana
"Author: Ntsikana
(no biographical information available about Ntsikana.) Go
to person page >
A Roman Catholic priest for many years, Fr. Dargie observed
that many priests resorted to using European or North American melodies they
knew and ignored the rich heritage of South African music, especially the music
of the Xhosa and Zulu peoples. For example, the venerable Latin chant “Tantum
Ergo Sacramentum” (a communion hymn attributed to St. Thomas Aquinas), was sung
in one parish to “My Darling Clementine”! For Fr. Dargie, a white South African
of Scots-Irish lineage, part of the liberation of black South Africans from the
political oppression of apartheid was to encourage them to sing their Christian
faith with their own music rather than in the musical idioms of their colonial
oppressors…
Text Information
Text Information Languages
First Line: Ahomna,
homna! Lentsimbi KaNtsikana (Great God, O listen to us)
Title: Ntsikana's
Song
Xhosa Title: Ahomma
Author: Ntsikana
Transcriber: David
Dargie
Language: English;
Xhosa
Publication Date: 1999
Notes: South Africa
Copyright: Transcription
© 1981 David Dargie. Administered by Choristers Guild"
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Excerpt #4
https://www.rienner.com/title/Ntsikana_His_Great_Hymn_and_His_Enduring_Legacy_on_Black_Consciousness "Ntsikana: His Great Hymn and His Enduring Legacy on Black Consciousness", by Janet Hodgson, 2023
"DESCRIPTION
Janet Hodgson traces the life of Xhosa prophet Ntsikana
(1780–1821) from his birth through his years as a Christian convert,
evangelist, and composer of enduring hymns.
Ntsikana is known as one of the first Christians to adapt
Christian ideas to African culture, writing hymns in isiXhosa and translating
concepts into terms that resonated with his Xhosa community. Even today, his
hymns are among the most important in the amaXhosa churches, and he is regarded
as an important symbol of both African unity and Black Consciousness."
-snip-
South African scholar Janet Hodgson also wrote "Ntsikana's Great Hymn A Xhosa Expression of Christianity in the Early 19th Century Eastern Cape" in 1980 https://www.google.com/books/edition/Ntsikana_s_Great_Hymn/hx8RAQAAIAAJ?hl=en
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