An analysis of five a cappella settings based on latin liturgical text by Hendrik Hofmeyr

Abstract

Hendrik Hofmeyr has composed over 200 vocal works of which 82 are a cappella compositions with texts in Latin, Afrikaans, English and French. The present article is primarily concerned with an analysis of five such significant essays using Latin liturgical texts, namely Gloria, Agnus Dei, Super flumina Babylonis, Nunc Dimittis and Miserere. The analyses identify characteristic features, and detail salient aspects of the structure, compositional language, and style while elaborating on the foundations of the vocal fabric and indicating the significance of these Veronica Mary Franke an analysis of five a cappella settings based on latin liturgical text by hendrik hofmeyr Veronica franke Veronica Franke is professor of musicology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Her publications include Palestrina’s imitation masses: a study of compositional procedures and articles on a wide range of other musical topics from Mahler’s re-orchestration of the Schumann symphonies to South African orchestral music.

musical ideas and formulations within the context of art-music traditions. The study also proposes that Hofmeyr looks to the past and finds inspiration in late Italian Renaissance polyphony. While he does not employ intricate and complex refashioning techniques, directly citing melodies from Renaissance composition, he does establish a link with the sixteenth-century vocal polyphonic repertory as a whole, regenerating subtleties of texture, structure, melody and rhythm. Thus, by applying to modal idioms and sixteenth-century polyphonic textures the techniques and ingenuity of a forward-looking contemporary composer, Hofmeyr’s music forms a bridge across the centuries with elements of ancient and modern becoming fused.