| dc.description.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. | en_US |
