San music in the work of Pops Mohamed between 1996 and 2014

Abstract

The purpose of this instrumental case study on the work of Pops Mohamed as performer, composer and producer was to explore how a specific South African musician appropriated San influences into work created between 1996 and 2014. This was achieved by analysing selected recordings by Pops Mohamed and other artists with whom he worked, as well as works to which he contributed, and placing these analyses into the wider context of other published literature on his work and also similar works by other South African composers. The present study lays the foundation for the understanding of the San influence in the work of Pops Mohamed by categorising the different techniques and procedures employed by him when assimilating San music into each of the works selected for this study. The study also compares the analytical findings with the published views of the composer and of musicologists on the topic, also in terms of the techniques and procedures of other composers that acknowledge San influences. The findings are interpreted in terms of relevant ideas on cultural processes expressed in critical analyses of compositions by South African composers. The research established that Pops Mohamed has appropriated many aspects of San music in multi-dimensional ways, also through his real-life contact with living San musicians, and other musicians. The techniques that he employed range from the simple looping of fragments of field recordings, and the performance of sound patterns on instruments and through vocal techniques, to the nuanced use of elements like timbre and temperament in his own performances. Traces of San music can therefore be found in the subject matter of his compositions, and also in the structures of his compositions.