The Transforming Idioms of South African Hymn Tunes: Diminishing Residues of Colonial Harmonic Systems and the Reinterpretation of Hymn Tunes

ABSTRACT The author examines how hymn tunes composed in South Africa in the second half of the 19th century were localised by the student body at the College of the Transfiguration in Grahamstown. The tunes are all found in the isiXhosa Anglican hymn book, but originally come from three sources, all linked to Christian missionary work in the Eastern Cape (Amaculo ase-Lovedale, Birkett's Ingoma and St Matthew's Tune Book). All the tunes were written to accompany hymns with trochaic metre, which isiXhosa usually displays naturally. The author finds that colonial elements of harmonisation (allied to western functional harmony) are radically diminished by the students, using local techniques such as skipping 3rds and localised westernisms. In other words, the colonial elements of harmonisation are completely reinterpreted by the students so as to produce music which is more uniquely Southern African.