Symbiosis or integration: A study of the tonal elements in the choral works of Mzilikazi Khumalo and Phelelani Mnomiya

The bicultural nature and dimension of South African choral genre is rooted in the 1850s activities of composers, including Tiyo Soga, Reverend John Knox Bokwe and Enoch Sontonga, who amalgamated traditional African and Western musical elements in their creative output. From the 1950s, when black South African nationalism flourished, composers such as Polumo Joshua Mohapeloa and Tholakele Reuben Caluza consciously pursued a stronger agenda to Africanize their choral works. Mzilikazi Khumalo and Phelelani Mnomiya, products of the1950s black nationalist school of South African choral music, are exponents of the contemporary choral compositional industry in which the attendant bicultural elements exist to varying creative degrees. This study probes these composers, through critical analysis, to unravel the nature of how the employed bicultural tonal elements in their choral works co-exist. Is it a scenario of musical symbiosis or integration?