adminFred Zindi Music
Richard Mvududu, a board member at the Zimbabwe College of Music, asked me this question one day: “Fred, why is it that the College of Music has been training so many classical musicians here in Zimbabwe, yet we have been unable to organise just one Zimbabwe orchestra?” I told him that an orchestra needs at least 50 disciplined musicians who will rehearse together and that in this economic environment it is difficult to even organise a five- piece band as most musicians prefer to be peripatetic.
I remember attending a spectacular performance by Harare City Orchestra in 2001 at Harry Margolis Hall, which was under the baton of ex-director of Zimbabwe College of Music Neil Chapman, who was the musical conductor. The orchestra performed a “Concerto for Viola in B Minor” by Handel as well as “Romance in F for Viola” and “Orchestra by Bruch” with the main attraction being American-born soloist Nokuthula Ngwenyama, whose parents are from Zimbabwe.
The Harare City Orchestra, which was doing very well, ceased to operate due to some of its members leaving the country while others died.
It boggles the mind to know that the idea of music orchestras came from Africa yet there are hardly any orchestras to talk about when we sample African music.
If we trace our history closely, the modern orchestra has its roots in Ancient Egypt. The first orchestras were made up of small groups of musicians that gathered for festivals, holidays or funerals. It was not until the 11th century that families of instruments started to appear with differences in tones and octaves. True modern orchestras started in the late 16th century when composers started writing music for instrumental groups. From Egypt, the idea of orchestras spread into Europe. In the 15th and 16th centuries in Italy the households of nobles had musicians to provide music for dancing and the court, however with the emergence of the theatre, particularly opera, in the early 17th century, music was increasingly written for groups of players in combination, which is the origin of orchestral playing. Opera originated in Italy, and Germany eagerly followed. Dresden, Munich and Hamburg successively built opera houses. At the end of the 17th century opera flourished in England under Henry Purcell, and in France under Lully, who with the collaboration of Moliere also greatly raised the status of the entertainments known as ballets, interspersed with instrumental and vocal music.
But, what is our understanding of an orchestra?
An orchestra is a large instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek word?, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus.
The orchestra grew by accretion throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, but changed very little in composition during the course of the 20th century. A smaller-sized orchestra for this time period (of about 50 musicians or fewer) is called a chamber orchestra.
A full-size orchestra (about 100 musicians) may sometimes be called a “symphony orchestra” or “philharmonic orchestra”; these modifiers do not necessarily indicate any strict difference in either the instrumental constitution or role of the orchestra, but can be useful to distinguish different ensembles based in the same city (for instance, the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.)
A symphony orchestra will usually have over eighty musicians on its roster, in some cases over a hundred, but the actual number of musicians employed in a particular performance may vary according to the work being played and the size of the venue. Imagine an orchestra with a hundred musicians in a small venue such as the Book Cafe in Harare.
There would be no room for the audience. A leading chamber orchestra might employ as many as 50 musicians; some are much smaller than that. Orchestras can also be found in schools. The term concert orchestra may sometimes be used — no distinction is made on size of orchestra by use of this term, although their use is generally distinguished as for live concerts.
As such they are commonly chamber orchestras. The orchestra from the first half of the 19th century is generally attributed to the forces called for by Beethoven.
A typical standard orchestra which follows Beethoven’s established model will have the following instruments: one piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two English horns, three clarinets in C, B, A, two bass clarinets in B, A, two bassoons, brass: four French horns in F (sometimes in different keys) two trumpets in F (sometimes in different keys), two cornets in B, three trombones, two tenors, one bass, one tuba, four oboes, two saxophones, bass drum, tambourine, xylophone, tubular bells, marimba, piano, celesta, strings, timpani, two violas, three violins, three cellos, double bass, bass trombone, baritone trombone, triangle, snare drum, cymbals and four clarinets. In Zimbabwe we can even add two mbiras as instruments to the orchestra.
Judging by the number of instruments listed above, an orchestra will indeed require a minimum of 50 players. Due to the loss of many players in the Harare City Orchestra over the years, they decided to call themselves the Harare Chamber Orchestra in keeping with the reduced number of players.
In Beethoven’s model, the composer’s instrumentation almost always included paired flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns and trumpets. Beethoven carefully calculated the expansion of this particular timbral “palette” in symphonies three, five, six and nine for an innovative effect.
The third horn in the “Eroica” Symphony arrives to provide not only some harmonic flexibility, but also the effect of “choral” brass in the Trio. Piccolo, contrabassoon, and trombones add to the triumphal finale of his Symphony No.5. A piccolo and a pair of trombones help deliver storm and sunshine in the Sixth.
The Ninth asks for a second pair of horns, for reasons similar to the “Eroica” (four horns has since become standard); Beethoven’s use of piccolo, contrabassoon, trombones, and untuned percussion — plus chorus and vocal soloists — in his finale, are his earliest suggestion that the timbral boundaries of “symphony” might be expanded for good. But for several decades after his departure, symphonic instrumentation was faithful to Beethoven’s well-established model, with few exceptions.
Mvududu decries the inability of the Zimbabwe College of Music, which has churned out many musical virtuosi over the years who include Michael Peto, Jeanette Micklem, Ronald Dickenson, Paul Renan, Paul Bourdillon, Isaac Kalumbu, Richard Matimba, Drace Miles, Charles Charamba, Miriam Mandipira, Chiwoniso Maraire, Tinashe Mandipira, Tonderai Muteta, Theresa Muteta, Emmanuel Mujuru, Walter Mujuru, Rachel Jera, Clayton Ndlovu, Dumisani Ngulube, Andrew Mamvura, Prudence Katomeni, Hope Masike, Rute Mbangwa, Philbert Marova, Clive Mono Mukundu, David Moyo, Dadirayi Manase, Gift Mhindikata, Owen Chimuka and Phillimon Gezi to co-ordinate even a chamber orchestra among the many musicians it has produced.
This year at the Harare Festival of the Arts, I witnessed a stellar line-up of string players featuring Leon Bosch, Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Luigi Boccherini, Michael Haydn and Julius Goltermann plus 15 more musicians who performed as Harare Chamber Orchestra on the Old Mutual Day.
They were impressive. It shows that organising an orchestra can be done if the college puts its act together. The orchestra like its predecessor, the Salisbury Municipal Orchestra which eventually changed to Harare City Orchestra, and then Harare Chamber Orchestra will certainly have many followers and sponsors from various local organisations. Subscribers, like before, will be asked to pay an annual fee for regular seats at the concerts. There are thousands of Zimbabweans who feel that there is a gap in the field of orchestral music and will be happy to subscribe and attend such concerts if they are organised at appropriate venues. So let’s revive the Harare City Orchestra!
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