Arnold van Wyk

Arnoldus Christiaan Vlok van Wyk (26 April 1916 – 27 March 1983) was a South African art music composer, belonging to the first notable generation of such composers, along with Hubert du Plessis and Stefans Grove.

Life

Arnoldus Christiaan Vlok van Wyk was born on 26 April 1916 on the farm Klavervlei, not far from Calvinia, a small town in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. He was the sixth of eight children. His mother, Helena van Dyk, came from a wealthy family, the family seemingly descended from the seventeenth century court painter Sir Anthony van Dyck. The couple married when farming provided reasonable hopes of financial security, however Van Wyk’s father was never an efficient manager of the business. Little is known about his childhood, of which we know, life was difficult (Muller, 2008: 61). From as early as 1918, the family struggled financially, his father Arnoldus Christiaan Vlok van Wyk (whose names he carried) was abusive towards his wife and children. Several members of the family, including Van Wyk’s mother and eldest sisters, presented musical talent, however opportunities for its development were few.

Van Wyk’s early music career commenced with the instruction of occasional piano lessons from his so-called ‘favourite’ sister Minnie, and soon after he was “improvising dramatic piano illustrations of stories told by anyone soft-hearted enough to pay him sixpence…” (Klatzow, 1987: 1). At a mere 16 years old, Van Wyk was sent to boarding school in Stellenbosch. Entered at Stellenbosch Boys’ High School, Van Wyk took piano lessons, first from the cellist Hans Endler, and later from Miss C.E. van der Merwe (Ibid., 1). Soon after his mother died in Somerset Hospital in Cape Town, and unexpectedly six weeks later the announcement of the death of his eldest sister. He matriculated at the age of seventeen and decided to spend the next year preparing for an overseas piano scholarship, of which he was unsuccessful. Subsequently, in order to make a living, he took a job in Cape Town in the claims department at an insurance company. During this time, he made contact with, then the music critic of the Afrikaans newspaper Die Burger, Charles Weich that invited him to perform for the first time at a concert hosted by the Oranjeklub, a concert of works ‘by unknown South African composers.’ The experience brought an audience to Van Wyk’s works, and more importantly, provided the young composer with a voice.

Initially entered to study a BA-degree at the University of Stellenbosch in 1938, Van Wyk’s studies were abruptly interrupted in order to travel to London to study at the prestigious Royal Academy of Music. He was the first South African composer to receive a Performing Right Scholarship to study at the RAM, this scholarship initially granted purpose of studies for one academic year. Van Wyk was granted permission to continue his studies at the RAM until 1944, only returning to South Africa after the Second World War in 1946. Whilst studying at the RAM, Van Wyk received many prizes, including the Worshipful Company of Musicians Medal, rewarded to the most distinguished student in the Academy, in 1941. Van Wyk had many concerns regarding his (first official) professional training from his composition teacher, Theodor Holland. After a few months at the RAM, Van Wyk wrote to his so-called ‘replacement-mother’, Freda Baron, in South Africa:

This evening after I had done some decent practicing, I played some of my earlier pieces—the ‘Nocturne,’ the ‘Bagatelles,’ the ‘Romanza’ & ‘Mazurka’ and this has put me in a nice, blue sentimental mood. It would be natural to write a blue letter, with purple moments & mauve cadences, but I’ll do my best not to inflict this on you. Contact with the English has taught me the indecency of emotion; has taught me that naked emotion is as unforgivable as walking down the street without one’s pants. I have as yet not decided whether I am a better man now that I have assimilated this philosophy (Muller, 2008: 64).

During Van Wyk’s time spent at the RAM, his works were performed at several student concerts, including a concert of his Violin Concerto, conducted by Sir Henry Wood, and performed by fellow student Doreen Cordell, in 1940. To supplement his grant, Van Wyk took a job at the recently formed Afrikaans section of the BBC, where he worked as announcer, translator, deviser of programmes, and newsreader, for the remainder of his time spent in the London. It was through this BBC appointment that Van Wyk met British composer and musicologist Howard Ferguson, who at the time was “immensely impressed by their [his works] beauty and originality” (Ferguson, 1996: 83). A lifelong relationship developed from this meeting and subsequently allowed Van Wyk the opportunity for several of his works to be performed on stages throughout the UK during his eight-year stay in England. The first of these public performances were Van Wyk’s Five Elegies for String Quartet, performed as part of the well-known National Gallery Concerts. Amongst this performance, a few other performances took place of works such as his two piano-duet works, Three Improvisions on Dutch Folksongs, and the variations entitled Poerpasledam (an Afrikaans version of pour passer le temps). Other important performances during Van Wyk’s stay in England, was the public performance of his First Symphony, also conducted by Sir Henry Wood, as part of a special BBC broadcast on Union Day 1943, as well as a performance of the Saudade for violin and orchestra (originally the middle movement of the Violin Concerto), performed by violinist Olive Zorian at an Albert Hall Promenade Concert conducted by Sir Adrian Boult (Klatzow, 1987: 3).

On the other hand, some critics questioned Van Wyk’s popularity amongst English audiences, and argued that the BBC was purposefully in favour of the performances (and publicity) of his works, due to a hidden agenda promoted exclusively by the BBC that related to the Afrikaners who remained uncommitted to form part of the so-called Allied Forces of WWII. Muller quotes a letter the then Empire Music Supervisor of the time, Rollo Myers, wrote to Hubert Clifford, in which he addresses the following questions: “May I ask you to see that there is the maximum possible exploitation on the publicity side of the fact that Arnold van Wyk is an Afrikaans composer and that England has given him his musical education” (Muller, 2000: 37). After the war Van Wyk decided to return to South Africa, of which possible factors could include favourable economic conditions in South Africa (rather than continuing his stay in post-war England), longing after his family, and a possible desire to contribute to the music society and heritage of his fatherland. Van Wyk proposes the following interests:

Ek voel dat ons ou landjie maar altyd agteraf sal bly as al die talent oorsee moet werk; ek voel meer tuis hier, en dat my plek hier is, . . . dat die musiek wat ek hier sal skryf ‘n Afrikaanse kleur mag he… (Letter to Jan Bouws, 1949—quoted in Grové 1999: 42, 47).

Subsequently, Van Wyk returned to South Africa in early December 1946 “where he received a heart-warming welcome” (Klatzow, 1987: 3). His return to South Africa prompted his sincere interest to contribute to South African Art Music, however (as one would assume) this contribution would be of nationalistic value, rather than as for aesthetic motivations (Thom, 2006: 17). Consequently, during the next couple of years he remained working as a freelance composer and musician, including several tours of piano recitals throughout the Union, a concert series organized by the then Reddingsdaadbond, an organisation that was established in 1939 to promote and invest in cultural projects throughout the Union. As a result, Van Wyk’s concerts were used to cultivate classical music appreciation amongst rural Afrikaners.

Numerous music critics have questioned Van Wyk’s apparent ‘nationalistic style’ throughout his works. This can partially be the result of a discourse that took shape within his use of specific nationalistic elements, both South African, as well as English—substantial time spent in the UK, his tertiary education under the instruction of primarily English composers, as well as a considerable amount of time spent in South Africa, reaffirming his individual compositional voice. One critic questions his ‘nationalistic style,’ when he writes: “Hy het maar ‘n boereseun gebly en dit tel soveel by sy mede-Afrikaners as sy meesterlike spel en skitterende komposisies” (Quoted in Du Preez, 1978: 6). At a public lecture in 1955 for the Commonwealth Section of the Royal Society of Arts, another critic, Stewart Hylton-Edwards, pointed out that Van Wyk would not be capable “to write English music to the end of his days” (Bouws, 1982: 181).

Thom argues that Van Wyk felt exploited by the nationalists, and that they were merely interested in what he could contribute to the cultivation process of South African Art Music (Thom, 2006: 18). He especially disliked his connections with the SABC, who frequently commissioned works of him, as well as several broadcasting opportunities. Also, after settling in Cape Town, Van Wyk continued to receive SABC commissions, including a performance on Easter Day in 1948. Van Wyk continued working on his Kersfees Kantata, a work that promised a form of financial satisfaction, of which he had started composing before departing from London. To avoid any more connections with the so-called ‘nationalists,’ in 1949 Van Wyk was appointed senior lecturer in Music at the University of Cape Town, a post that “promised security while allowing some time for composition and piano playing” (Klatzow., 3). His Second Symphony (Sinfonia Ricercata) was completed during this time, a work commissioned for the Van Riebeck Festival of 1952, as well as his orchestral work entitled Rapsodie, composed in 1951.

Several scholars, including Stephanus Muller, Izak Grové, Jan Bouws, and Howard Ferguson, to name a few, argue that Van Wyk’s finest work was indeed his songs. Following his Rhapsody was an important song-cycle Van Liefde en Verlatenheid, praised by critic Malcolm Rayment as “one of the most important contributions of our time to the literature of songs” (Bouws, 1957: 54-55). Also, as Ferguson writes: “With great sensitivity and skill he has captured the varied moods of Eugène Marais’ magnificent poems and clothed them in music of outstanding beauty (Ibid., 3). The first performance took place at the University of Cape Town Music Festival in 1953. Van Wyk briefly returned to London during 1954-1956 for series of concerts. During this time he primarily worked on a large-scale piano work Nagmusiek, in memory of his friend Noel Mewton-Wood, the well-known Australian pianist, who tragically ended his own life in 1953 (Klatzow, 1987: 4).

Although Van Wyk immensely sought after composing simply because he wanted to create ‘beautiful things,’ his connections with the ideologies of Afrikaner nationalism that surfaced during the time, was unavoidable upon his return from the UK. For the Union Festival in Bloemfontein in 1960 Van Wyk wrote one of his most important works to date, the symphonic suite Primavera, important due to its substantial length, as well as its prominence amongst his orchestral works (Klatzow, 1987: 4). The works consists of four continuous movements, of which the third movement makes extensive use of a Minnelied, as used by the thirteenth-century German poet Neithart von Reuenthal (Ibid., 4).

Towards the end of his career Van Wyk was especially attracted by the idea of composing unaccompanied vocal works, such as his Aanspraak virrie latenstyd (1973-1983), and his Missa in illo tempore (1979). In an interview conducted by Smith in the year of Van Wyk’s death, he questions the composers motives behind his unaccompanied works, and the composing thereof: “Op die oomblik is dit die ding wat my die meeste roer; mense wat sing sonder instrumente. Miskien het dit te doen met hoe die wereld nou gaan” (Thom, 2006: 19). [“At the moment this is the thing that stirs me the most; the idea of people singing without instruments. Maybe it has something to do with where the world is going (Own translation).”] During 1952 Van Wyk was made a Fellow of the RAM, consequently travelling to the Europe on several occasions.

Other important performances outside of the UK and South Africa, includes: A performance of his “Eerste Strykkwartet” (First String Quartet) in Brussels for the International Society for Contemporary Music in 1950, and a performance of his song-cycle “Van liefde en Verlatenheid,” during the 1954-festival of the same society in Israel (Ibid., 19). During this festival in 1954, Van Wyk is awarded the Jeunesses Musicales Prize. According to Bouws, the performance of his song-cycle at the festival was so well received that during that same year, it was performed on several occasions in the Netherlands, London, and Oslo (Ibid., 19). Among other achievements, in 1972 Van Wyk was made Honorary Doctor of Music by the University of Cape Town, and in 1981 at the University of Stellenbosch (Klatzow, 1987: 6).

Despite the acknowledgements and critical acclaim Van Wyk received during his lifetime for his works, he would never conquest his self-critical voice; consequently the majority of Van Wyk’s works were often revised after its first performance. In total, excluding the revised works, Van Wyk composed a mere twenty-seven compositions during his lifetime. After suffering a heart attack in 1982, Van Wyk passed in 1983, at the age of 67.

Compositional style and development

Van Wyk’s most fundamental stylistic developments took shape in Europe during his early youth. As did many of Van Wyk’s contemporaries of the time, he felt that the stature of any composer, and more importantly, a composer from South Africa, had to be measured by the European landscape of artistic merit and aesthetic values. As we know little about Van Wyk’s early youth, it is difficult to detect what exactly triggered the composer to compose, let alone composing art music in South Africa. According to an article published by Stephanus Muller, “Arnold van Wyk’s hard, stony, flinty path, or making things beautiful in apartheid South Africa,” (2008) the author argues that Van Wyk’s desire to compose was simply his desire to do ‘beautiful things,’ as Muller argues:

Van Wyk recalls that he started composing because he wanted to do ‘beautiful things’. To be more precise, he was jealous of others because of the ‘beautiful things’ they had made, and wanted to do or make similar things (Muller, 2008: 62).

Van Wyk’s desire to compose so-called ‘beautiful things,’ can also be characterized by an early youth disrupted by a musically limited environment. As a result, his compositional landscape was the cultivation of European compositional models—Van Wyk purposely examining the music of his European contemporaries, as well as the traditional canon of Western Art Music. Of his work ethic, Howard Ferguson writes: “He is a slow and meticulous worker, also extremely self-critical, as can be seen from his habit of revising works after their first performance, or even withdrawing them altogether. Indeed one sometimes wonders whether he is not apt to be too self-critical” (Klatzow, 1986: 3). Van Wyk’s first musical idioms reflected the traditions of the late Romantic ideologies, therefore the imitations of tonality and as Otterman notes Van Wyk’s later style the imitations of ‘neo-Romantic’ traditions. Naturally, Van Wyk was aware of his imitations of the neo-(Romantic) traditions, but also devotedly followed the so-called ‘post-modern’ European compositional developments, with composers such as Hindemith, Stravinsky, and Schoenberg. During a SAUK-interview in 1972, Van Wyk explains the following:

“Baiekeer dink ek my musiek is min of meer Romanties en tradisioneel… en watter mark is daar nou eintlik daarvoor?” (Van Wyk aangehaal in Smith, 1991: 26).

Also, on several occasions, Van Wyk criticized his cultural environment in which the ideologies of the Romantic aesthetics were no longer valid:

“Ek beskou myself as ‘n laat-Romantikus, en vir ons is daar vandag nie plek nie. Dis alles non-heroes en non-happenings” (Van Wyk aangehaal in Scholtz s.d.)

His compositional developments radically changed when he received formal instruction in composition, as previously mentioned, at the RAM, UK. He rejected the traditions of his English contemporaries, such as Britten and Walton, and instead followed his musical instincts, as Van Wyk recalls his compositional methods were done instinctively, therefore without having to explain each step in a logical manner (Thom, 22: 2006). As concert pianist, and follower of the Romantic ideologies, Van Wyk soon after became interested in the piano works by composers such as the late works of Beethoven, Chopin, and Liszt (Ibid., 22). However as Muller argues:

But this lack of strong inner creative direction also finds expression in Van Wyk’s frequent use of imported material of various kinds as the basic points of departure for further musical treatment. The best example of this is perhaps the symphonic suite, Primavera, which was Van Wyk’s favourite orchestral piece and based on (as previously mentioned) a Minnesinger melody of Neithart von Reuenthal (Muller, 69: 2008).

However, Muller is not implying that Van Wyk’s compositions simply reflected the works and ideas of others, “nor that he indulged in pastiche – the very notion of this as a technique of ironic comment or juxtaposition is alien to his organic sense of musical structure (Ibid., 69). During his stay in England, thanks to his relationship with Ferguson, Van Wyk moved in the circles of Vaughan Williams and Finzi, of which both were following the ‘after wave’ of post-Elgar tonal idioms (Thom, 23: 2006). Soon after, he became interested in the compositional techniques of Benjamin Britten, who followed the models of composers such as Stravinsky, Berg, and Mahler. What attracted Van Wyk most was Britten’s ability to compose music that reflected the ideas of social commentary, hence Dahlhaus’ description of Van Wyk’s works emphasizing the sentiments of ‘autobiographic’ works (Ibid., 24). As Van Wyk mentions:

Die werk wat jy skryf bestaan eintlik alreeds. Hy bestaan in ‘n idiële (sic) wereld, of in ‘n ander wereld. Die ingewing, wanneer jy die eerste ingewing kry, is die werk eintlik al klaar. Maar jy kan, omdat jy menslik is … nie daardie ding vasvat nie. Die komposisieproses bestaan dan daaruit dat jy probeer terugwerk na daardie oomblik van sekerheid … maar dis ‘n flits en dan is dit weg. Ek dink nie jy kom ooit weer by daardie toestand, by daardie eerste oomblik van sekerheid nie…” (Van Wyk aangehaal in Smith, 1991: 29).

Other contributions to the compositional developments of Van Wyk, was his intense love and interest in literature and poetry. Since creating ‘beautiful things’ was of primary concern for Van Wyk, he often included several poems or artistic expressions in his compositions of prominent figures such as N.P. van Wyk Louw and W.E.G. Louw (Thom, 2006: 24). He often used poetry and literature as point of departure for the establishment of compositional titles—Vier Weemoedige Liedjies, Van Liefde en Verlatenheid, and Vyf Elegieë vir Strykkwartet. As Thom mentions, the texts that Van Wyk selected for his compositions often represented nostalgic sentiments, frequently the expressions of pessimism, or the indication of isolation (Ibid., 25). As Smith points out: “Arnold van Wyk…frequently referred to the extra musical concepts of the elegiac, and of mournfulness, introspection and death when describing the intended content of his works. The import of these concepts seems to have been a constant element spanning his entire oeuvre” (Ibid., 25). Upon arrival back in South Africa, Van Wyk struggled with the reestablishment of social integration and transformation—as Thom argues, this integration procedure was often problematic, due to his homosexual orientation, which during the time was regarded a serious offense (Ibid., 27). Klatzow mentions that Van Wyk’s elegies (and later compositions that were composed in South Africa) emphasized his inability to maintain a romantic relationship, therefore Van Wyk’s homoerotic sentiments as ‘erotically dead’ (Ibid., 27). Towards his death in 1983, Van Wyk felt excluded and isolated from society and consequently withdrew from several compositional projects.

Critical responses

Arnold van Wyk is not a familiar name amongst South Africans, and his music no longer lives in contemporary South African concert halls. It is only natural that once deceased hardly anyone would remember a white composer, who for the most part of his life, composed not in South Africa, but abroad. However, Van Wyk still lives amongst his contemporaries, peers, music scholars, and his beloved students. Also, as one might expect, it is understandable that within a post-apartheid society, scholars, archivists, and librarians, find themselves challenged regarding the classifying, and sorting of scores. As a result, to remember someone such as composer Arnold van Wyk requires a kind of novelty—innovation beyond the traditional concert practices in South Africa, beyond the recordings, and collecting of scores.

After Van Wyk’s death in 1983, several scholars published tributes to commend the composer for his contribution to South African Art Music. However, the majority of these tributes all reflected and emphasized Van Wyk’s compositions as part of the ideologies of Afrikaner nationalism that surfaced during the time, rather than a focus on the prominence on his contributions to compositional developments in South Africa. Grové quoted a tribute written after Van Wyk’s death by Malan, saying:

“Laasgenoemde [die daarstelling van ‘n ‘eie abstrakte toonkuns’] was die werk van een man, die profeet van Suid-Afrikaanse musiek, Arnold van Wyk. Hy was ons eerste soewereine klankmeester, die eerste een om as skeppende kunstenaar in die buiteland aandag te trek, die eerste om plaaslik tussen al die vreemde meesters die moontlikheid van ‘n eie musiek op hoogste vlak te plant, die eerste om groot musiekprestatsies naas al die ander prestatsies te laat geld—om net ‘n paar van sy ‘eerstes’ te noem (Malan in Grové, 1984: 10).

Another example, as Thom mentions, written by Stegmann in Grové (1984: 30), furthermore exploits this idea of Van Wyk’s music being of nationalistic value:

“Daar bestaan geen twyfel nie dat Van Wyk een van Suid-Afrika se grootste seuns is. Laat ons hom daarvoor eer, laat ons sy werke leer ken en waardeer. Ons mag nie uit die oog verloor nie dat ons kultuur, en dus ons voortbestaan as ‘n volk, in die eerste plek afhang van ons skeppende kunstenaars. Dit is ons heilige plig om hulle heelhartig te ondersteun (Stegmann in Grové, 1984: 30).

Despite the political changes that surfaced during the time, the idea that Van Wyk’s music would serves as examples of Afrikaner Nationalism, quickly diminished. South African concertgoers, if involved with classical music, were simply interested in the traditional canon of Western (European) Art Music, and rejected the music of the twentieth-century. After his death, several musicologists (also those who knew him personally), introduced several projects to archive Van Wyk’s music, to collect recordings there were made, and to preserve his status as ‘father of South African Art Music.’ During 1965 and 1984 ten postgraduate research studies were done regarding his works, in relations to a mere three postgraduate research studies that were done after 1984 (Thom, 2006: 21). Of this includes a dissertation, supervised by Prof. I. Grové, submitted in December 2006, by M. Thom. As Thom mentions, during the 33rd Congress of the Southern-African Musicological society (33ste kongres van die Suider-Afrikaanse Musiekwetenskapvereniging), in September 2006, four papers regarding Van Wyk’s works were given (Ibid., 21).

Regarding Van Wyk’s compositional development and musical contributions, several articles have appeared: An entry by James May in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, a chapter by Howard Ferguson in the book edited by Peter Klatzow entitled Composers in South Africa Today, as well as an entry in the Suid-Afrikaanse Musiekensiklopedie, other Van Wyk contributors include the writings of Grové, Otterman, Bouws, as Muller. As mentioned before, Muller also published several articles regarding the life of Arnold van Wyk, of which include an article published by The Musical Times in 2008, “Arnold van Wyk’s hard, stony, flinty path, or making things beautiful in apartheid South Africa.” He is currently completing a biography regarding Van Wyk’s life and works. At the Fifth Congress of the South African Society for Research in Music, hosted by the Department of Music at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, in June 2011, Thom Wium also delivered a paper “Arnold van Wyk’s First Symphony and the Reinvention of Englishness.” Several review articles have appeared in SAMUS, such as in Volume 6 published in 1986, “A. van Wyk: Tristia for Piano and Ricordanza per piano solo (M. Feenstra).” Another important contribution is that of the South African press, with several articles written after the death of Van Wyk. Some of these include a celebration of ninety years of composers, published in Die Burger, where Van Wyk is tagged as ‘pioneer of South African Art Music,’ also an article published by Muller to commemorate Van Wyk twenty years after his death.