November 28, 2006
By Lucille Davie
EVEN if soccer is not your particular bag, there'll still be plenty of things happening off the field during the 2010 Fifa World Cup to get you jumping up and cheering wildly . . . like performances by a vuvuzela orchestra.
The brainchild of musician Pedro Espi-Sanchis, the orchestra will be something unique to South Africa. "I couldn't stand the idea of the 2010 Soccer World Cup, with the world coming here and not hearing a lot of music. South Africa is one of the most musical countries in the world."
The elephant-like blarting sounds of the vuvuzelas are synonymous with South African sporting events – particularly football matches.
Have vuvuzela, will make music
Vuvuzelas are one-metre long plastic trumpets, which come in a variety of different bright colours. They were first seen at matches in 2001, when they were manufactured by empowerment company Masincedane Sport.
According to the southafrica.info website, on the day South Africa was awarded the hosting of world cup in May 2004, around 20 000 vuvuzelas were sold. "There is talk of making it the official instrument of the 2010 tournament."
Although vuvuzelas were originally never meant to be used as musical instruments, this is about to change.
The spirit of Ubuntu
Espi-Sanchis, known on
Kideo, a local TV programme, as Pedro the music man, hopes the orchestra will be "a musical representation of ubuntu".
"This means that no one will play louder than others, and no one will play the same rhythm. What people play will interlock with others and complement what others offer."
Espi-Sanchis has taken six vuvuzelas and created six different instruments that each sound a different note. They are of varying lengths – he has cut the vuvuzelas to vary the normal B-flat tone of the instrument.
He plans to have 36 members in the orchestra, with six groups of six musicians each playing one of six notes. The musicians will dance while playing their instruments, a tradition of African music making. In 2010 the audiences will hear Shosholoza, the anthem and other songs that fans have created for their teams.
At present he is holding auditions in Diepsloot, the location chosen by the City, and hopes to form an orchestra with members ranging in age between 14 to 25 years.
"We can accommodate any level of skill," says Espi-Sanchis.
The sound of carnival
The first public performance will be for the New Year's carnival, a parade through the streets of Joburg.
Espi-Sanchis says the vuvuzela orchestra will use the same principles used in three pipe ensembles played in southern Africa: the Tshikona of the Venda, the Dinaka of the Bapedi, both from Limpopo, and the Dithlaka in Botswana.
"The principle was the same: no one is doing something that someone else is doing – there would be one big drum beat, and other beats with other drums," he explains.
Espi-Sanchis, born in Spain, educated in France and an immigrant to South Africa in 1971, joined the Andrew Tracey Steelband Ensemble in 1976, learning to play many traditional African instruments.
In the early 1980s he was curator of the Percival Kirby Collection of African Instruments, and co-founder of the Talking Drum Music Workshop for children. In the late 1980s he gave workshops and courses on African music at universities, colleges of education and NGOs across the country.
From 1994 onwards he has worked as a freelance musician and educator, doing TV shows, touring schools and appearing at festivals here and in Europe. He has presented papers and workshops here and in the US, UK and Amsterdam.
He is currently involved in training arts and culture teachers to think creatively about making music, by using a piece of plastic pipe, dry seaweed or a paw-paw leaf as a musical instrument.
He offers several reasons why he has chosen the vuvuzela for form this orchestra. "They have not made music before and there is no reason why they shouldn't."
There is a tradition in playing a similar instrument, a tin pipe in a horn shape, in ensembles in central Africa. And, it links arts and culture to sports.
Rehearsals for the orchestra start on 11 December.
Espi-Sanchis also plans to have a percussion band playing on New Year's eve, using pots, pans, discarded car parts and other assorted bits of metal, based on Brazilian carnival bands.
He is also preparing for an Africa Day concert on 25 May next year.
Part of the educational aspect of the project is to get the soccer audiences to play along, based on the colour of their vuvuzelas, and notation projected on large screens in the stadiums.
He is planning to call the vuvuzela orchestra the Vuvu Carnival Orchestra.
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