Student guide

Learning goals for this piece:

1. Students understand the cultural importance of music
2. Students explore a balanced sound as a group
3. Students will compose their own protest/revolution song
4. Students will listen to similar folk prices and identify similarities
5. Students engage in self reflection activities to better improve their musicality
6. Students will research how music has been used in protest and pick one song (teacher
approved) to present over
7. Students will watch other performances of Tshotsholoza and then will share comments
and observations
8. Students will perform for the class in duets to ensure learning has taken place

Historical Background and cultural context

This song originated as a work song for the silver miners enslaved by the Dutch in South Africa.
It became a song of hope for the laborers, speaking of a train to carry them away. As the years
progressed, it became a protest song in opposition to apartheid in South Africa. Today, it serves
as the unofficial national anthem of the country, as well as a rallying song that is sung at
football (soccer) games.

Composer
The composer: Jeffery L. Ames serves as Director of Choral Activities at Belmont University. His
prior appointments include Assistant Director of Choral Activities at Baylor University and
Director of Choral Activities at Edgewater High School and Lincoln High School in Florida. As a
choral clinician, Dr. Ames has conducted senior and junior high school mixed and male choirs at
the state and regional conventions of the American Choral Directors Association and the Music
Educator’s National Conference, including the inaugural Florida Male All-State Chorus. He has
performed internationally in the countries of Italy and Costa Rica. An accomplished
accompanist, he has performed with well-known conductors such as André Thomas, Allen
Crowell, Jo-Michael Scheibe, Lynne Gackle, Bradley Ellingboe, and most recently with Anton
Armstrong and the Texas All-State Mixed Choir. With a growing reputation as a distinguished
and well-respected composer and arranger, Dr. Ames’ music has been premiered by the Florida
Music Educators Association, the Florida American Choral Directors Association, the Southern
Division of ACDA, the National ACDA Conference in Los Angeles, and the National ACDA
Conference in Miami. Professor Ames holds the Ph.D. in Choral Conducting/Choral Music
Education and a Master of Choral Music Education degree from Florida State University, and a
Bachelor of Music degree, with at double major in Vocal Performance and Piano Accompanying,
from James Madison University. He is the first recipient of the ACDA James Mulholland Choral
Music Fellowship.
(Bio taken from Santa Barbara Music Publishing Inc.)

Genre
Work songs are historically tunes sung by laborers to make the amount of labor being
performed bearable. In this context, Tshotsholoza was a song of hope and moving forward
despite the circumstances. It evolved into a protest song during the times of apartheid where
it’s meaning remained: keep moving through the difficulties and eventually things will get
better.

Connection to other subjects

This piece has an immense amount of history behind it. It’s close connection with the history of
South Africa and apartheid makes it an excellent cross-subject unit to be studied.

Text
Ndebele Text Pronunciation Translation
Tshotsholoza! “Sho-sho-low-zuh” Go forward

He Ku lezontaba “Hey ku lay-zawn-tah-bah from those mountains

Stimelasiphum’e South “Steem-ay-lah-see-poom-ay on this train from South

Afrika South Africa” Africa

Wen ‘uyabaleka “When oo-yah-bah-lay-kah You are running away

Rhythm
Rhythm is an important factor of this piece. For the most part, the choir is unison and
therefore, any mistakes in rhythm would easily be identified. Additionally, dotted eighths into
sixteenth is a recurring rhythm. On page 9, the piece becomes more rhythmically complex as
sections SAT split into two parts. Rhythms for the 2’s becomes more difficult and therefore, it is
important to cover this section to ensure rhythmic accuracy.

Melody
Since this piece is call and response, the melody varies based on what section you are looking
at. The soloist sings the melody of the piece, followed by the sopranos singing a countermelody
in response. The range of the piece is at its lowest, an Ab in the basses, and at its highest, an Ab
in the soprano section. The tenors also have an Ab at the end of the song that would need to be
taken down an octave for singers of this age, but otherwise the melodic range should be
comfortable for the age group.

Harmony
The harmony of this song is never dissonant and is usually in triads. This is reflective of the
South African Nguni culture.

Form Analysis: Provide example of overall form in graphic representation.

The form of this piece is ABA. The B section begins on page 9 and then returns to A at page 11.
Practice Guide
Clap the following rhythms based on if you are a 1 or a 2 in the SAT sections
Art, pottery and masks of the Ndebele people

Presentation assignment rubric

Inadequate (0pts.) Adequate (1pt.) Exemplary (2pts.)
Presentation over song No presentation Presentation offers Presentation Is
made some insight into insightful and
the song’s meaning offers strong
evidence of it
being a protest
song
Lyrics cited No lyrics cited Small sections The lyrics have
discussed been discussed at
length and
explained
Connections to class No connections Some small Deep connections
piece made connections made made to class
to class piece piece

Glossary of relevant terms:

 Ndebele – the name of the language that this text comes from
 forte – A strong dynamic
 Mezzo forte – a medium-strong dynamic
 Piano – a softer dynamic
 Crescendo – gradually become louder
Useful Recordings - https://youtu.be/2oQENAAu078

Articles - https://theculturetrip.com/africa/south-africa/articles/how-a-mining-song-became-
south-africas-anthem-of-unity-shosholoza/
Related Compositions – Dubala by Stephen Hatfield

Websites - https://www.brilliantearth.com/news/shosholoza-the-mining-song-that-moved-a-
nation-2/