Most of the artists who compose moppies do not know how to read or write music. Whether they invent a melody, arrange it for choir and soloist or teach it to singers, they do everything by ear. They used to memorise songs they heard
on the radio or in musical films; nowadays, they record them on cell phones or computers. Abduraghman Morris, president and coach of The Young Men Sporting Club, explained:
I’ve got a very good ear: I listen to something and I can recall it and repeat it and that is why when I get the combine chorus with different voices, I will go to a pianist and he will play the first tenors, melody, and I will record it; and he plays the second tenors melody and I will record it, and the baritones and the basses. And I will place the wording on that: I will listen to my music, and I will go over it and over it, put it in my head and then I will give it over to the club. How I go about it is the first tenors, I will make a CD of the tune and I will give each one a CD: “That is your […] you listen to that tune.” So that is how they get au fait with the thing.18 Composers approach moppies in exactly the same way; they have to produce a new one every year, sometimes they even compose several songs for different Klopse or Malay Choirs. Once presented in competition a moppie is rarely sung again; a few songs have been performed in subsequent competitions or in off-competition concerts, but they are exceptions. Moppie creators do not usually keep track of the titles or composers of the songs they assemble in their potpourris. Most of them do not even archive their own productions. Some keep notebooks where the lyrics they have penned are preserved; others just stock loose-leaf sheets of songs they presented in former years; many tend to consider that what belongs to the past must remain there. Recordings made by carnival organisers or Malay Choir Boards now make it possible to compile a systematic inventory of moppies, at least for a few decades; but, as far as we know, this has not yet been done.
Songs produced before competitions were recorded can only be preserved in the memory of coaches, singers and listeners. This is why it has been extremely difficult to go back in time and analyse elements of social representations present in ancient moppies.
According to veterans Michael Abrahams, Eddie Matthews and Ronald Fisher, musical instruments used during the New Year parades of the 1950s were banjos, cellos, tambourines and bones;19 on this background, said Michael Abrahams: “The men that walked behind, they made little moppies […] they don’t sing the whole song, just 8 bars […] and those years they used to jog.”20 When marching in the streets, revellers used to run to the rhythm of the moppie they were singing. In those times, there were no ghoema in the parades; the beat was given by the cello: if a ghoema had been added, it would have overpowered the cello. Today there are no longer cellos in bands backing marching Klopse, but a great many ghoemas can be heard. They were introduced in the early sixties when brass instruments began to supersede string instruments, and rendered cellos inaudible. As a matter of fact, parades
are today very different from what they were sixty years ago. Klopse members hardly sing; brass bands are in charge of the music. Marching drums have been introduced in orchestras, alongside ghoemas and tambourines, and are very popular with young musicians wishing to emulate American college bands.21 Banjos have also tended to disappear, an evolution lamented by our panel of veterans. For Michael Abrahams “that isolates the members […] it is not one group together”. And Eddie Matthews added: “Now the ghoema will go, they’ve got a bass drum. It’s going to fade away, the ghoema is going to fade away.”22 Individuals join a Klops because they want to be part of a bright and resounding troupe, to be seen in shiny outfits and accompanied by a forceful orchestra which will increase their pleasure and contribute to their reaching that particular state of mind they call tariek.
Many members of a Klops only march and parade; they do not participate in singing competitions. Ismail Bey, a backtrack composer, distinguished die singers from die springers:
Which means, “the singers” and “the jumpers”, the guys who sing and the guys who are the jumpers with the Coons [laughing] […]
So during the year you will have say 50 or 60 guys in your practice room, they are the singers, that is your foundation, then you get the people who just want to boast and brag, go with the parading, you don’t see them! Look, in this game, Coon carnival game, you can never say how big your troupe is going to be. You get 50, 60 guys and that is all you see, but comes the end of the year, you see 900, 700, where those people come from? They want to go with that troupe, because that troupe has got a very nice big brass band and that is what about Coon carnival is all about, that is not about the singing anymore.23
Anwar Gambeno, captain of the All Stars Klops, concurred: in the carnival, most revellers are primarily interested in their troupe winning a prize; the love of singing comes second.
That’s a very serious question. Because that question: what makes the trophy so important is why? That is the reason why people join up with Coon troupe and with Malay Choir, because they want to win the trophy. Not everybody is with the Coon troupe or with the Malay Choir because they like the music or their love to the culture or the religion. You’ve got to reach a certain stage in this game, where trophies are not the main consideration anymore […] Because when you start out in this game it is all about the trophies […] Every song writer would like to have his song on top of the hit parade, because that’s the same with the Coon Carnival,
at the end of the day you’d like to win the trophy. But it is impor-tant why? Firstly if your troupe doesn’t win trophies, you won’t have members. Secondly, if your troupe doesn’t win trophies, you won’t have any supporters because people only support the winner.
Thirdly, if your troupe doesn’t win trophies, no corporate sponsors will even give you the time of day.24
The prestige gained by a troupe or a choir in competition shines on every individual member: it brings stature and nurtures self-esteem. That was particularly the case before forced removals. Anwar Gambeno remembered: “Before apartheid, before the Group Area, when everybody lives in District Six, in Harfield, in Bo-Kaap, where there were five and six and seven, ten troupes in one community, the status was enormous. Now that is also changed.”25 Tape Jacobs, captain of the Beystart Klops, also regretted this evolution:
What actually happens today in our music world, there is no improvement we are just implementing another culture into our music world […] It is like that, it is a fact. I will tell anybody of that, we have lost a lot of our own music writers. We have lost a lot of them through the system, because the guys don’t do it anymore for the love and for the passion of it. They are doing it for name and fame, you see. They want both.26
Finally, with the collapse of apartheid, South Africa reconnected with the rest of the world. New images, new sounds, new influences reached the Cape and attracted young musicians and young members of choirs and Klopse. Their references are now the Rio de Janeiro or New Orleans carnivals; not only jazz, soul and American pop songs, but rap and marching bands. Coaches and captains have to take their tastes into account if they want to entice them to join their teams. South Africa’s new dispensation has also made it easier for tourists to visit the country; they come in great numbers to enjoy the Cape during the austral summer, which is also the time of the New Year festivals.
Klopse captains and civic authorities dream of making the carnival a tourist attraction; in the meantime, the Coons have become emblematic of the development of an original culture in Cape Town. They are invited to perform at many public events, and get paid for their services. Troupes are now allowed to busk at the Victoria and Albert Waterfront.27 Carnival associations are also subsidised by the City of Cape Town and the provincial government. There is now a widespread feeling that being involved in a Klops or a choir can bring money. Tastes, attitudes and expectations are definitely changing. However, even if the styles of interpretation evolve, the substance of the repertoire is not directly affected by these changes. The way moppies are composed, in particular, remains basically unaltered.