Time and space – The context of Hans Roosenschoon’s music

Abstract

This essay pays tribute to Hans Roosenschoon who celebrated his 60th birthday in December 2012. In contrast to conventional approaches that focus on local ideologies and local political issues, the essay explores the context of Roosenschoon’s music from a global and a historical perspective. Taking as point of departure the pluralist nature of postmodernism, it investigates the interaction of cultural spaces, particularly those occupied by ‘African’ and ‘Western’ musics. The entanglement of time and space is shown to be manifest in complex, multifaceted contemporary musical worlds. In doing so, the essay interrogates the conventional absence of the ‘voice’ of music in context- driven musicology. An approach that acknowledges music as an equal partner in the musicological enterprise shows an alignment of Hans Roosenschoon’s music with global trends and issues of his time.