The Documentation Centre for Music (DOMUS) forms part of the Special Collections Division of the Music Library within th
Stellenbosch University Library and Information Service
and is located in th
Music Department
Collections acquired through acquisitions, donations or bequests over more than 50 years form the main holdings and are mostly of South African but also of international significance.

History

The Documentation Centre for Music''
(DOMUS)
at th
Stellenbosch University Library and Information Service
was founded in 2005 b
Prof. Stephanus Muller
Having worked from 2002 to order and catalogue the archive of the composer

Arnold van Wyk Arnoldus Christiaan Vlok van Wyk (26 April 1916 – 27 March 1983) was a South African art music composer, one of the first notable generation of such composers along with Hubert du Plessis and Stefans Grové. Despite the strict laws impose ...

, Muller proposed the creation of DOMUS in order to ensure the preservation of music collections and their unlocking for music research. After obtaining institutional support from the Department of Music and the Stellenbosch University Library and Information Service, Muller appointed Santie de Jongh as DOMUS archivist in the second half of 2005, and functioned as Head of DOMUS from 2005 until 2016, when he unbundled the archival and intellectual functions of DOMUS with the creation o
Africa Open Institute for Music, Research and Innovation
(in 2016) and DOMUS formally became a Special Collection of the Music Library, Stellenbosch University. Between 2005 and 2016, DOMUS embarked on an ambitious programme of archival acquisitions and research-related activities. With its founding in 2005, there were 20 collections in the Music Library. These included the literary estate of internationally celebrated composer and conductor Albert Coates and the music library of bibliophile Michael Scott. At the end of its first decade, the number of collections had grown to 70, including the documentary collections of important South African composers, performing artists, musicologists and music institutions. Significantly, these acquisitions had broadened the diversity of music held in the archive and studied by music researchers and students. Whereas previously the special collections of the Music Library had held only Western art music materials (complementing the focus on such music in the Music Department), DOMUS acquired popular music archives (among others the archives of

Anton Goosen Anton Goosen (born 5 March 1946) is a South African musician and songwriter. He became a pivotal figure in Afrikaans music and is generally regarded as the father of Afrikaans Rock. Early years As a young boy in school, Goosen was not consider ...

and

Taliep Petersen Taliep Petersen (15 April 1950 – 16 December 2006) was a South African singer, composer and director of a number of popular musicals. He worked most notably with David Kramer, with whom he won an Olivier Award. Career One of "South Africa' ...

, substantial materials on boeremusiek and musicians like

Nico Carstens Nicolaas Cornelius Carstens (10 February 1926 – 1 November 2016) more commonly known as Nico Carstens, was a South African musician, accordionist, and songwriter. Early life Born, 10 February 1926, in Cape Town of Afrikaner parents, Carstens g ...

, the archives of record companies like

Mountain Records Mountain Records is a record label started in Cape Town, South Africa in 1980 by Patrick Lee-Thorp. The record label produces mostly South African music and is known as the home of Cape Jazz recordings, having issued a number of albums by such nam ...

and extensive archival collections documenting unwritten histories of South African music, like David Marks'sbr>Hidden Years Music Archive
, as well as archives relating to different media in which music played an important role (for example the archive of filmmaker, artist and writer

Aryan Kaganof Aryan Kaganof (born 1964 as Ian Kerkhof) is a South African film maker, novelist, poet and fine artist. In 1999 he changed his name to Aryan Kaganof. Partial filmography * 1992: ''Kyodai Makes the Big Time'' (91min, Netherlands), drama feature ...

). DOMUS also continued to acquire the archives of important Western art music composers, like Graham Newcater, John Simon,

Stefans Grové Stefans Grové (23 July 1922 – 29 May 2014) was a South African composer. Before his death the following assessment was made of him: "He is regarded by many as Africa's greatest living composer, possesses one of the most distinctive composit ...

Hubert du Plessis Hubert du Plessis OMSG (7 June 1922 – 12 March 2011) was a South African composer, pianist, and professor of music whose career spanned several decades. Along with Arnold van Wyk and Stefans Grové, du Plessis was one of the foremost South Afr ...

, Christopher Langford James and Michael Blake. Six of the collections in DOMUS are available as digitized collections on open access at https://digital.lib.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.2/1773. These include the collections of Albert Coates (630 items), Christopher James (30 items), Graham Newcater (7 items), John Simon (15 items), South African Jewish Music articles (4964 articles) and Stefans Grové (120 articles).

DOMUS projects between 2005 and 2016

During this period, Muller funded numerous research-related projects under the aegis of DOMUS. These included: Seminars hosting musicologists Marie Jorritsma an
Barbara Titus
(2008); a series of conversations and recordings of the isiXhosa bow player

Madosini Latozi "Madosini" Mpahleni (25 December 1943 – 23 December 2022) was a South African musician, known for playing Xhosa traditional instruments such as the '' uhadi'' and ''mhrubhe'' musical bows, and the '' isitolotolo''. Madosini performed u ...

(Latozi Mpahleni) with compose
Hans Huyssen
(2009); analysis workshops with composer

Hannes Taljaard Hannes Taljaard (b. Daniël Johannes Taljaard in 1971, Siloam, Venda, South Africa) is a South African classical music composer. Taljaard's compositions have been performed in South Africa and Europe and he won first prize in the Flores Iuven ...

(2009); a simposium to celebrate

Kevin Volans Kevin Volans (born 26 July 1949) is a South African born Irish composer and pianist. He studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen and Mauricio Kagel in Cologne in the 1970s and later became associated with the ''Neue Einfacheit'' (New Simplicity) mo ...

's sixtieth birthday (2009) with contributions by pianis
Jill Richards
musicologist Christine Lucia, and philosopher Jean-Pierre de la Parte, a performance of

Zim Ngqawana Zim Ngqawana (25 December 1959 – 10 May 2011) was a South African flautist and saxophonist. He was later known as Zimology. Biography The youngest of five children, Ngqawana started playing flute at the age of 21, eventually becoming pro ...

and Kyle Shepherd in a scrap yard in Stellenbosch to showcase Aryan Kaganof's film ''An Exhibition of Vandalizim'' (2010); lectures b
Raymond Holden
on 'The Modern Orchestra' (2010); a piano recital by pianis
Daniel-Ben Pienaar
as part of the joint IMS/SASRIM conference at Stellenbosch University (2010); round table discussions The State of the Discipline (chaired b
Christopher Ballantine
and Music and Exile (chaired by Jean-Pierre de la Porte) at the IMS/SASRIM conference in Stellenbosch (2010), lecture series by Jean-Pierre de la Porte entitled 'New Horizons in Composition and Research' (2010); a screening of

's and

Dylan Valley Dylan Valley is a South African filmmaker, born and raised in Cape Town. He has directed work with SABC, Al Jazeera, and independently. He teaches in the television studies department at Wits University. Early years and Education Valley grew up ...

's film ''The Uprising of Hangberg'' in Kayamandi in Stellenbosch and a recording of

Hangberg Hangberg is a neighbourhood of Hout Bay in Cape Town, South Africa. It is situated on the mountain slopes between Hout Bay Harbour and The Sentinel peak, and many of the residents are employed in fishing and other industries related to the harbo ...

reggae band, ''Blaze'', a
Milestone Studio
s in Cape Town (2010).

DOMUS after 2016

Before its formal establishment as a Special Collection in the Stellenbosch University Library and Information Service in 2016, under the headship of Muller DOMUS functioned as both a music heritage preservation and a research initiative. After the creation of th
Africa Open Institute
(AOI) in 2016, DOMUS adopted a more conventional archival orientation in its focus on collecting, conserving/preserving, sorting and cataloguing music collections. The archive retains close links with the music research environment at Stellenbosch University, with the Senior Director of Library and Information Services serving in an ex officio capacity on the Board of AOI, and the Collections Acquisitions Committee of DOMUS retaining representation by AOI. Since 2016, AOI has continued to fund and actively mediate in the acquisition of new archives for DOMUS, including the Werner Nel papers (2019), the John Roos/Hennie Joubert archive (2019), the Rupert Mayr papers (2019) and the Pam Devereux Harris archive (2019). The Africa Open Institute has also continued to fund digitization projects in DOMUS through its 'Delinking Encounters' archive project (2016-2020), funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Collections held in DOMUS

DOMUS houses over 70 collections. These collections that have mostly been acquired by bequest, include (excerpts from collection list):Stellenbosch University Library and Information Service, ''Documentation Centre for Music (DOMUS): Collections and Finding Aids'', 2020. * Andresen, Olaf * Angove, Ivy * Aucamp, Hennie * Bailey, John * Blake, Michael * Bouws, Jan * Bowman, Lionel * Cape Philharmonic Orchestra * Carstens, Nico * Cillié, G.G. * De Villiers, Dirkie * Donald Graham Historical Sound Recordings * Endler, Johann Franz (Hans) * EOAN Group * Goosen, Anton * Grové, Stefans * Hidden Years Music Archiv

* Anton Hartman, Hartman, Anton * International Society for Contemporary Music (NewMusicSA) * James, Christopher * Jannasch, Friedrich Wilhelm *

Kaganof Aryan Kaganof (born 1964 as Ian Kerkhof) is a South African film maker, novelist, poet and fine artist. In 1999 he changed his name to Aryan Kaganof. Partial filmography * 1992: ''Kyodai Makes the Big Time'' (91min, Netherlands), drama featur ...

, Aryan * Konservatorium Collection * Lopez-Lambrechts Collection * Musicological Society of Southern Africa * Nel, Werner * Nepgen, Rosa * Newcater, Graham * Obelisk Music * Petersen, Taliep * Roos, John * Scott, Michael * Simon, John * Stegmann, Frits * Suider-Afrikaanse Kerkorrelistevereniging (SAKOV) * Swanson, Walter * US Choir * Van der Linde, Bernard * Van der Spuy, George * Van Niekerk, Hanlie * Van Rooyen, Bouwer * Van Wyk, Arnold * Weich, Charles

References

{{Authority control Musicology Libraries in Stellenbosch Music libraries Music organisations based in South Africa