Stefans Grové is the most celebrated of the first generation of South African composers. He is the only South African composer to date on which a book critical essays has appeared (A Composer in Africa: Essays on the Life and Work of Stefans Grové, Sun Press, 2006), he has received honorary doctorates from the Universities of the Free State and Pretoria and in 2008 he was given honorary membership of the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns. Grové was the first South African recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship and taught for fourteen years at the world-renowned Peabody Conservatoire. He has lived in Pretoria since 1973, where he taught as professor in composition at the University of Pretoria until his retirement in 1987. He is still composer in residence at this university.

In May this year, Grové donated sketches, autographs and printed scores of nearly one hundred of his works to DOMUS for conservation, cataloguing and use for research and performance. The collection contains, with only few exceptions, Grové’s entire work list to date, which means that researchers and musicians will for the first time be able to view and study the composer’s entire oeuvre in one place. The music now housed at DOMUS includes previously unknown youth works: an untitled orchestral piece written in his matric year (1941), a Fantasy for piano and string orchestra (1939) first performed by Dodds Miller as conductor and the Cape Town radio orchestra, a Ballet suite for two pianos (1944), his first string quartet written under the guidance of W.H. Bell in Cape Town (1945) and a Sonatina for clarinet and piano (1946).

Apart from works from Grové’s neo-classical period (including the autograph of his 1955 Flute Sonata recorded by Jean-Pierre Rampal), and his much discussed African style that was already inaugurated with the ballet Waratha (1976), this donation also contains unusual finds. One of these is the stylistic imitations (1967-1995) performed by Grové to great acclaim in America and inspired by Rosemary Brown’s ‘Beyond the Fringe’ recording of 1966. This music, like the imitation piece Cantata Profana (of which the text was reportedly written during a beer drinking session), opens new perspectives on the legendary humour and wit that distinguishes Grové’s music from those of his more melancholic, neo-romantic South African peers. Another unusual work in this collection is the un-orchestrated score of an historical opera, Die bose wind (1983). Based on folk songs, the opera takes its theme from the free burgher rebellion and is situated in Cape Town (somewhere between 1779 and 1783). This work was commissioned by the then Cape Board for the Performing Arts (CAPAB) and has never been performed.

The Grové Collection is one of the most important music collections in South Africa. The donation of this material to DOMUS means that Stellenbosch University is well-poised to become an important centre for research on one of South Africa’s greatest composers.

May 2008