ABSTRACT
This chapter explores several aspects of William Henry Bell's aesthetic within the framework of settler-colonial discourse. It investigates the ways in which Bell sought to mediate the "horror" of the already existent art music practices in Cape Town and the contemporary European musical avant-gardism at the time. The chapter provides a critical reading of Bell's A South African Symphony, in which it argues that close reading of musical texts can provide additional insight into the modes of domination and subjugation found in settler-colonial discourses. It focuses on critical reading of notated musical texts embedded within the narratives of settlement and colonialism holds the potential of expanding the vocabulary and index of meaning that accrue to cultural production in places defined by forces. The chapter analyses locating Bell's work within this discourse forms part of a continuing process of reinterpreting South African composition—and, in the broader sense, colonial composition—as intricately and immanently connected with the power relations of settlement and colonization.
