UC Santa Cruz UC Santa Cruz Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Early Music and Latin America. Transhistorical Views on the Coloniality of Sound Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/63b2j65k Author Michel, Melodie Publication Date 2021 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ EARLY MUSIC AND LATIN AMERICA: TRANS-HISTORICAL VIEWS ON THE COLONIALITY OF SOUND A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in MUSIC with an emphasis in LATIN AMERICAN AND LATINO STUDIES by Melodie Michel March 2021 The dissertation of Melodie Michel is approved: ___________________________ Professor Nicol Hammond, chair ___________________________ Professor Dard Neuman ___________________________ Professor Fernando Leiva ___________________________ Professor Larry Polansky ___________________________ Professor Alejandro Vera ___________________________ Quentin Williams Acting Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Table of Contents Table of contents iii List of figures vii Abstract viii Acknowledgements x Introduction 1 Music scholarship and decolonial methods 13 The birdsong from Canada 13 Exoticism in occidentalism 14 Is “difference” in the Other or in the Same? 15 How the shift from ‘music’ to ‘sound’ allowed a critique of the colonial order 19 Contributions from the margins 20 Race, racism, and the musical disciplines 23 Methodology 24 Ethnography and sociology of WAM practices, including Early Music 25 Interviews and oral history 28 Notes on auto-ethnography, and positionality of the author 31 Research in the archive 34 Digital Ethnography 35 Connecting theory and practice 38 Conclusion on the methods 40 Chapters description 41 Chapter 1 - Coloniality of Sound 41 Chapter 2 - The vilancico de negro 42 Chapter 3 - Anglocentrism and the Erasure of the Iberian Past 43 Chapter 4 - Goings and comings back (1) 44 Chapter 5 - The Colonial repertoire 45 Chapter 6 - Goings and comings back (2) 46 Chapter 1 - Coloniality of sound: Revisiting WAM history through the lens of coloniality/modernity. 48 Introduction 48 The Concept of coloniality 54 The Colonial/modern system of domination 54 Coloniality of being, and the colonial wound 57 Concurrent paradigms: invention or discovery? 59 iii Coloniality of time and the invention of history 60 The construction of the Kantian dualism 62 Coloniality of gender and epistemicides 64 WAM History through Coloniality’s Lens 66 Musical notation: an instrument of power 66 From a heretic Other to a sub-ontological Other: ways of encoding Sameness through sound 72 The Use of the ficta in the transitioning period 76 Early Modern temporalities and its expression in Western music 79 Conclusion to chapter 1 81 Capítulo 2 - Colonialidade do som, um estudo de caso: O vilancico de negro e a performatividade da branquitude 86 Introdução 86 Vilancico de negro: uma definição 89 O universalismo: invisibilização da branquitude 92 A religião como unificador e a invenção da raça 93 Continuidade no mito da Democracia Racial 94 A Língua de Preto 96 Polarização da sociedade: o som como divisão 100 O marcador racial sónico 101 Delimitação espacial e moralização da raça 109 O tópico musical do negro nos vilancicos 113 A integração e aceitação como forma escondida de apropriação, controle e legitimação dos centros de poder. 115 Os princípios da apropriação cultural 118 A construção duma legitimidade e a falsa hegemonia 121 A branquitude aspiracional 124 Conclusão: A afirmação da identidade como modo de resistência. 128 Chapter 3 - Anglocentrism and the erasure of the Iberian past 131 Introduction 131 The place of Latin America in the current musical canon 134 Romanticism and the Construction of National Music 138 Renaissance Humanism and the claim of a Greek Legacy 146 Race anxiety in Renaissance Europe and discrimination toward Spain and Portugal 150 Conclusion to chapter 3: Temporal layers in the otherization of Iberian music 153 Chapitre 4 - Allers-retours, 1ère partie: 156 Introduction 157 Fuite vers le Sud et re-création de symboles identitaires 159 De l’Allemagne vers le reste du monde 161 iv Les effets du nazisme et la seconde guerre mondiale 166 Le mouvement en Amérique Latine 168 Les années 70: Un exil à rebours 178 La Musique Ancienne comme articulation entre passé et futur 181 Après le “retour”, d’autres allers-retours plus fugaces et la construction de liens durables. 183 Sud Américains et Musique Ancienne: les raisons d’un succès 186 La naissance d’une soi-disant ‘mafia argentine’ 191 Conclusion: identité, migration, et musique ancienne. 200 Chapter 5 - The Colonial music repertoire 206 Introduction 206 Musicologists, precursors of a revelation 208 1992 and the musical ‘discovery’ of the Americas 218 The institutionalization of a new “mode” in the LAEMR 226 How does sound mean? 230 The complicated relationship between the Colonial repertoire and Latin American musicians 239 Conclusion of chapter 5 246 Capítulo 6 - Idas y Vueltas, 2a parte 249 ¿Por qué la Música Antigua? 253 La educación formal de Música Antigua en Latinoamérica: dificultades y desafíos 260 Especialización y migración 268 Alternativas locales 272 El desarrollo de una nueva escena 278 Revisitar el repertorio 284 Conclusiones sobre el capítulo 6 291 Conclusion 295 Appendix: Translations 302 Chapter 2 - Coloniality of sound, a case study: The vilancico de negro and the performativity of whiteness 303 Introduction 303 Vilancico de negro: a definition 306 Universalism and the invisibility of whiteness 309 Religion as unifyer, and the invention of race 310 Continuity in the myth of racial democracy 311 The Língua de Preto (Black tongue) 313 Polarization of society: the sound as division 317 Sonic racial markers 318 v Spatial delimitation and moralization of race 325 Musical topics in the vilancicos de negro 329 Integration and inclusiveness as a hidden form of appropriation, control and legitimation of centers of power 331 The principles of cultural appropriation 333 Construction of legitimacy and fake hegemony 337 Aspirational whiteness 340 Conclusion: The affirmation of identity as a way of resistance 344 Chapter 4 – Goings and comings, 1st part 347 Introduction 348 Flight to the South and the recreation of identity symbols 349 From Germany to the Rest of the World 352 The Effects of Nazism and WWII 356 The Movement in Latin America 358 The 1970s: An Exile In Reverse 368 Early Music as an Articulation Between Past and Future 371 After the “return”, more goings and comings and the building of lasting bonds 372 South Americans and Early Music: the reasons for success 375 The birth of a so-called “Argentinian mafia” 380 Conclusion: Identity, Migration, and Early Music 388 Chapter 6 – Goings and Comings, part 2 394 Introduction 394 Why Early Music? 398 Formal teaching of Early Music in Latin America: difficulties and challenges 405 Specialization and migration 411 Local alternatives 415 A new scene emerges 422 Revisiting the repertoire 427 Conclusions to chapter 6 433 References 437 Bibliography 437 Manuscripts 456 Webpages 456 Selected discography 458 Audiovisual resources 459 vi List of Figures Fig 1. Bologna Neumes. MS. 105. Italy, eleventh century. (p.70). https://www.schoyencollection.com/music-notation/bologna-neumes/missal-bologna- neumes-ms-105 Consulted October 17, 2020. Fig 2: The Guidonian hand in Micrologus by Guido d’Arezzo, Italy 1026. (p.71) https://www.arezzonotizie.it/foto/eventi/le-preziose-pagine-del- micrologus/micrologus-5.html Consulted October 17, 2020. Fig 3: Ola Toro Zente Pleta, De Negro a 7. P - Cug MM232 ff. 37v -39. Transcrição Manuela Lopes 2015. (p.105, 322) Fig 4: A Minino Tam Bonitio, (Resposta a 5). P - Cug MM227 ff. 21 -21v. Transcrição Octavio Páez Granados, 2013. (p.107, 323) Fig. 5. Los Incas 71, Record Cover. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn2PHWkMWoY Consulted January 2, 2021. (p.178, 368) Fig. 6. Bariloche course flyer. https://www.barilochense.com/espacios-de-shows-y- espectaculos/camping-musical/seminario-interdisciplinario-de-musica-antigua- bariloche-2020-2019-12-21-30-04# Consulted October 16, 2020. (p.184, 373) vii Abstract Early Music and Latin America: Trans-Historical Views on the Coloniality of Sound Melodie Michel This dissertation explores the Early Music history, practice, and repertoire from Latin America and places it in relation to recent challenges in musicology and ethnomusicology to decolonize our disciplines. This research is based on archival and ethnographic work conducted in Europe and Latin America in 2018 and 2019. I explore the geopolitics of knowledge that has placed Europe at the center of our historical narratives, and the strategies used by Europeans to maintain their privileged condition. I demonstrate how the racist and exclusive strategies that were at play in the Colonial music repertoire are still pervasive today in the ways we perform and listen to it. By exploring transnational and trans-historical musical practices, this dissertation shows how some of the tools that have been used in the past to racially delimit whiteness are still in use today, especially in predominantly white circles of Early Music performers and audiences. However, I argue that some circles of Early Music also have the potential to propose a different approach. In this work, I focus on the processes of coloniality that produce and reproduce eurocentric hegemony. viii Subsequently, I compare these processes to potential decolonial