MUSICAL CONSTRUCTIONS of AFRO-BAHIAN IDENTITIES by Juan Diego Diaz Meneses a THESIS SUBMITTED in PARTIAL
ORKESTRA RUMPILEZZ: MUSICAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF AFRO-BAHIAN IDENTITIES by Juan Diego Diaz Meneses A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (Ethnomusicology) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) March 2014 © Juan Diego Diaz Meneses, 2014 Abstract This dissertation examines the relationship between music and politics of black identities in Salvador, Bahia (Brazil), an epicenter of Afro-Brazilian culture. It focuses on discourses of blackness and on the role of grooves, instruments, symbolism, and perceptions of carnival music, candomblé, and jazz in the contruction of black identities in Bahia. I propose a model that integrates discourses of black primitivism and empowerment with seven notions commonly associated with black and African music: rhythmicity, percussiveness, spirituality, communalism, embodiment, traditionalism, and closeness to nature. My contribution uses a Foucauldian interpretation of these notions to explain how they work together to form discourses of blackness, not on the notions themselves for they are all widely known. The model accommodates a wide range of interpretations of these themes offering more flexible views of blackness. A Bahian big band called Rumpilezz that blends jazz with various forms of Afro- Bahian music (such as candomblé and samba-reggae), serves as my laboratory for applying this model. Aspects of public self-representation, performance practice, music structure, and musical reception
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