The End of Song: Improvisation as Social Critique in Brazil

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
JAMES McNALLY
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Social Critique ◽  
Popular Song ◽  
Creative Project ◽  
Free Improvisation ◽  
The World ◽  
Alternative Means ◽  
History Of

Abstract This article addresses an emerging phenomenon in which Brazilian popular musicians have begun to depart from popular song (canção popular) in favour of free improvisation in response to rising authoritarianism. As a case study, I examine the creative project Carta Branca, which brings together popular and experimental musicians from styles such as MPB and hip-hop to perform freely improvised concerts. Following a consideration of the history of Brazilian canção popular, the article discusses how contemporary popular musicians engage in free improvisation as an alternative means of musical critique. I contend that their actions constitute evidence of a broader ‘post-canção’ moment, with the potential to facilitate more flexible and collective ways of responding to Brazil's reactionary moment. The article further discusses how the musicians’ improvisational turn fosters a renewed engagement with a form of cultural improvisation tied to understandings of national identity and being in the world specific to Brazil.

scholarly journals Le «SARS» et les maux identitaires chinois. Néologismes, métissage et tradition de la traduction

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 123
Author(s):  
Florent Villard
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Cultural Nationalism ◽  
Modern History ◽  
Political World ◽  
Modern Chinese ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Globalized World

Dans une Chine contemporaine engagée dans un très important renouveau du discours culturaliste, la langue et l'écriture, en tant que symboles essentialistes de l’identité chinoise, sont aussi l'objet d’enjeux politiques nationalistes. A partir de la querelle autour de la juste appellation à donner au virus du SARS, nous questionnons, dans une perspective historique, la dimension politique et idéologique des néologismes. Il s’agit surtout d’insister sur l’histoire transculturelle des concepts du monde intellectuel et culturel en Chine moderne, et de dépasser l’illusoire opposition discursive entre la posture universaliste et son double culturaliste. Since the mid-1980s, China’s intellectual and political world has been prey to a strong cultural nationalism which has tended to contest or to deny modern history and culture. This paper is a case study which brings to the fore the linguistic quarrel concerning the SARS epidemic which spread over China and part of the world during the Winter of 2002-2003. By discussing this discourse which balances between national identity affirmation and integration in a globalized world, we will try to overcome the triviality of this linguistic quarrel by replacing it in a broader political and historical perspective. This paper aims at insisting on the transcultural history of the modern Chinese cultural and intellectual lexicon helping to overcome the dominant and false discursive opposition between a universalist position and its culturalist counterpart.

Flowers Through Concrete

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliane Fürst
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Psychiatric Hospitals ◽  
Stable Relationship ◽  
Youth Cultures ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Socialism

Flowers through Concrete: Explorations in Soviet Hippieland does what the title promises. It takes readers on a journey into a world few knew existed: the lives and thoughts of Soviet hippies, who in the face of disapproval and repression created a version of Western counterculture, skilfully adapting, manipulating, and shaping it to their late socialist environment. This book is a quasi-guide into the underground hippieland, situating the world of hippies firmly in late Soviet reality and offering an unusual history of the last Soviet decades as well as a case study in the power of transnational youth cultures. It tells the almost forgotten story of how in the late sixties hippie communities sprang up across the Soviet Union, often under the tutelage of a few rebellious youngsters coming from privileged households at the heart of the Soviet establishment. Flowers through Concrete recounts not only a compelling story of survival against the odds—hippies were harassed by police, shorn of their hair by civilian guards, and confined in psychiatric hospitals by doctors who believed nonconformism was a symptom of schizophrenia. It also advances a surprising argument: despite obvious antagonism the land of Soviet hippies and the world of late socialism were not incompatible. Indeed, Soviet hippies and late socialist reality meshed so well that the hostile, yet stable, relationship that emerged was in many ways symbiotic. Ultimately, it was not the KGB but the arrival of capitalism in the 1990s that ended the Soviet hippie sistema.

scholarly journals Ironia i nihilizm. Figura bibliotekarza w Posłuchaniu u Lucypera Józefa Sękowskiego

2019 ◽  
pp. 83-94
Author(s):  
Jarosław Ławski
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Russian Literature ◽  
Absolute Power ◽  
Polish Literature ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

The subject matter of the present article is the image of library and librarian in a forgotten short story by a Polish-Russian writer Józef Julian Sękowski (1800−1858). Sękowski is known in Polish literature as a multi-talented orientalist and polyglot, who changed his national identity in 1832 and began to write only in Russian. In the history of Russian literature he is famous for Library for Reading and Fantastic Voyages of Baron Brambeus, an ironic-grotesque work, which was precursory in Russian prose. Until 1832 Sękowski was, however, a Polish writer. His last significant work was An Audience with Lucypher published in a Polish magazine Bałamut Petersburski (Petersburgian Philanderer) in 1832 and immediately translated into Russian by Sękowski himself under the title Bolszoj wychod u Satany (1833). The library and librarian presented by the author in this piece are a caricature illustration proving his nihilistic worldview. Sękowski is a master of irony and grotesquery, yet the world he creates is deprived of freedom and justice and a book in this world is merely a threat to absolute power.

Modern domestic cinema and the legacy of shaken Aimanov

Keruen ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (69) ◽  
Author(s):  
A.S. Jumadilov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
National Culture ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
National Cinema ◽  
Soviet State ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
First Time

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the post-Soviet state of post-Soviet autonomous republics turned out to be the ideology for which cinematographers and screenwriters have to make a film epic of epoch - national cinema. In this article, the author can only use the ever-present cinematography, the unmerciful nationalistic culture, the ideological orientation of the film industry, the uniqueness or national identity. It's a good idea to have a world-renowned artisan who is doing all the same, seeking internationalization and gloss? Another - cinematic and astrophysical art of Shaken Aimanov, whose works live in volumes or polls, and others. For many years, many changes have taken place in the national cinema, such as national culture, a national emblem of national culture. For the first time in the history of national cinema, national cinema and the world of cinema, the future and future films have been transformed into a lot of changes. The Concept of distinguished singer Shaken Aimanova is embodied in the volume, which, unlike the researchers and artists all over the world of cinema Shaken Aimnayev, the director of which, as long as he is a filmmaker, creates a film studio as part of national culture.

National museums and international museums

1993 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-278
Author(s):  
David M. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Country Of Origin ◽  
Important Material ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
National Museums ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
National Boundaries

At a time when nationalism grows more strident, the role of national museums assumes great importance. National museums encourage not only an understanding of national identity, but also patriotism. While this is natural, it has dangers in that the museum can be used politically to endorse racial and other charged emotions. The great international museums have provided an antidote to such tendencies by providing a universal view of the culture and natural history of the world from the earliest times. Because these museums have important material from other countries they are often attacked as odious relics of colonialism. Rather they should be seen as representative of internationalism and encouraged to collect as widely as possible—within the law. They should not be pressurized into returning material to its country of origin for narrow nationalistic purposes. National museums should themselves collect outside their own national boundaries so that countries can see themselves against the background of other cultures. As nationalism grows, internationalism must be stressed in national museums so that countries may understand each others' culture and points of view.

The Consolation of Community: Innovation and Ideas of History in Ratpert's ‘Casus Sancti Galli’

2013 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
CHRISTINA PÖSSEL
Keyword(s):  
Human Agency ◽  
Rhetorical Strategies ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Monastic History

This paper takes the case study of a well-known but also rather poorly-regarded text, Ratpert of St Gall's Casus Sancti Galli, to examine some of the methodological issues of modern historians reading medieval historians. It is argued that features of Ratpert of St Gall's monastic history which modern readers have found frustrating or even boring were actually the result of the author's specific rhetorical strategies and ideas of history. Ratpert developed an innovative way of writing the history of a Christian community in the mortal world. Unlike other monastic historians who were developing the genre at the time and who followed more hagiographical models, Ratpert chose to put the anonymous, timeless collective of the monks at the centre of his text. His idea of history suggests a lack of effective human agency in the world, in which ups and downs forever follow one another, and contrasts this with the eternity of God.

Pierre-Jean-Baptiste Chomel (1671–1740): A Case Study in Problems Relating to the Social Status of Scientists in the Early Modern Period

1986 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-322
Author(s):  
David Sturdy
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Scientific Activity ◽  
Social Mechanisms ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Practice Of Science

Consider this statement: the practice of science influences and is influenced by the civilization within which it occurs. Or again: scientists do not pursue their activities in a political or social void; like other people, they aspire to make their way in the world by responding to the values and social mechanisms of their day. Set in such simple terms, each statement probably would receive the assent of most scholars interested in the history of science. But there is need for debate on the nature and extent of the interaction between scientific activity and the civilization which incorporates it, as there is on the relations of scientists to the society within which they live. This essay seeks to make a contribution mainly to the second of these topics by taking a French scientist and academician of the eighteenth century and studying him and his family in the light of certain questions. At the end there will be a discussion relating those questions or themes to the wider debate. There is an associated purpose to the exercise: to present an account of the social origins and formation of Pierre-Jean-Baptiste Chomel (botanist, physician and member of the Academic des Sciences) which will augment our knowledge of this particular savant.

Social Smoking and French Fancies: The Dublin Art(s) Club, 1886–98

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-380
Author(s):  
Kathryn Milligan
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Art History ◽  
Cultural Exchange ◽  
Art World ◽  
Active Engagement ◽  
Cultural Revival ◽  
British Art ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City

Abstract ABSTRACT The Dublin Art(s) Club, which operated in the Irish capital from 1886 to 1898, offers an intriguing case study for modes of artistic networks and cultural exchange between Ireland and Britain in the closing decades of the nineteenth century. Despite this, the history of the Club has been little explored in historiography to date, often confused with other ventures by artists in the city. Examining the rise and fall of the Dublin Art(s) Club, along with its members and activities, this article retrieves its history and posits that it offers an example of an aspect of art in Ireland which was conspicuous for its cosmopolitan outlook and active engagement with the wider British art world, which then spanned across both islands. The history of the Dublin Art(s) Club poses a challenge to the extant scholarship of this period in Irish art history, which to date has been largely understood to be focused on themes of national identity, the cultural revival, and artists who left Ireland to train in Belgium and France. This article posits that by re-engaging with the activities of art clubs and societies, a more complex reading of artistic life in Victorian Dublin can emerge.

“The Hora Staccato in Swing!”: Jascha Heifetz's Musical Eclecticism and the Adaptation of Violin Miniatures

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 405-431
Author(s):  
JOSHUA S. WALDEN
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
The United States ◽  
Popular Song ◽  
Tin Pan Alley ◽  
Popular Songs ◽  
History Of

AbstractJascha Heifetz (1901–87) promoted a modern brand of musical eclecticism, recording, performing, and editing adaptations of folk and popular songs while remaining dedicated to the standard violin repertoire and the compositions of his contemporaries. This essay examines the complex influences of his displacement from Eastern Europe and assimilation to the culture of the United States on both the hybridity of his repertoire and the critical reception he received in his new home. It takes as its case study Heifetz's composition of the virtuosic showpiece “Hora Staccato,” based on a Romany violin performance he heard in Bucharest, and his later adaptation of the music into an American swing hit he titled “Hora Swing-cato.” Finally, the essay turns to the field of popular song to consider how two of the works Heifetz performed most frequently were adapted for New York Yiddish radio as Tin Pan Alley–style songs whose lyrics narrate the early twentieth-century immigrant experience. The performance and arrangement history of many of Heifetz's miniatures reveals the multivalent ways in which works in his repertoire, and for some listeners Heifetz himself, were reinterpreted, adapted, and assimilated into American culture.

scholarly journals Analyzing Musical Terminology in Slovene Music Textbooks up until the End of World War II: a case study of the term “note” and some other related terms

2014 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-138
Author(s):  
Jelena Grazio
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Music Theory ◽  
Contrastive Analysis ◽  
World War ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
End Of The World

The following article deals with technical terminology in the field of music. Its intention is to present a chronological-contrastive analysis of musical terminology in Slovene music theory textbooks written up until the end of the World War II, exemplified by the terms selected. The author emphasizes the importance of such research for musicology, presents current contributions in this area and describes the history of musical textbooks that have been used as corpus for the analysis.

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