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The End of Song: Improvisation as Social Critique in Brazil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2020

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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.

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Twentieth-Century Music , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , February 2021 , pp. 125 - 152
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

I am grateful for the invaluable feedback provided by the Twentieth-Century Music anonymous reviewers, in tandem with Alejandro L. Madrid (as editor). I would also like to thank Christi-Anne Castro, Sabato Visconti, Schuyler Whelden, Deonte Harris, and Jung-Min Mina Lee, who offered crucial insight over the course of the writing process.

References

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