Recontexualizing Afro-Latin Religious Music

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

How does Afro-Latin religious music change when in new settings and supporting new goals? Ethnomusicologists have repeatedly shown that the circulation of musicians, instruments, and music associated with religious rituals to new locations or for different purposes can affect interpretations of audiences and practitioners. The mobility of any Afro-Latin religious music may also affect such particularities as divine veneration, social alterity, Afro-diasporic musical traits, and Pan-African dialogue. This panel not only examines diverse case studies, especially those related to the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomblé, but also convenes presenters from varied professions directly involved in these recontextualizations, thereby recontextualizing the discourse as well as the subject. The first presenter combines ethnographic research with theories from ethnomusicology, anthropology, and history to scrutinize the complex relationships that coalesce when Afro-Brazilian devotees in Congado and Candomblé cross the sonic threshold between the sacred and the secular to enact their positionalities on ecological and social justice. Second, a master Brazilian musician reflects on experiences performing music of Candomblé in wide-ranging contexts, from worship houses in Salvador da Bahia to concert halls in Brazil and abroad. Third, an ethnomusicologist analyzes performance-based workshops of Candomblé’s music and dance for undergraduate students in the U.S. with respect to intercultural education. Fourth, a museum curator of musical instruments compares exhibitions that seek to teach the general public about Afro-Latin religious cultures through music while minimizing ethnocentrism.Fifth, a producer of Afro-Brazilian music in Brazil and the U.S. explains collaborative projects that combine Afro-Brazilian and Afro-Cuban, sacred and secular music with jazz.

Sub Track

• Afro-Latin/Indigenous Peoples

Session Organizers

• Marc M Gidal, Ramapo College of New Jersey

• Genevieve E Dempsey, Harvard University

Chairs

• Marc M Gidal, Ramapo College of New Jersey

• Genevieve E Dempsey, Harvard University

Individual Presentations

• Ethical Overtones in the Music Rituals of Afro-Brazilian Congado and Candomblé - Genevieve E Dempsey, Harvard University

• Perspectives of a musician of Candomblé: from worship houses in Bahia to international concert halls - Dende Macedo

• Intercultural competence and collegiate workshops of Candomblé music and dance in the U.S. - Marc M Gidal, Ramapo College of New Jersey

• Curating the Tangible and the Intangible: Afro-Latin Religious Music at the Musical Instrument Museum - Daniel Piper, Musical Instrument Museum

• Afro-Cuban and Afro-Brazilian jazz projects and collaborations: Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra and Letieres Leite & Orkestra Rumpilezz - Eric S Taller, Afro Latin Jazz Alliance