Musical Instruments as Scriptive Things: Instrument-Body Interactions & Racial Play in the Brazilian Music Scene in Austin, Texas

This article views musical instruments in the Brazilian music scene of Austin, Texas as scriptive things (Bernstein 2009) -material objects that "assert" themselves by demanding specific human interactions. This perspective offers a means to examine how racialized ideas come to be learned...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Journal of musicological research Vol. 43; no. 2-3; pp. 98 - 113
Main Author LaFevers, Cory
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Philadelphia Routledge 02.07.2024
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Brazilian culture
Ethnomusicology
Human relations
Music
Musical instruments
Race
United States > US
Austin Texas
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:This article views musical instruments in the Brazilian music scene of Austin, Texas as scriptive things (Bernstein 2009) -material objects that "assert" themselves by demanding specific human interactions. This perspective offers a means to examine how racialized ideas come to be learned and embodied via particular subject-object relations. I argue that white Americans' engagement in the scene often constitutes a form of racial drag or play, wherein ideas about-and the boundaries of-blackness and whiteness are ultimately reified. This article contributes to the broad scope and intersectionality of organology by merging Performance Studies and Ethnomusicological approaches to racial formation.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
ISSN:0141-1896
1547-7304
DOI:10.1080/01411896.2024.2405716