A trágica e ambígua racialização do discurso musicológico brasileiro

Abstract

The present research approaches the racialization of the Brazilian musicology discourse, which affects the building of a Brazilian musicological thinking in a decisive way. I shall propose the observation of the crucial moments in the building of these musicological narratives, observing the multiple living panoramas around the racial theories in Western thinking and its consequences in the civilization process of Brazilian culture. I shall seek to understand how racial discourse has intrinsically developed in Brazilian historiography, causing it to be assimilated by other areas of knowledge and, thus, also be used in musicological discourses. Therefore, I intend to briefly start with a study of the issues which surround the racial relations in the world we live, in order to understand how the skin color, regardless of ones origin, has historically been transformed in a sign of scorn. I shall do it in order to search for an approach to the subjects that go far beyond the usual thinking. To begin with, two authors were chosen: Guilherme de Mello and Renato Almeida. The reason I chose these two authors is that they were the first to systematize a history of Brazilian music. However, throughout this paper I shall bring into spot the works of several other authors, in order to demonstrate the tendencies which put them together and end by signing some sort of predictability in the musicological discourse. Starting from this perception is possible to observe the creating of canons, which, throughout 20th century, were responsible for constructing what we recognize as the Brazilian musicological discourse nowadays.