This is a critical analysis of the music of the Puerto Rican new song movement placed within the cultural and political dynamics of Puerto Rican society. Its focus is the relationship between popular music and cultural politics using the music of the new song movement as a case study. The study is a discourse analysis of a sample of song texts that elucidates the elements and characteristics that define the new song's discourse as an oppositional one. In addition, this study explores possible reasons why that oppositional discourse did not interpellate larger segments of the popular classes, or why it did not become a hegemonic discourse. This inquiry places the song texts in the context of the colonial relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States in order to study the sample using a combination of theoretical perspectives. The study draws from Latin American approaches to the analysis of popular culture, from Antonio Gramsci's theory of hegemony and from various interpretations of Puerto Rican cultural identity. It also studies the texts' articulation of a pro-independence ideology as a key aspect of its oppositional discourse. This analysis sheds light on the relationship between popular culture, cultural identity and nationalism in Puerto Rico. The discourse analysis showed that the Puerto Rican new song movement created a discourse in opposition to the dominant political, economic, military and cultural discourses articulating Puerto Rican society during the 1970's and early 1980's. The discourse of the new song movement was anti-capitalist, anti-colonialist, anti-militarist and advocated Puerto Rico's independence. In its song texts the movement reflected its subscription to several oppositional discourses articulated by pro-independence groups in Puerto Rico. The music of the new song movement served as a form of resistance to the conditions of colonialism in Puerto Rico.

Thesis (M.Mus.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009. / Full text also available online. Scroll down for electronic link.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Anthropology, 2002. / Bibliography: leaves 210-226.

Orientador: Paulo Eduardo Teixeira / Banca: Lídia Maria Viana Possas / Banca: Maria Valéria Barbosa / Banca: Maísa Faleiros da Cunha / Banca: Carlos de Almeida Prado Bacellar / Resumo: Este trabalho objetivou estudar as relações de conflitos na prática musical dos séculos XVIII e XIX, vividas, sobretudo, a partir da formação do bispado (1745) na cidade de São Paulo. Estruturou-se, para tanto, mediante a exploração meticulosa de vasta documentação avulsa, cartas, ofícios e estatutos que forneceram grande quantidade de informações sobre a prática e os conflitos na música, não obstante a presença de novos atores, como mulheres, negros e seus descendentes exercendo a prática musical no cotidiano da cidade. A fundação do bispado na cidade de São Paulo provocou transformações perceptíveis ‒ seja pela construção da Catedral da Sé, seja pela estruturação do culto religioso segundo os preceitos estabelecidos no Concílio de Trento, que se espelhavam no modelo da Sé de Lisboa ‒, desse modo, fortalecendo o padroado conservador representado por Dom Frei Manuel da Ressurreição, o terceiro bispo da Sé (1772-1789). O jogo de poderes eclesiástico e civil, ora unindo-se para realizar e decidir em favor dos seus interesses, ora buscando alternativas para exercer controle sobre a prática da "música de violinos", representaram algumas das rupturas e desordens no meio musical em tela. / Abstract: This work aims at studying the conflictive relations in the musical practice of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, mainly those that emergedafter the formation of the bishopric (1745) in the city of São Paulo. It is structured through the meticulous exploration of vast documentation, letters, statutes, which provided a great deal of information about the practice and conflicts in music, despite the presence of new actors such as women, Black people and their descendants practicing music in the daily life of the city. The foundation of the bishopric in the city of São Paulo provoked noticeable transformations, such as the construction of the Sé Cathedral, as well as the structuring of religious worship according to the precepts established at the Council of Trent and following the model of the Lisbon Cathedral, strengthening the Conservative patron, represented by Don Friar Manuel da Ressurreição, the third bishop of the Sé Cathedral in São Paulo (1772-1789). The struggle between ecclesiastical and civil powers, sometimes uniting to create and decide in favor of their interests, sometimes seeking alternatives to exercise control over the practice of "violin music", represented some of the ruptures and disorders in the musical environment. / Doutor

The relationship between mbira dzavadzimu mode and Zezuru Spirit Possession. This thesis investigates the relationship between mbira dzavadzimu modes and different levels of Zezuru spirit possession. The research adopted an ethnographic paradigm. Fieldwork, participant observation, face-to-face interviews and video recordings were employed during data collection. The theoretical underpinnings of the research were grounded in Neher’s 1960 theory of auditory driving1, Seeger’s 1987 theory of metamorphosis, Wiredu’s 2007 theory of interpretation and Tempels’ 1959 theory of cosmology. The researcher carried out the research from an emic perspective. Both deep reflexivity and narrative reflexivity frameworks were used in the writing of this documentation and editing of my film. The position of mbira music in the religious life of the Zezuru is quite significant in that it is used to evoke spirits in spirit mediums during occasions when the Zezuru communicate with their ancestors. Mbira music is embedded in the modes and tuning systems played on the mbira. The Zezuru believe that the modes belong to the ancestors and are passed from generation to generation as part of their heritage. My hypothesis is that mbira dzavadzimu modes are responsible for evoking spirits in spirit mediums. / Thesis (M.Mus.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

Bibliography: leaves 210-226. Based on 18 months ethnographic fieldwork about the ways in which members of the South Australian Police Band make music. Studies their disconnection from the body of the community, acheived via an embodiment of emotional disconnection; the power of the Department to appropriate a particular order of emotion for the purposes of power; and, the misrecognition of the appropriation of emotion by members of the public who are open to the Department's emotional domination. The context material describes the reasons for the existence of the police band in the police view, while the core material of the thesis is concerned with describing what it is that police band members do, and what they do most of all is, in their own words, experience something that they call "the feel".

Bibliography: leaves 210-226. / vii, 226 leaves : col. ill. ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Based on 18 months ethnographic fieldwork about the ways in which members of the South Australian Police Band make music. Studies their disconnection from the body of the community, acheived via an embodiment of emotional disconnection; the power of the Department to appropriate a particular order of emotion for the purposes of power; and, the misrecognition of the appropriation of emotion by members of the public who are open to the Department's emotional domination. The context material describes the reasons for the existence of the police band in the police view, while the core material of the thesis is concerned with describing what it is that police band members do, and what they do most of all is, in their own words, experience something that they call "the feel". / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Anthropology, 2002