ORCID

https://orcid.org/0009-0000-9113-0190

Date of Award

12-18-2024

Author's School

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Author's Department

Music

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Type

Dissertation

Abstract

This dissertation considers the relationship between Brazilian instrumental music, U.S. jazz, and Brazilian national identity from the early twentieth century to the present. Though the time frame is broad, the present work uses nationalism as an anchoring point through which I analyze multiple musical genres. Previous works have primarily examined songs and lyrics, particularly during the military dictatorship (1964-85), when words against the regime were censored and songwriters persecuted. However, listeners and musicians of instrumental music also engaged with discourses of national identity in profound terms before, during, and after this period, posing ideals of Brasilidade against cultural productions abroad, particularly the United States. I consider how musicians, audiences, critics, and politicians in Brazil and the U.S. have expressed and contested issues of national identity through the lens of instrumental music, considering genres like samba-jazz, jazz-fusion, and choro-jazz. I employ an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on musicology, cultural studies, and political theory, with scholarly methods like archival research and musical transcriptions. I argue that national identity is a fluid concept. In Brazil, national identity shifted from a pseudo-racial democracy to claim that the spirit of the nation lay on what I argue were acceptable forms of Blackness. Musicians, playing choro, samba-jazz, and choro-jazz showed multifarious ways to challenge and push ideals of nationalism embracing quintessentially Black culture from Brazil and abroad. Nationalism as I argue is weaponized by cultural and political elites to promote or contend artistic productions in which musicians have deftly navigated to establish a professional identity.

Language

English (en)

Chair and Committee

Patrick Burke

Committee Members

Esther Kurtz; Paige McGinley; Paul Steinbeck; Rami Stucky

Available for download on Tuesday, January 13, 2026

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