El Sistema and the Alternatives:
Social Action through Music in Critical Perspective
Friday 24 & Saturday 25 April 2015
Room 349, Senate House, University of London
In association with the Institute of Latin American Studies, the Latin American
Music Seminar, and the Humanities & Arts Research Centre and the Music
Department (Royal Holloway, University of London)
Friday
9.00
Registration
9.30
Opening remarks (Geoff Baker & Owen Logan)
9.45-11.15
Panel 1
Gustavo Borchert
“The symphony orchestra as a social model under postFordism”
Francesca Carpos
“The London orchestra as a prestige economy”
Anna Bull
“Sistema and social reproduction: safeguarding the
bourgeois social project”
11.15
Coffee/tea
11.45-12.45
Panel 2
Monica Lindgren
& Åsa Bergman
“Struggling for inclusion: Mapping the discursive practice of
El Sistema in Sweden”
Anna Kuuse
“Multimodal use of legitimating El Sistema in Sweden:
Marketing moral values at the national website”
12.45-1.45
Lunch
1.45-3.15
Panel 3
Gustavo Medina
“Deciphering El Sistema: A view from within”
Jonathan Govias
“Reformation or Revolution?”
Emilio Mendoza
“The Emperor Abreu’s new clothes: Show over substance in
El Sistema’s (failed?) ODILA co-project”
3.15
Coffee/tea
3.45-4.45
Panel 4
Stephen Fairbanks
“Contextualizing the El Sistema movement within music
education: Social justice and the transmission of sociocultural values”
Nick Wilsdon
“Established alternatives to El Sistema: The National
Foundation for Youth Music”
4.45
Break
5.00
Keynote:
Professor Robert Fink (UCLA)
“Resurrection symphony: El Sistema as ideology in
Venezuela (and Los Angeles)”
6.00
Wine reception
***
Saturday
9.30
Registration
9.45-11.15
Panel 5
Nicolas Dobson
“Segments, territories, lines of flight: Deleuzian pragmatics
and El Sistema”
Marc Sarazin
“Sistema communities: representations and potential for
social action”
Brian Kaufman
“El Sistema and academic achievement: A model for social
change?”
11.15
Coffee/tea
11.45-12.45
Panel 6
Elaine Sandoval
“Moving beyond classical music in El Sistema: an
exploration of potential frameworks”
Gary Spruce &
“What is a socially just approach to music education?”
Christopher Philpott
12.45-1.45
Lunch
1.45-3.15
Panel 7
Laíze Guazina
“Social projects in Brazil, Orpheonic Chant and biopolitics:
Reflections on music and another possible world”
Juniper Hill
“Developing creative agency in South African music
programs”
Laryssa Whittaker
“Coopting neoliberal logics: Music and dance as
socioeconomic development in South Africa”
3.15
Coffee/tea
3.45-4.45
Panel 8
Guillermo
Rosabal-Coto
“A postcolonial institutional ethnography perspective of
Costa Rica’s El Sistema model”
Sebastián Wanumen “‘La Carranga y los Campesinos’:
Folklore with an
environmental and social agenda”
4.45
Break
5.00
Closing remarks & discussion (Owen Logan & Geoff Baker)
Panel 1
The symphony orchestra as a social model under post-Fordism
Gustavo Borchert
This paper offers a critique of the renegotiation of the symphony orchestra in the
post-Fordist era. In the past decades the symphony orchestra has been revived
by assuming new social roles, two of which are approached in this paper: as a
tool for social inclusion and as a model for post-Fordist corporate management.
Epitomizing these roles respectively, the initiatives El Sistema and The Music
Paradigm portray the orchestra as a model of social relations. In their discourses,
orchestral discipline is recurrently associated with ideals of social performance
promoted under post-Fordism. Taking primarily from commentaries by Michel
Foucault and Gilles Deleuze, I further argue that the ritualization of modern,
linear temporality has a fundamental political dimension in the symphonic
concert event and seems to be a key element in the renegotiation of this
nineteenth century musical institution in contemporaneity. Moreover, this paper
draws not only from my current doctoral research on the topic but also, and
perhaps most importantly, from my reflections as a performer of both
symphonic and popular music.
The London orchestra as a prestige economy
Francesca Carpos
As a professional orchestral bassoon player, I began to consider my experience of
the orchestral community. My beliefs contained assumptions that appeared to
thrive on ambiguity derived from, amongst other things, colloquial expressions
such as ‘old boys’ network’. I believed that this expression described the ways
that networking with ‘useful’ people, such as Freemasons, might be helpful in
order for musicians to become successful. I began to question whether musicians
perceived ‘prestige-seeking’ behaviour as necessary in order to gain work and
therefore money. Competition between self-employed musicians is inevitable,
because there is only so much work that can go around, and musicians need to
consider ‘what you need to do to get ahead’. A central feature of this study is
consideration of the possible contribution of the concept of a ‘Prestige Economy’
(Bascom and Herskovits, 1948; English, 2005; Blackmore and Kandiko, 2011), as
a framework for illuminating perceptions of musicians in their orchestral world.
Ways of understanding the nature of an individual’s interaction with others in an
organizational setting is explored through the lens of this theory; and the model
of a prestige economy may allow insight into the vulnerabilities, inequalities and
tensions of orchestral life.
Sistema and social reproduction: safeguarding the bourgeois social project
Anna Bull
This paper takes as its central problem the fact that classical music in the UK is
consumed and practised by the middle and upper classes but is being used as a
social action programme for the working classes. This starting point is used to
interrogate the reasons for the relative success that Sistema programmes have
had at attracting resources, at a time when funding for music education in the UK
is being cut.
Exploring the discourse of the ‘social benefits’ of classical music in the late
nineteenth century, a particular classed morality in relation to music can be
traced, which has parallels today. This value system can also be seen at play in
mainstream education, in the congruence between the middle classes and the
education system, in which the working classes and some ethnic groups have
consistently been marginalised. Sistema projects draw these excluded groups
into an imagined community of classical musicians. This paper argues that this
symbolic role is an important reason why classical music education attracts
disproportionate investment: it represents young bodies carrying forward a
bourgeois value system. Classical music education can then be re-framed as
representing the hope for the continuation of the bourgeois social project into
the future.
Panel 2
Struggling for inclusion: Mapping the discursive practice of El Sistema in
Sweden
Monica Lindgren & Åsa Bergman
The aim of this presentation is to explore El Sistema from a Swedish contextual
view. El Sistema Sweden was founded in 2010 and is framed within the
Community School of Music, a voluntary after- school music education
programme available in practically every Swedish municipality. The overarching
objective of the educational program in Sweden is to promote social integration
through music communication.
The empirical material, gathered during 2011–2014, includes official documents,
interviews with participants and observations of music lessons and concerts. Our
theoretical point of departure is that musical and educational activities never can
be regarded as politically neutral, because they always, explicitly or implicitly,
are anchored in some kind of social and cultural viewpoint. By that, the material
has been analysed as a social practice in which a particular pattern of action
arises in accordance with the rules prescribed by the discourse. Since the
empirical material is collected on the micro level, with a focus on humans in
interaction, a more narrow, action-oriented perspective is included as well.
The preliminary results show a discursive struggle between four different music
education ideals; the “bildung” ideal related to an Art music tradition, the social
political ideal where the social and democratically potential of music education is
focused, the liberal ideal focusing on pupils’ participation and finally the
educational governed ideal. The discursive struggle can be viewed from two
different perspectives of context, which should be seen as complementary rather
than opposites. From an emic (inside the context) point of departure the struggle
is articulated as a struggle for social inclusion, but from an etic (outside the
context) point of departure the struggle concerns music education ideals.
Multimodal use of legitimating El Sistema in Sweden: Marketing moral
values at the national website
Anna Kuuse
The object with this study is to examine how the implementation and marketing
of El Sistema in the Swedish music educational field uses film material to
legitimate and advertise the value of the project.
The program of El Sistema has since 2010 been implemented in Sweden through
Community School of Art, a tax-financed after-school organisation.
The
commitment, besides the already stated musical aims of using El Sistema as a
tool for social development is there negotiated and the financing of this extended
commission have to build on trustful argumentations. The website of El Sistema
Sweden (www.elsistema.se) distributes all information, news and available
argumentation about the project. Important inherent values are communicated
through pictures and film- material. Since the written material rather inform
about events and concerts than about pedagogical aspects concerning social and
musical learning, the media material seems important for communicating these
values.
In what way is social development legitimated in the media material
studied? In what way are the different actors presented in the films and in what
way could the media- presentation of El Sistema be problematized from a power
perspective? Analytical concepts from multimodal and discourse theory are used
to deconstruct the “text”, such as film-narratives, discourses used in social
actions by social actors and historical as well as power perspectives.
Panel 3
Deciphering El Sistema: A view from within
Gustavo Medina
Reformation or Revolution?
Jonathan Govias
After forty years of operating under different names, missions, and governments,
the Venezuelan youth orchestra network, commonly known as el Sistema, has
firmly established itself in the political and public eye within the South American
country. A virtuous circle of international recognition and increased government
support for Sistema’s activities has driven major domestic expansion, producing
greater enrollment and a subsequent degree of technical excellence that makes
Venezuela the envy of many older, more established music education systems.
But over the same four decades, evolution within Sistema has been restricted
largely to the organization’s domestic positioning for the purposes of
governmental advocacy. Given this history of Sistema, and the weight of national
and international public expectations, can the programme modernize in both
philosophy and practice while preserving the elements that brought it global
fame? Can the orchestra, the most anti-social mode of cultural expression, and
the long-established heart of the Venezuelan music education experience, be a
vehicle for genuine pro-social change?
The proposed paper will examine the origins of current orchestral pedagogy in
Venezuela and the programme’s complex relationship to the international music
performance and education industries. New, emerging avenues of music
education that are potentially complementary to Venezuelan activities will be
identified and explored, and placed into relation to Sistema’s own stated future
ambitions. Finally, the paper will seek an answer to the question: can Sistema be
reformed within a contemporary, informed vision of music education and deliver
on its promises, or is a revolution required?
The Emperor Abreu's new clothes: Show over substance in El Sistema's
(failed?) ODILA co-project
Emilio Mendoza
El Sistema's investment in worldwide PR, linked with a tyrannical leadership
carried out by its founder and solo caudillo, J. A. Abreu, which eliminates most
possibilities of open dissent, has created a dichotomy between what is
apparently believed about this phenomenon and what the reality is and has been
for forty years, as recent studies have began to demonstrate it in print (Baker,
2014). Similarly to Andersen's tale, many voices see a different story of what the
media portrays, but few dare to point it out in public.
This paper focuses on a close examination of the ODILA co-project (Orchestra of
Latin American Instruments), in which El Sistema was involved (1982-85) with
INIDEF, an ethnomusicological institution. It aims to bring light on Abreu's
intentions ending his support for an innovative development of the orchestral
ensemble and Latin American composition, after its immediate exploitation as an
exotic show with duplication potentials.
Abreu's tactical manoeuvres to generate effect and spectacle as well as his
chameleonic political practices are key elements to his accomplishments in
allocating funds necessary for the enormous financial consumption of his
orchestral corporation. Hence, his persistence to achieve growing numbers of
children, orchestras, núcleos and countries involved, is directed towards the
numerical spiral of impact, funding and power, rather than to attain quality and
innovation in music education, social improvement and in the musical arts.
The achievements of the ODILA project outside the realms of El Sistema,
surviving up to today as a non-profit organization, give proofs of yet another
mirage on the face of El Sistema: not all of the Venezuelan "music miracle" has
been solely happening inside his empire of media and power.
Panel 4
Contextualizing the El Sistema movement within music education: Social
justice and the transmission of socio-cultural values
Stephen Fairbanks
Recent years have seen a worldwide proliferation of youth orchestra
programmes identifying themselves as ‘El Sistema-inspired.’ Predominantly,
these programmes have represented themselves as delivering 'social justice'
through their commitment to the 'transmission of culture'. The purpose of this
paper is to (1) recontextualize such reifications within the theoretical
framework of critical theory and (2) suggest how the El Sistema movement
might (re)position itself in relation to the field of music education research.
Primarily, the paper proceeds as a review of existing literature. It also includes
representative findings from a recent case-study of an El Sistema inspired
program in England.
Recent critical scholarship has questioned whether the El Sistema movement’s
efforts to identify a disadvantaged population and deliver a music curriculum
derived from dominant western culture might in actuality perpetuate the very
oppression it is trying to overcome. As a potential way forward, I suggest a
repositioning of the El Sistema movement within music education, where there is
a long and developed research tradition dedicated to exploring the inherent
social, cultural, and political dilemmas when music programmes are enlisted for
social purposes. By honoring the rigorous questioning required by critical
theory, this paper potentially assists practitioners of El Sistema inspired
programmes in broadening and deepening their understanding of what 'social
justice' might mean in the context of music education programmes, ultimately
resulting in the ability to deliver their respective programmes with greater
sensitivity to the cultural messages being conveyed.
Established alternatives to El Sistema: The National Foundation for Youth
Music
Nick Wilsdon
Since 1999 the National Foundation for Youth Music (Youth Music) has been
supporting activities that promote social action through music-making. Through
the presentation of a Case Study from Youth Music’s portfolio (‘Open Up’), a
summary of current formative research on the cross-over between formal and
non-formal music making (‘Exchanging Notes’) and reference to a reflective
pedagogical framework recently developed by Youth Music and the projects it
funds (‘Do, Review, Improve’), El Sistema will be considered within the broader
context of Youth Music’s experience – i.e ‘the alternatives’.
Whilst there are some commonalities between a Sistema approach and the nonformal pedagogies adopted by the organisations Youth Music funds (including
some In Harmony activity), a ‘genre agnostic’ approach that expands beyond the
cultural hegemony of the Western Classical canon has been shown to achieve
equal, if not better ‘results’. This paper aims to show that by adopting an
inclusive approach to music education, musical, personal and social development
can be supported across many different genres, instruments and target groups.
*****************************************
Keynote
Resurrection symphony:
El Sistema as ideology in Venezuela (and Los Angeles)
Professor Robert Fink (UCLA)
One of the most striking aspects of the rise to global prominence of Venezuela's
“system” of youth orchestras has been its rapturous reception by musicians and
musical intellectuals in Europe and North America. How is it that the presence of
student orchestras capable of presenting adequate performances of the standard
orchestral repertoire in a remote South American capital has caused such
excitement? Jose Antonio Abreu, the founder of El sistema, is certainly a master
of publicity and propaganda, having adapted to his project the spectacular,
“magical” style of the Venezuelan petro-state (and its colonial forbears). And
Abreu’s ability to secure state funding for his massive project, rooted in his deep
understanding of the politics of resource extraction and industrial development
(what the Venezuelans call “sowing the oil”), is the subject of open envy in the
West.
But Abreu’s genius for “sleight of hand” goes much deeper than this in its appeal
to European observers. His deeply rooted Catholic ideology posits key ideal
values of Western art music -- order, beauty, harmony -- as social virtues, and
presents them as the material solution to poverty and inequality. This instance of
what Laura Nader has called the “harmony ideology” grounds the classical music
tradition socially, allowing participants and consumers in the West to “believe”
again in the relevance and meaning of the canonic repertoire. Analyzing Abreu’s
political maneuvering, his ideological and aesthetic statements about art music,
the portrayal of his project in Sistema-funded documentaries, and the reactions
of Western researchers and musical celebrities, I will work to undo some of the
mystification that surrounds El sistema. A postscript will report from my own
hometown, where Abreu’s protege, Gustavo Dudamel, and the equally expert
propagandist at the helm of the LA Philharmonic, Deborah Borda, are working
hard (while not spending too much real money) to recreate some of the Master’s
most impressive illusions.
*****************************************
Panel 5
Segments, territories, lines of Flight: Deleuzian pragmatics and El Sistema
Nicolas Dobson
The purpose of this paper is to sketch out, and begin to explore, the
methodological and conceptual framework of a Deleuzian-Guattarian analysis of
El Sistema, with all the richness, scope, and novelty of insight that such a
perspective might offer theory and practice, and in recognition of the centrality
of music to their philosophy. The paper begins by outlining, briefly, the personal
experience of the author in El Sistema-based pedagogy with the project In
Harmony, which will serve as a touchstone for subsequent analysis. It will then
consider the basic problems of a Deleuzian critique rooted in a philosophy of
immanence: specifically the impossibility of occupying a stable, unified vantage
point above and beyond the object of study and, relatedly, the meta-judgments
that any such critique would imply, with the framing narratives shaped by the
“territorialising” drives which impose order on experience but are always
inferred, never given in the Real. We will see, however, that exits from metacritical redundancy remain - “lines of flight”, in Deleuzian terms - even if the
ethical content of their philosophy remains ambiguous, indeterminate, even
troubled. Next, the paper will examine the architecture of Deleuzian thought in
greater detail, and how this makes possible interpretations of El Sistema as a
project conceived synchronically - across an artificially congealed present - and
diachronically, as an unfolding in time. We will consider El Sistema in the context
of the bold conceptual innovations which define their philosophical method,
including “the arborescent and rhizomatic”, “segments”, “smooth and striated
space”, “the war machine” and “faciality”. The final section explores the practical
implications of such a critique, focussing on the philosophical (and cultural)
resources with which we might extend it, enrich it and place it in an orientation
to institutional change, as well as on the possibilities for further interdisciplinary
research.
Sistema communities: representations and potential for social action
Marc Sarazin
Many advocates of Sistema programmes, both in and outside Venezuela, claim
that the orchestras in these programmes are “models of community” (Abreu in
Tunstall 2012: 70). Yet studies suggest that communities in Sistema
programmes, and in orchestras more generally, may not always promote young
people’s well-being and development (e.g. Baker 2014, Cottrell 2004). A broader
question underlies such debates: what kinds of communities arise in educational
settings which focus on performance outcomes as well as intensive, collective
learning? Are Sistema communities conducive to promoting the social inclusion
of all?
The present paper addresses these questions by relating theories of educational
communities to Sistema programmes. It reviews theories on Psychological Sense
of Community (McMillan and Chavis 1986, Osterman 2000) and school climate
(e.g. Thapa et al 2013) to find out what makes positive educational communities.
It then compares these features of positive communities with accounts from over
a dozen semi-structured interviews with Sistema practitioners. It also compares
them with findings from studies of Sistema programmes and similar educational
settings. The accounts and findings suggest that, although Sistema practitioners
tend to see these features as integral to their programme and practice, they may
not be present in all Sistema programmes, and they may not be perceived
equally by students within programmes. Finally, the paper presents a theoretical
model which draws on theories of social networks, peer relations, and
communities of practice. The model predicts that students may experience
unequal psychological outcomes in Sistema settings, namely depending on their
musical ability.
El Sistema and academic achievement: A model for social change?
Brian Kaufman In 2010, the Conservatory Lab Charter School (CLCS), a Massachusetts public
elementary school, adopted an El Sistema inspired vision. El Sistema programs
aim to positively impact youth social development through musical
development. However, academic development, specifically in language and
math, has been a key measurement for social development as evidenced by
government funding and efforts to improve academic test scores in low-income
communities.
Aims
This study aimed to measure the CLCS student’s academic, musical, and social
development. Researchers expected positive impacts on academic and social
development in addition to musical development.
Methods and Results
A music literacy test developed by Dr. Larry Scripp, New England Conservatory’s
Chair of Music Education, was administered to all students. The assessment
measures musical ability through language and mathematical music problem
solving tasks. Results were compared to 4th-6th grade students’ performance on
the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, a language and math
standardized test. Correlation between test results indicates musical skill
acquisition is a significant predictor for academic development (r = .51, p <
.0001).
Surveys developed by Katherine Campe, a Harvard graduate student, measured
responses from students, parents, and teachers about CLCS student’s selfregulation skills,
responsibility, motivation, and peer-respect; responses indicate the El Sistemainspired program was perceived as a positive influence. Future studies aim to
better understand the relationship between musical, academic, and social
development and how El Sistema programs can more deeply impact students.
Panel 6
Moving beyond classical music in El Sistema: an exploration of potential
frameworks
Elaine Sandoval
In his 2014 monograph, Baker indicates the gaps between rhetoric and reality in
El Sistema programming, arguing that ideals of social justice rarely trickle down
into pedagogy. One such gap deserving further exploration is that of the music
cultures represented in El Sistema curricula. In my paper, I build upon the
argument that pedagogy truly aligned with social development goals questions
the dominance of classical Western music in curricula as a colonial and
assimilationist construct. Indeed, many proponents of social justice in the
general discourse of music education have argued for decolonizing Eurocentric
programs toward including local cultural representation (see e.g., Bates 2012,
Bradley 2006 and 2012). The proliferation of global El Sistema-inspired
programming in a variety of cultural contexts foregrounds this question; this is
particularly the case in the United States where the majority of students served
by El Sistema-inspired programs are of an ethnic minority background.
My paper will contextualize El Sistema through an examination of the
scholarship on multicultural music education and culturally relevant pedagogy,
two discourses that promote the representation of non-Western classical music
cultures in curricula. Motivated by El Sistema ideals (i.e. rhetoric) of social
justice, I will also point out shortcomings of these pedagogical areas, and
consider possible applications of curricula within a specifically ensemble-based
approach. Furthermore, I explore ways in which curricular development might
be informed by the ethnographic methodologies of ethnomusicology. My
presentation will demonstrate how research can inform the development of El
Sistema-inspired pedagogies that more rigorously pursue social justice.
What is a socially just approach to music education?
Gary Spruce & Christopher Philpott
Contemporary music education exists in an age of privatisation, marketization
and advocacy. As an increasing number of music education ‘providers’ compete
for finite and often decreasing resources (both financial and time-bound), more
and more ambitious and speculative claims are made for the benefits of music
and music education which often reach to social justice dimensions or agendas
as forms of legitimation or claims for privileging.
However can all models or approaches to music education be described as
socially just and can all those that lay claim to a social justice agenda do so with
equal legitimacy? We will argue that claims to further social justice agendas
through particular approaches to music education need to be examined with
healthy scepticism and interrogated in terms of the values, aims and pedagogical
relationships that underpin them and following Bowman (2013) evaluated and
valued in terms of the extent to which they contribute to ‘human thriving’ (4).
Working from a definition of social justice for music education which includes
both democratic and emancipatory indicators, we examine the social and
cultural processes that have confounded social justice in music education in spite
of significant policy and curriculum change over the last five decades.
We conclude by critically exploring examples of contemporary pedagogies of
music education and arguing for an approach to music education which is
concerned with the emancipation of the voice of the learner through the creation
of dialogical spaces within which there is a ‘dynamic and continuous emergence
of meaning’ (Wegerif, 2011, 180).
Panel 7
Social projects in Brazil, Orpheonic chant, and biopolitics: Reflections on
music and another possible world
Laíze Guazina
In this paper, I will examine some aspects of social projects in Brazil, specifically
those promoted by NGOs which focus on teaching music to adolescents and
children living in poor areas. These projects are commonly associated with
musical practices and social action, and confront a range of social problems. I will
analyse four interconnected aspects: (a) the methodological and epistemological
plurality present in the transmission of musical practices; (b) the association
with logics of salvation and disqualifications such as the “lack of” culture, selfesteem and others; (c) invisibility or fragility of rights; (d) connections with an
academic Music education. All these elements contribute to the co-emergence of
musical practices and the production of subjectivities by teachers, students and
society itself, with trends of liberty as well as of control. This contradictory
context expresses experiences, proposals and consequences linked to
neoliberalism and its effects, such as segregation and violence – some with deep
historical roots – in addition to struggles for survival and means of making life
more worthwhile, more creative and with more socially just. The Brazilian case
has some similarities with Orpheonic Chant – a nationalist program of musical
education designed by composer Villa-Lobos for “civilizing” and “disciplining”
Brazilian people, using music as part of the creation of “Brazilianess” - which was
active during the government of Getúlio Vargas (1930-1945), overlapping the
authoritarian period of the Estado Novo. My doctoral research - focused mainly
on the theoretical and methodological articulation of Ethnomusicology based
on Michel Foucault’s contributions - is the foundation for this debate, which
includes new reflections developed during my post doctoral research.
Developing creative agency in South African music programs
Juniper Hill
In post-apartheid South Africa, numerous individuals and institutions have
dedicated themselves to providing opportunities for socially disadvantaged
youth and workers through community music and music education programs. In
my recent ethnographic research in the Cape Town area, I have focused on
programs employing strategies for developing participants’ individual agency as
creative music makers. Some of these programs train township youths to
improvise bebop solos in jazz bands. Other programs encourage improvisation
and composition in local vernacular idioms (such as coloured Afrikaans folk
music, African marimba music, and hip-hop), often drawing pedagogical
approaches from music therapy, such as compositional scaffolding. The creative
agency of program participants may have been inhibited by a multiplicity of
factors, encompassing low self-esteem, low motivation, lack of role models,
unequal access to education, lack of resources, continuing political-economic
oppression, and so on. In this presentation, I highlight the common components
of these programs that appear to be effective in enhancing individual creative
agency. I then share narratives of how some program alumni found that their
increased creative agency in music transferred to extra-musical domains. Finally,
I conclude with a critical discussion weighing the benefits of these programs
with potentially problematic colonialesque paternalism and neoliberalist
financial structures.
Coopting neoliberal logics: Music and dance as socioeconomic development
in South Africa
Laryssa Whittaker
The South African Field Band Foundation (FBF) employs music and dance
specifically for the purpose of building “life skills” in underprivileged youth. The
goal is to increase chances for upward social mobility amongst a
socioeconomically marginalised population, in an economy where the gap
between rich and poor has increased since the end of apartheid under largely
neoliberal policy. The FBF’s partnerships with South African and multinational
business are a cornerstone of their financial base, and their programme
resonates in many ways with the government’s explicitly neoliberal agenda for
arts and culture. Additionally, the FBF employs the idiom of the marching band,
which, like orchestras, has long associations with imperial power, made audible
and visible in military and missionary contexts. Familiar tropes of discipline and
teamwork are present in rehearsals, conceptualised as integral to the idiom.
However, important adaptations of instrumentation, genre, and performance
practice have been made that result in a new, hybridised idiom. While certain
aspects of the idiom resonate with a neoliberal impetus to create the “docile
bodies” that are needed for South Africa’s contemporary economy and thus
exhibit value to the businesses that support local bands, certain aspects of
funding, pedagogy, and performance practice have potential to exploit ruptures
in the hegemony of neoliberalism. I will argue that the FBF could not function as
it does without the neoliberal logics that underpin its goals, but identify
dimensions of its work that indicate the potential for socioeconomic
transformation that supersedes the limitations of neoliberal frameworks for
development.
Panel 8
A postcolonial, macro perspective of Costa Rica’s El Sistema model
Guillermo Rosabal-Coto
In this paper I undertake a macro analysis of the goals of the Costa Rican version
of “El Sistema.” I do so through postcolonial institutional ethnography, my own
ethnographic analysis. I contend that Costa Rica’s El Sistema-based model is a
neocolonial institution. Its goals are based on a “development” discourse that
legitimates the neoliberal policy that governs the 21st century international
market, in which Costa Rica is only a small, subaltern participant. I emphasize
that the articulation of such discourse perpetuates colonial-based notions and
practices that sustained the creation of a national identity, within the cultural
Europeanization of Costa Rica, after it became an independent nation in the 19th
century. This analysis is based on partial conclusions of a doctoral dissertation
that unveils macro relationships that organize social interactions in music
learning in Costa Rica.
‘La Carranga y los Campensinos’:
Folklore with Environmental and Social
Agenda
Sebastián Wanumen
In 1977, Colombian folk musician Jorge Velosa founded the group Los
Carrangueros de Ráquira. The economic industry in the village where Velosa was
born, Ráquira, revolved around a small-scale agricultural system maintained by
‘campesinos’ (peasants) – historically, one of the most oppressed classes in
Colombia. Through his music, Velosa intended to promote the traditions of the
Colombian Boyacá region peasantry, hoping thereby to preserve their life style
and values. Following the release of his first album in 1980, Velosa’s music
gained widespread recognition and, one year later, Los Carrangueros de Ráquira
represented Colombia in the Gran Fiesta en el Madison in New York. The
singularity of the group’s style prompted the creation of a new genre of music,
‘Carranga’, which later came to symbolise the ‘campesino’ identity. Because
Velosa’s songs reflect the Colombian peasantry’s appreciation and respect for
nature, they have been incorporated into primary school environmental
conservation education. But recently, the music of new ‘Carranga’ performers,
which popularity has grown in the region, is delivering messages of gender
discrimination. This paper analyses the various social issues addressed by and
possible positive and negatives impacts of Velosa’s music generated by
implementation in education. The paper also comments on the way in which
post-colonial Andean acculturation and music commodification (emergence of
‘Carranga Sinfónica’ and pseudo-pop ‘Carranga’) is epitomised by ‘Carranga’, and
provides a discussion of modern groups that contradict Velosa’s original goal of
cultural and social preservation.