The Sungscape as a Repository of Memory and Promoter of New Landscapes: the Case of Música Raiz in the South of Minas

Abstract

This paper –which is part of the doctoral research undertaken between 2009 and 2012 in the field of Ethnomusicology regarding ethnographic material in the Jacutinga municipality, a region inthe south of the Brazilian state, Minas Gerais– aims to analyse the protagonism of música raiz in the south of Minas through the application of the sungscape concept, in a process which guardsboth the individual and collective memory whilst also affording the emergence of new landscapes. This concept is adopted as in the romance –a sung genre which is central to música raiz– the poetic narrative acts as a witness of the history of a universe associated with rural ways of life in central south-east Brazil. As música raiz is understood in this context as a musical universe which includes various ‘rhythms’ –such as the moda-de-viola, the pagode-de-viola, the querumana, the guarânia, amongst others–, performed by a duo singing in duet, accompanied by a viola caipira. The term embraces the segments of música caipira and música sertaneja due to the fact that, for the protagonists, the classifications converge. Thus, memory is entextualised in the moda –a minimal unit of music for analysis– which when performed, evokes a variety of characteristic elements from a human, territorial and sound cartography, associated with the universe designated by caipira. The sense of belonging and of identification with this paradigm provokes a recontextualisation of these elements, causing new landscapes and practices to emerge and gain new significance –in some cases, acquiring the status of soundmarks, such as the ox-drawn-car, the berrante and the monjolo.