Jeffrey Pijpers | University of Amsterdam (original) (raw)
Between 2009 and 2016 I have written and defended my PhD Dissertation on Cuban and Brazilian marginalized musicians at ASCA, Amsterdam University. Because I have an academic background of (Latin American) literature studies, combined with my experience as a musician, I perceive music as an interaction between lyrics, melody, rhythm, use of instruments (including the voice) and performance.
My analyses of songs by marginalized Cuban and Brazilian musicians focus on all these aspects of form and content, while constantly situating the analysis in the socio-political contexts of late 1980s Cuba and early 1970s Brazil. Although there are obvious differences between the right-wing technocrat military regime in Brazil and the socialist "Revolutionary" government in Cuba, both authoritative state forms exercise a censorship over artistic expression that is quite similar.
Also the way in which the young musicians in both countries and time periods respond to this censorship, shows important similarities. Censored by nationalist discourses and alienated from societies that were disrupted by dictatorial regimes and diaspora, both the Cuban "Generación de los Topos" and the Brazilian "Margináis" or "Malditos" used their marginal identities as a way to subvert hegemony from the inside.
I have introduced the concept of "detuning" as a way to explain this subtle form of marginal subversion through music. Also, I use this concept that refers to the blurring of separations (between notes) to redefine the concepts of diaspora and testimony in contexts where the separation between the inside and outside realm of the homeland becomes blurred and the location of enunciation of the testifying (diasporic) subject is therefore no longer clearly identifiable.
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Mieke Bal, Prof. Dr. Esther Peeren, and Dr. Cornelia Gräbner
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Papers by Jeffrey Pijpers
Espacio Tiempo y Forma. Serie VII, Historia del Arte, 2016
In this article I propose to conceive music as a sonic object that, different from visual art for... more In this article I propose to conceive music as a sonic object that, different from visual art forms, has its own ways of moving through time and space. Through the analysis of the song “Aquele abraço,” written in 1969 by the Brazilian musician and performer Gilberto Gil, I will focus on how he narrates an experience, which, I argue, is affectively diasporic. This means that the sense of alienation from the homeland is not exclusively related to a physical separation, but also to the affective induction of this experience. Departing from the notions of Brian Massumi and those of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari about the nature and the experience of affect, I will explore how affect also emerges as an intensity circulating between bodies, which I relate to resonance and harmonic musical representation. This allows me to reflect on the dwelling in multiple worlds that is presented in the song’s narration, as well as on its layering of performative characteristics that interact with the listener on an affective level.
When approaching music as a narrative, one has to keep in mind that the song to be analyzed canno... more When approaching music as a narrative, one has to keep in mind that the song to be analyzed cannot be approached through its textual content alone, but that the sonic content of its rhyme, rhythm, melody and the voice of the singer play a decisive role in its "narration." Whereas a song's textual content can lead a completely separate life from the melody and the voice of the singer, its rhythm is an element that traverses both the textual and the sonic realm and creates their irrefutable interconnection. Thus, if a song is considered as a narration that is being read on various levels of sensation by its listener, the possible slowness and fastness of a 'reading' becomes heavily dependent on the pace dictated by the song's performance. Nonetheless, pace is not an absolute value, as "slow" or "fast" can depend on the particular execution, adaptation or even "remix" of the song, on the mood of the performer, or on a particular way of interacting with the audience. Especially in the last case, the notion of closeness or distance, which is my focus in this paper, is crucial for determining the way in which performer and audience are connected. During a live performance, proximity -which is not necessarily a physical nearness -can result in an active participation in a song by the audience, or can change the way in which a song is being performed. When listening to a recorded song, however, closeness can mean the physical proximity of the listener to the recording -think not only of bringing your ear closer to a loudspeaker to hear better but also of headphones through which the speaker can be inserted into the ear -or the proximity between the microphone and the singer in the studio, resulting in recordings that capture sounds of the performer's breathing and swallowing, bringing them (sometimes uncomfortably) close to the listener.
Rodopi Thamyris / Intersecting: Performing Poetry, Apr 2011
Tiempo de Hibernación, Jul 2011
Repom - Revista de Estudos Poético-Musicais, Jul 2007
Espacio Tiempo y Forma. Serie VII, Historia del Arte, 2016
In this article I propose to conceive music as a sonic object that, different from visual art for... more In this article I propose to conceive music as a sonic object that, different from visual art forms, has its own ways of moving through time and space. Through the analysis of the song “Aquele abraço,” written in 1969 by the Brazilian musician and performer Gilberto Gil, I will focus on how he narrates an experience, which, I argue, is affectively diasporic. This means that the sense of alienation from the homeland is not exclusively related to a physical separation, but also to the affective induction of this experience. Departing from the notions of Brian Massumi and those of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari about the nature and the experience of affect, I will explore how affect also emerges as an intensity circulating between bodies, which I relate to resonance and harmonic musical representation. This allows me to reflect on the dwelling in multiple worlds that is presented in the song’s narration, as well as on its layering of performative characteristics that interact with the listener on an affective level.
When approaching music as a narrative, one has to keep in mind that the song to be analyzed canno... more When approaching music as a narrative, one has to keep in mind that the song to be analyzed cannot be approached through its textual content alone, but that the sonic content of its rhyme, rhythm, melody and the voice of the singer play a decisive role in its "narration." Whereas a song's textual content can lead a completely separate life from the melody and the voice of the singer, its rhythm is an element that traverses both the textual and the sonic realm and creates their irrefutable interconnection. Thus, if a song is considered as a narration that is being read on various levels of sensation by its listener, the possible slowness and fastness of a 'reading' becomes heavily dependent on the pace dictated by the song's performance. Nonetheless, pace is not an absolute value, as "slow" or "fast" can depend on the particular execution, adaptation or even "remix" of the song, on the mood of the performer, or on a particular way of interacting with the audience. Especially in the last case, the notion of closeness or distance, which is my focus in this paper, is crucial for determining the way in which performer and audience are connected. During a live performance, proximity -which is not necessarily a physical nearness -can result in an active participation in a song by the audience, or can change the way in which a song is being performed. When listening to a recorded song, however, closeness can mean the physical proximity of the listener to the recording -think not only of bringing your ear closer to a loudspeaker to hear better but also of headphones through which the speaker can be inserted into the ear -or the proximity between the microphone and the singer in the studio, resulting in recordings that capture sounds of the performer's breathing and swallowing, bringing them (sometimes uncomfortably) close to the listener.
Rodopi Thamyris / Intersecting: Performing Poetry, Apr 2011
Tiempo de Hibernación, Jul 2011
Repom - Revista de Estudos Poético-Musicais, Jul 2007