The Soundtrack of National Identity: How Music Teaches Us Who We Are
Location
Janet Ayers Academic Center, JAAC 4094
Presentation Type
Presentation
Start Date
22-9-2017 12:00 PM
Description
Music plays a serious role in building communities and identities. We understand this intuitively as we listen to iTunes or Spotify, and governments appreciate it enough to broadcast anthems at their every ritual. But how does the process actually work on the levels of psychology, neurology or sociology? How has it played out across time and space? Music historian Dr. Micah Oelze will share his recent research on nationalist music in 1930s Brazil as a case study to show how music constructs national identities. Since the Brazilian composers had a deep interest in psychology and social reform, the project lends itself to an account of how music and identity are related. To explain that relationship, Dr. Oelze reaches beyond his own discipline, bringing in ideas from the fields of neuroscience, philosophy, psychology and semiotics. This presentation will teach audiences how to be more careful listeners. Then, it will challenge them to recognize that the answers to questions such as, “What does it mean to be American?” or “What does it feel like to be Brazilian?” are, more than we realize, musical in nature.
Recommended Citation
Oelze, Micah, "The Soundtrack of National Identity: How Music Teaches Us Who We Are" (2017). Humanities Symposium. 8.
https://repository.belmont.edu/humanities_symposium/2017/2017/8
The Soundtrack of National Identity: How Music Teaches Us Who We Are
Janet Ayers Academic Center, JAAC 4094
Music plays a serious role in building communities and identities. We understand this intuitively as we listen to iTunes or Spotify, and governments appreciate it enough to broadcast anthems at their every ritual. But how does the process actually work on the levels of psychology, neurology or sociology? How has it played out across time and space? Music historian Dr. Micah Oelze will share his recent research on nationalist music in 1930s Brazil as a case study to show how music constructs national identities. Since the Brazilian composers had a deep interest in psychology and social reform, the project lends itself to an account of how music and identity are related. To explain that relationship, Dr. Oelze reaches beyond his own discipline, bringing in ideas from the fields of neuroscience, philosophy, psychology and semiotics. This presentation will teach audiences how to be more careful listeners. Then, it will challenge them to recognize that the answers to questions such as, “What does it mean to be American?” or “What does it feel like to be Brazilian?” are, more than we realize, musical in nature.
Comments
Convocation Credit: Creative and Performing Arts