Thirteenth International Conference on The Arts in Society

Abstract

Two ethnographies of musical improvised cultures were carried out within a participatory action research (PAR) framework, and the research was done at several higher education institutions in Brazil (2013-14) and across essential nodes in Portugal (including venues and concert promoters, during 2016-17). The article discusses the concept of free improvisation, as well as its methodological approach, which was born out of practice and an ‘embodied knowing’ (Polanyi, 1966). The author discusses the mixed methodological approach behind the two ethnographies - a research framework understood as neo-anthrop-ethno-auto-graphy, which is aligned with Lippard’s (2010) model of neo-anthro work. PAR methodologies will be examined with view to the writings of Kemmis and McTaggart (2005), and a continuum of pure observation and pure participation is discussed as subsets of what Kathleen M. DeWalt and ‎Billie R. DeWalt (2002) explore in their writing on participant observation. The article offers a summarised interpretation of several of the interviewed musicians (over 50 in Brazil and close to 35 in Portugal) and situates the discussion on free music within the historical and current political and social currents of Brazilian and Portuguese life. The article concludes by linking the skills of listening, an essential practice of free music improvisation, to the work of French composer and pedagogue Alain Savouret (2011) and his concept of the “virtuosity of the ear.”