Yearning and (De)identification in Musical Composition: Latin American Perspectives from a Liminal Gaze

Abstract

This article intends to show a vector of differentiation between nationalism and autoethnography within the discipline of musical composition. It seeks to penetrate the most intimate motives that modulate the creation of a private language in which seeking nourishment in traditional, popular, urban and rural musical elements, as well as musical elements originating in both the written and oral traditions, does not imply some sort of chauvinistic exaltation or glimpses of a possible sense of nationalistic pride, but simply a state of contemplation of outer resonances in the inner world, and vice versa, in a symbiosis sewn of sounds, which are sometimes concrete and referential, and other times abstract. It makes use of autoethnography, of calls to peers who have undertaken similar investigations, and interviews with various composers. One of the most important conclusions therein is the unmasking of the idea of identity, based on the need to be a part of a group (a nation), in which art as its own listener can be sufficient community and consolation when facing the loneliness and sense of banishment that are inherent to existence. The article also suggests the idea that to return home, a pursuit often held in life  and art, precedes our place/country of birth and supposed belonging.