Music Pedagogy in Venezuela’s Plains: Making Space in Alma Llanera

<p>This dissertation argues that the process of institutionalizing traditional <em>música llanera </em>(plains region music) education in Venezuela is informed by a hierarchical spatialization of the capital, Caracas, and the historically agricultural- and livestock-producing region known as the <em>llanos</em>, or the plains. Drawing on Lefebvre’s <em>The Production of Space </em>(1991), I argue that the representations of space that have defined the llanos region and música llanera often obscure the lived space of music-making and dwelling in the llanos. This dissertation is based on fieldwork in Guárico state between 2016-2018, where I observed the state-funded Alma Llanera program, which had been recently added to Venezuela’s famed national system of orchestral music education, El Sistema. Many critiques of the institutionalization of traditional musics draw on theories of race and coloniality developed in the academy of the Global North. Instead, my ethnography demonstrates that the production of local spatial categories is more salient for understanding how música llanera is practiced in these programs. I demonstrate that the formation of the llanos as a periphery and as a racialized “natural” region to be preserved for nationalism informs how Venezuelans outside the llanos conceive música llanera. This conceptualization is distinct from how música llanera is defined, valued, and performed in the llanos, which in turn informs Alma Llanera’s pedagogical practices of orchestration, use of music notation, and extra-musical technique. I argue that these practices evidence local concepts of justice which include access to state oil wealth, granting authorship to musicians, and promoting self-sufficiency in daily llanos life.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Music

Grantor

The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York

Year dc:date.available

2022

Author dc:creator

• Sandoval, Elaine

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Peter Manuel

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Eliot Bates
• Julie Skurski
• Ludim Pedroza

• Ethnomusicology
• Latin American Studies
• Music Education
• Music Pedagogy
• Social and Cultural Anthropology
• Venezuela
• llanos
• musica llanera
• joropo
• orchestra
• space

Repository record dc:identifier

https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/4651

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:gc_etds-5732