Trajetórias em contraponto: uma abordagem microssociológica da formação superior em piano em duas universidades brasileiras

Abstract

The teaching of Piano in Brazilian universities shows itself as an outcome of a trajectory of the legitimate culture and as a reproduction of the standards inherited by the European conservatorial model, in most cases. However, this conception has faced important challenges, as a reflex of public policies of democratization and interiorization of higher education, among other factors. The consequent raise of university openings for incoming students has lowered the high standards of the selection processes in the auditions, enabling an emerging profile of students that are apparently far from the expectations of the institutions, in terms of technical skills and familiarity with a legitimate musical culture. With this shift in the social morphology of the universitys public as background, this research investigates the clash between what is sociologically defined as the dispositions and competencies possessed by the piano students and those required for university education in piano. Thus, interviews were conducted with 16 students and graduates of two important Brazilian universities: Universidade Federal de São João Del Rei (UFSJ), whose music degree was created in the context of the recent upgrading of higher education access in Brazil; and Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), which offers a music degree since 1962 and has a dominant position in music instruction in the state of Minas Gerais. With this data in hands, sociological portraits (LAHIRE, 2002) of the subjects were created, analyzed and put into categories. Considering the relation of the subjects of the research with the ethos of piano education in the university, three types of trajectories were detected: high adhesion, partial adhesion and reconvertion. In order to conduct the transversal analysis of the portraits, seven axes were used, knowingly: the familiar context and the existing objective conditions; the social capital and the social network; the practices and cultural preferences; the role of the universities; the initial musical education; the relation with the "pianist craft" and the role of subjectivity. The results proved an effective change in the social-cultural profile and demonstrated how the social determinants contemplated in the axes of analysis acted in the construction of the trajectories studied. This research has privileged the works of the french sociologists Pierre Bourdieu, Bernard Lahire and Antoine Hennion as its main theoretical framework. We hope that this work stimulates and enriches the discussion about higher education in music in Brazil.