Entre a memória e o esquecimento: as atividades musicais itabiritenses e a atuação do compositor negro Tertuliano Silva (1897-1973)

Abstract

The district of Itabira do Campo (Minas Gerais, Brazil), which has been designated the city of Itabirito since 1923, is a cradle of music ensembles that are still active and produce intense music. Over the years, the city's musical activities have accompanied urban social development, and research into Itabirito's musical past reveals events, milestones, subjects and institutions that help and contribute to the construction of its identity. This work includes a narrative about the musical activities between 1897 and 1973, identified in the documentary sources researched. In the first part, we deal with what was recorded and preserved by the city, categorizing the festivities, musicians and groups that took part in the construction of the city and an approach to the trajectory of two corporations active in the municipality: Santa Cecília (1896) and União Itabiritense (1930). In the second part, we investigate the black composer from the north of Minas Gerais, Tertuliano Silva (1897-1973) and the scarcity of information about his work and performance in the city of Itabirito/MG, dialoguing with discussions about racism in the Brazilian musicological field. Based on theoretical references such as the studies of Abdias do Nascimento (2016), Franz Fanon (2020), Kofi Agawu (2016), Philip Ewell (2021) and Jonatha do Carmo (2014), this thesis seeks to contribute to the inclusion of the academic production of black people in the systematic musicological debate. For the discussion on the nonrepresentativeness of the composer Tertuliano Silva, we will seek through the specific investigation of Waltzes - within a global, Brazilian and Itabiritense trajectory - to demonstrate how these compositions dialogued with legitimized social spaces (periodicals, musical corporations and the recording industry), promoting a connection between the composer and the universe of hegemonic music practiced and acculturated in Brazil. For this study, an example was taken of three compositions by Tertuliano Silva, looking for elements and forms of appropriation of tonal language, compositional style and possible influences, understood as forms of conditioning of hegemonic social structures that characterize the composer's style and the type of production carried out, culminating in the assimilation of culture that prevents or delays the emergence of other characteristics and possibilities linked to the composer's racial and social origins.