Iberian Soundscapes Conference Brought Together Scholars in the Pursuit of Music
On Friday, Oct 6 and Saturday, Oct 7, the Council on Latin American & Iberian Studies (CLAIS) hosted the Road Ahead: Iberian Soundscapes conference, co-organized with the Department of Latin American & Iberian Studies at Columbia University.
Iberian Soundscapes brought together scholars and performers from all over the world to bring a unique focus to histories of music and performance by debating the ongoing impact of Iberian seaborne expansion in shaping identities, social distinctions, and cultural expressions. In addittion to CLAIS, the conference was made possible through the generous support of numerous co-sponsors, including the MacMillan Center´’s Council on African Studies, European Studies, South Asian Studies, and the George Herbert Walker Jr. Lecture Fund, the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, as well as the Columbia University Department of Latin American & Iberian Cultures, CSSD, and SSRC, the Universidade de São Paulo, Instituto Braudel, and the Malcolm C. Batchelor Fund for Portuguese at Yale’s Department of Spanish & Portuguese.
As Ana Paulina Lee, Associate Professor of Latin American and Iberian Cultures at Columbia, noted, “The Road Ahead: Iberian Soundscapes was the first conference in Yale and Columbia’s history to bring together scholars, musicians, and journalists who work on Portuguese colonial histories in Asia, Africa, and Brazil. Exploring these histories brings to light the origins of the African and Asian slave trade, overseas colonial expansion, and the cultural exchanges and ideological constructs that arose from encounters have been largely overlooked in the US academy and point to the urgency for more studies and conversations about Iberian Afro-Asian histories.”
The panels, many featuring presentations with captivating illustrations and music, spanned from acoustic sound analysis to empathetic listening, and interactions with early Goan photographs, showcasing a remarkable diversity of thought. David Jackson, Professor of Luso-Brazilian Studies at Yale, remarked how “the historical tapestry of sound culture, from the haunting echoes of the Taj Mahal Room to the followers of Cesária Évora in Cape Verde, and the emergence of sound in the Afro-Brazilian choro and samba groups in Brazil, along with collections of ‘78 records under the Libersound project in Aveiro, Portugal, provided a rich and diverse reservoir of content.”
This diversity was further underscored by two concerts, one on each day of the event. On Friday, October 6th, Iberian Soundscapes hosted “An Evening of Indian Ragas and Talas,” featuring Stephen Slawek, a disciple of Ravi Shankar — renowned as both a soloist and an expert in South Asian ethnomusicology — on the sitar, Samir Chatterjee on the tabla, and Deepika Slawek on the tanpura. The event was open to the public and was very well-attended by the Yale community.
Tiago Souza, a master of the Brazilian bandolim and choro music, added to the impressive array of activities and participants with his concert on Saturday, October 7th, “Choro-Samba-Jazz.” Accompanied by Rogério Souza on the seven-string guitar and Stephen Guerra on the six-string guitar (as well as two surprise guests), a performance that reaffirmed the cultural richness of the expansive Luso-Brazilian-African-Asian diaspora. The two concerts resonated with the overarching theme of the “soundscapes” conference, which aimed to document the vast tapestry of music, cultures, and performances that evolved from the historic Portuguese and Iberian explorations.
From panels to concerts and many lively conversations during conference downtime, The Road Ahead: Iberian Soundscapes was an exhilarating and thought-provoking experience for panelists and attendees alike. “It was a true pleasure participating in the organizing committee and finally meeting our members in person. Our team members brought incredible energy, creativity, and intellectual force that I hope we can continue to build on in the road ahead,” remarked Professor Lee, and we can’t help but agree.
Panels and concerts are available for viewing through the official Iberian Soundscapes playlist. For more information on Iberian Soundscapes and to keep track of future events, please check out The Road Ahead website.
By Inês Forjaz de Lacerda, Graduate Communications Fellow, ines.lacerda@yale.edu