Música brasileira pelo mundo: uma análise sobre o perfil dos gêneros musicais subvencionados pela Política de Difusão Cultural do Itamaraty (1964-1982)

Abstract

How did Itamaraty help the world discover Brazilian music? Which musical genres were prioritized by Itamaraty’s Cultural Dissemination Policy? How did this curation contribute to the establishment of a hierarchy within Brazilian music? This thesis attempts to answer these questions based on Itamaraty’s historical archives located in Brasília and the digital archives of five national newspapers (Folha de São Paulo, Jornal do Brasil, Estado de São Paulo, Correio da Manhã, and O Globo), as well as interviews with a diplomat (Rubens Ricupero) and two artists (Cristina Ortiz and Fernando Cerqueira) who received grants from Itamaraty.

The documentation gathered from these sources provided insight into the funding of popular and folk music, the publication of sheet music and catalogs of musical works, as well as the production of radio programs and the purchase and shipment of records to embassies.

This body of documentation made it possible to examine the commercial negotiations between record labels and the Civil-Military Dictatorship, the growth of the cultural industry, and the process of establishing a hierarchy within Brazilian music. This was achieved through a discussion of the concepts of distinction (Bourdieu) and practice and representations (Chartier), which were contextualized by the history of music conservatories in Brazil, as well as a reflection on the construction of the evolutionary trajectory of Brazilian music.

This theoretical framework was complemented by a discussion of cultural diplomacy, which was grounded in the following concepts: cultural diplomacy (Ribeiro 2011), cultural expansion policy (Ferreira 2006), cultural foreign policy and foreign cultural policy (Chistofoletti 2024), public diplomacy and propaganda (Valdez 2012), and attraction policies (Jaremtchuk 2023), in addition to the conflicts within the Cultural Department of Itamaraty (Zétola 2011).