8 Travelling song
-
Parvati Nair
Abstract
Beauty and sadness permeate Isaki Lacuesta's film, La leyenda del tiempo. His films occupy the interesting overlaps of documentary, fiction and auteurist cinema. This chapter explores the idea of flamenco as a contrapuntal form of music in La leyenda del tiempo in order to argue that Lacuesta's film works against essentialist perceptions of flamenco and presents it instead as metaphor for the ephemeral chimeras of identity and belonging, inexorable but ardently pursued. It also explores the view that flamenco as represented in this film comes to life through a kind of performativity that hinges on both a spectral desire for repetition and a contingent migrancy that forces change, hybridity and innovation. Repetition and migrancy impose on this music a spatiotemporal counterpoint that shifts between iteration and translation.
Abstract
Beauty and sadness permeate Isaki Lacuesta's film, La leyenda del tiempo. His films occupy the interesting overlaps of documentary, fiction and auteurist cinema. This chapter explores the idea of flamenco as a contrapuntal form of music in La leyenda del tiempo in order to argue that Lacuesta's film works against essentialist perceptions of flamenco and presents it instead as metaphor for the ephemeral chimeras of identity and belonging, inexorable but ardently pursued. It also explores the view that flamenco as represented in this film comes to life through a kind of performativity that hinges on both a spectral desire for repetition and a contingent migrancy that forces change, hybridity and innovation. Repetition and migrancy impose on this music a spatiotemporal counterpoint that shifts between iteration and translation.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vii
- Contributors ix
- Acknowledgements xvi
- Introduction 1
- 1 Singing of dubious desire 17
- 2 Voicing gender 30
- 3 Bien pagá 51
- 4 El otro lado de la cama 66
- 5 On the function of punk aesthetics in Salto al vacío and Historias del Kronen 83
- 6 Mobile soundscapes in the quinqui film 98
- 7 Song-shaped cinema 114
- 8 Travelling song 134
- 9 Sound moves 151
- 10 The Afro-Cuban soundscape of Mexico City 167
- 11 Blues traveller 189
- 12 Dancing in the dark 206
- 13 Re-making Frida Kahlo through song in Frida 220
- 14 ‘Silence! Fado is about to be sung’ 235
- 15 Sounds from Brazil 249
- 16 Soundtrack to roguery 264
- 17 The Brazilian chanchada’s musical moments and the performance of identity 283
- 18 Orpheus in Babylon 298
- Index 315
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vii
- Contributors ix
- Acknowledgements xvi
- Introduction 1
- 1 Singing of dubious desire 17
- 2 Voicing gender 30
- 3 Bien pagá 51
- 4 El otro lado de la cama 66
- 5 On the function of punk aesthetics in Salto al vacío and Historias del Kronen 83
- 6 Mobile soundscapes in the quinqui film 98
- 7 Song-shaped cinema 114
- 8 Travelling song 134
- 9 Sound moves 151
- 10 The Afro-Cuban soundscape of Mexico City 167
- 11 Blues traveller 189
- 12 Dancing in the dark 206
- 13 Re-making Frida Kahlo through song in Frida 220
- 14 ‘Silence! Fado is about to be sung’ 235
- 15 Sounds from Brazil 249
- 16 Soundtrack to roguery 264
- 17 The Brazilian chanchada’s musical moments and the performance of identity 283
- 18 Orpheus in Babylon 298
- Index 315
