Composers of the Unconscious

In the 1920s, Brazil’s greatest nationalist composers came to believe that nations shared a collective psyche and unconscious. In the face of racial tensions, economic failures, and political revolts, they advocated for a new psychological engagement with music, arguing that only sound waves could reach deep enough to stimulate the evolution of an underdeveloped Brazilian mind. Composers of the Unconscious tells the remarkable story of these early attempts to employ psychology and sound for social engineering.

Combining archival research with in-depth musical analysis, historian Micah Oelze illustrates how and why Brazilian composers used music to elicit reactions in their listeners' unconscious. He deciphers the special chords they employed to manipulate emotions and the distinct melodic shapes they designed to reinforce racial prejudice. Conservatory teachers later developed curricula with these techniques and attempted to manage affect, harmonize race relations, and reform pathologies. The programs were widely integrated into Brazilian life thanks to state and federal government officials who invested significant funds towards this project, which they believed would produce Brazilians who could weather the demands of a rapidly modernizing nation. Composers of the Unconscious teaches us how to listen to the politics at work in the concert music that remains with us today.