Performance and Autoethnography in Historical Ethnomusicology: Differentiating the Viola and the Violão

Abstract

This article proposes the combination of performance and autoethnography as alternative methods to make use of musical scores concerning the viola (five‐course guitar) and the violão (six‐course guitar) in historical ethnomusicology. The author performs and records the same set of songs on the viola and the violão, and based on the multidimensionality of the interaction performer/instrument, writes an autoethnography differentiating his experiences in playing at both chordophones. This approach strives for overcoming the duality body/mind in academic musical research and comprises the embodied knowledge that arises from experience as a complementary epistemology to the corpus of knowledge about these instruments. Moreover, it is added the professional viewpoint of the virtuoso viola player Ivan Vilela who, interviewed by the author, gives his impressions about the differences in ergonomics and playing technics between those chordophones.