Of ships and soundboxes: Contrapuntal explorations of hydrocoloniality and the materiality of music

Abstract

In this paper I explore the relation between music, (enviro)materiality, and coloniality by examining son Jarocho, the music of the Mexican region of Sotavento in southeast Mexico. This essay brings together geography, blue humanities, and ecomusicology, using notions of hydropoetics and hydrocolonialism, building upon the material turn in music geographies. I approach the phenomenological confluence of Sotaventine cedar chordophones and ships using and critiquing Foucauldian theoretics, alongside Hofmeyr’s hydrocolonialism and Gilroy’s circumpelagic theories. I survey the regional histories of luthiery, shipyards and timber trade and their connections, counterpointing these histories with the poetics of son Jarocho and with materials gathered through interviews and music-making alongside musicians and luthiers in Sotavento. From this I propose that musical aesthetics emerge from navigations that are topophilic and imperial. I counterpoint the Sotaventine case with the history of violins and their link to pau-brasil exploitation in Brazil, following ecomusicological works. Surveying histories of cedar and pau-brasil I argue that exploitation and exploration are a univocal aspect of the hydrocolonial project that entangles the biological, geographical, military, and mercantile into the endeavour of the exploração and that this informs musical materialities, poetics, and aesthetics to this day. Lastly, I briefly consider the implications of the hydrocolonial history of musical matters in the context of the Anthropocene. Una versión en español de este texto está disponible en los materiales suplementarios.