Praising the Criminal in Song

Songs about outlaws have been sung since Antiquity; the cult of the brigand seems to be a quirky feature of the human psyche. Without attempting explanations for the phenomenon, the talk will focus on a selection of such ballads, with the intent of highlighting the very different approaches from which they are built. Complementing a strong tradition of studies about bandit songs which centers exclusively on the words sung, the lecture will explore both literary and musical elements, understanding both as signs which represent attitudes, and reinforcing the unitary nature of a song as an inextricable complex of words and sounds.

It begins with the largest repertory of criminal songs, the jácara, instances of which were sung at liturgical feasts throughout Spain and Latin America in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Beggar’s Opera of 1728, performed in London will provide a link to the twentieth-century tradition originating from Die Dreigroschenoper of Brecht and Weill and continuing through songs and recordings by Louis Armstrong, Bobby Darin, the Uruguayan group »Los iracundos«, the Ópera do malandro by Chico Buarque and finally the famous Pedro Navaja by Rubén Blades.

Leonardo Waisman retired as a Research Fellow at the Argentinian National Scientific and Technological Research Council (CONICET). He has published on the Italian madrigal, Colonial music in the Americas, the Spanish villancico, Argentine popular music, the social insertion of musical styles and the composer Vicente Martín y Soler.