ABSTRACT
In September 1974 a group of musicians came together in Paris to perform at meetings to mark the first anniversary of the 1973 Chilean coup d’état. The group took the name ¡Karaxú!, which is variously translated in performance as ‘to go forward’ or as ‘a war cry’. In fact ¡Karaxú! is a Quechuasied version of the Spanish carajo, which can be loosely translated colloquially as ‘bugger off’ but in fact means grito de couraje y de rebeldía (a cry of courage and rebellion). This analysis focuses specifically on a set of performances by ¡Karaxú! that took place in the UK some five years later during 1978 and 1979. It differs from other studies of the music of Chilean exiles and, indeed, other approaches to modern urban musical concerts in that it focuses on the concert performance as a whole entity. I analyse the music in performance, providing an analytical framework abstracted from participant observation work with the musicians, and focusing on the negotiation of meaning through the organization of repertoire into a performance structure.
