Poder y música clásica en el Portugal del siglo XX

Abstract

This essay analyzes the relations between power and the field of classical music in Portugal throughout the 20th century. The different political regimes in force in the country during this period –the Monarchy inherited from previous centuries and active until the first decade of the century, the Republic proclaimed by the 1910 revolution, the Dictatorship resulting from the military coup of 1926 and solidified with the Estado Novo and, finally, the Democracy after the 1974 revolution– represented important and decisive changes in society and in the generality of the socio-communicative processes. The musical sector –this article refers exclusively to classical music, commonly known as vocal and western instrumental music, excluding parallel sectors such as electronic music or jazz, for example– was no stranger to these more or less peaceful and complex transformations and transitions. From the observation of specific cases of institutions, people or subjects considered representative and exemplary of interrelational dynamics, the musical domain is framed, at the level of education as well, in the corresponding historical and political context.