Music and Cosmopolitanism in Rio de Janeiro at the Turn of the 20th Century

FAIN: FB-56940-13

Cristina Magaldi
Towson University (Towson, MD 21252-0001)

I am applying for an NEH fellowship to work on my book Music and Cosmopolitanism in Rio de Janeiro at the Turn of the 20th Century. Through case studies of both concert and popular musics, the book explores the role of music in shaping Rio de Janeiro's urban culture (1889-1914), focusing on how the sonic symbols of the Republican motto of "Civilization and Progress" were articulated within a cosmopolitan context. The goals of the work are: to assess Rio de Janeiro's musical connections to the European Belle Epoque; to explore the musical interactions that resulted from early processes of urbanization, globalization, and the circulation of technology into and out of Rio de Janeiro; and to re-assess the connections between music making outside centers of musical production (Europe and the U.S.) and the commercial, ideological, and aesthetic paradigms of musical nationalism.