Sounds of Civilization and Progress: Music and Cosmopolitanism in Rio de Janeiro at the Turn of the 20th Century

FAIN: FT-57008-09

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

The work investigates the role of music in shaping Rio de Janeiro's urban culture at the turn of the 20th century (1889-1914) and examines the sonic symbols of the new Republican political and intellectual motto "civilization and progress." The goals are: to characterize the city's sonic Belle époque; to examine the diversification of public entertainment and the emergence of a local music industry before WWI; to assess musical fashions and their connections to cosmopolitan ideals of the Belle époque; and to understand the links between music, early discussions of national identity, and the early stages of the international dissemination of music. During the summer of 2009, I will examine the vogue in Rio de Janeiro for French works that use special orchestral effects to describe landscapes. My focus will be on the relationship between the music by French composers, the concert repertory and music criticism in Rio de Janeiro, and works produced by composers active in Rio.

Associated Products

Cosmopolitanism and World Music in Rio de Janeiro at the Turn of the Twentieth Century (Article)
Title: Cosmopolitanism and World Music in Rio de Janeiro at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
Author: Cristina Magaldi
Abstract: In this essay I focus on the international circulation of music as a globalizing force that allowed for the creation of a cosmopolitan culture in the early 1900s. My main goal is to offer insights into issues of cosmopolitan identities and popular musics in general, and in the Brazilian capital in particular. Rather than presenting early popular musics in Rio de Janeiro in their potential to display early signs of Brazilianness, I show the emergence of popular music in the city as part of a larger context of international urban culture. I am interested in an emergent musical cosmopolitanism and in early examples of “world music” as ephemeral international fashions that can offer an alternative to the often historicized understandings of the role of music in identity politics of early twentieth-century Brazil.
Year: 2009
Primary URL: http://mq.oxfordjournals.org
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: The Musical Quarterly
Publisher: Oxford University Press

Prizes

Irving Lowens Award for Best Article
Date: 10/10/2010
Organization: Society for American Music

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