Musical activity in Buenos Aires between 1804-1827: A practice that shapes the social spaces of the Buenos Aires elite?

Abstract

Much has been written about the practices of sociability of different social groups and how they relate to different aspects of the social life from the River Plate region at the beginning of the 19th century. In this respect, the historical discipline has opened its perspectives of analysis building on an interesting and wide interdisciplinary framework, though it has not yet reached the field of musicology. Though it could be argued that the above-mentioned lack is based on the specificity of theoretical-practical analysis that the musicology requires, music could also be considered as a practice that loads with symbolism the different material space and the social interaction there developed. The aim of this work is to visualize the particular dynamic of the post colony Creole elite from Buenos Aires in order to achieve an approximation to the socializing spaces -the public and private ones- which the above mentioned group has transited - and therefore, to be able to decode from that stance the functional nature assigned to the music styles developed in the society of 1804-1827 Buenos Aires. For the above mentioned task, the statements of chroniclers, travellers, politicians, writers and diplomats, among others, will be analyzed comparatively. Additionally, we have worked with several newspapers published during the proposed period.