The University of British Columbia

School of Music

Music 220: Music History III

Music as an Expression of the Revolutionary and Enlightenment ideas in Nineteenth

Century Latin America.

Student: Julianna Bouso Rodrguez

Student number: 45994134

Dr. Vera Micznik

December 8th, 2014

Music as an expression of the revolutionary and enlightenment ideas in Nineteenth

Century Latin America.

Music Historians often research and study romantic music in Europe, since it was more

famous and more rich in depth, hence more attractive to analysis. Nevertheless, the

romantic period was a categorically important and decisive period in the Americas,

specifically Latin America and the Caribbean, since it marked the period in which most (if

not all) the Latin American colonies were being liberated from the Spanish crown.

Throughout Latin America, the period between 1810 and 1830 marked the beginnings of

national independence, which was to have considerable influence of musical life of the

incipient nations. These two decades were a time of gradual transition during which the

sentiment of nationalism shaped fundamentally the sociopolitical organization of the new

countries. With new nations being form and the rise of revolutionaries and new streams

of thought being spread during Latin America, Latin American people were exposed to a

new movement that was to shape worlds history forever.

This research paper is going to be drawing on previous research to determine whether or

not music served as an expression of the enlightenment and revolutionary or independent

ideas that were being spread throughout the whole continent, and it is also going to be

comparing several pieces and compositional styles.

The Enlightenment is the period in the history of western thought and culture, stretching

roughly from the mid-decades of the seventeenth century through the eighteenth

century, having its culmination with the French Revolution. This period is characterized by

dramatic revolutions in science, philosophy, society and politics 1. Enlightenment

intellectuals believed that human reason (as opposed to faith and tradition) was the

principal motor to human conduct, hence everything, including politics and religion, had

to be subject to reason in order to maintain the respect of humanity. According to

enlightenment thought, humanity was not corrupt and sinful as Catholicism taught, and

salvation and holiness was not the provider of a good life. Pleasure and happiness were

now realizable. The Enlightenment valorized the individual and the moral legitimacy of

self-interest. It sought to free the individual from all varieties of external corporate or

communal constraints, and it sought to reorganize the political, moral, intellectual, and

economic worlds to serve individual interest.

Most importantly, Enlightenment Ideals and thinkers spread new perceptions of the

government and how it should rule people. It started with Thomas Hobbes who stated

that people were evil and made bad decisions, hence needing absolute monarchs to rule

over them. That theory was refuted by John Locke, who (contrary to Hobbes) said that

humans were born with three natural rights: Life, Liberty and Property, and that it were

the governments duty to protect those natural rights of their citizens. Lockes theory was

partly supported by Montesquieu, who made himself a theory called the separation of

powers in which he stated the importance of the separation of power into three parts:

Executive, Legislative and Judicial, to avoid absolutism. Other theories Rousseaus Social

Contract also changed the peoples perception of the government and the monarchy.

More importantly, ideas and theories stating that the government and the church should 1 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, s.v. Enlightenment, accessed March 20, 2014,

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/enlightenment/

be separated (Voltaire) were specifically good well-received and acclaimed since people

did not longer want to be subject to an absolute monarch who held that his power came

from God.2

In essence, enlightenment ideals inspired the French Revolution and later on the American

Revolution. Many of the ideas that the philosophers developed are essential to modern

democratic society, and they were often developed with the intent of creating that model

of society. Lockes principle of social contract, for instance, greatly influenced the

Founding Fathers of the United States as they planned their new country and it was also of

great importance in France both before and after the French Revolution. These are only

two of many examples of how these ideas influenced later events in Europe alone.

Moreover, the philosophical argument behind the separation of church and state has had

great influence in the formation of democratic societies. Arguments for the separation of

church and state had particular resonance in France, where the clergy had traditionally

supported the power of the monarchy. Nevertheless, philosophers considered religion in

society, primarily for keeping people moral and correct, since the Golden Rule3 was the

central part of all religion, and everything else was designed to attract people to hear the

message.4

2 Zafirovski, Milan. The Enlightenment and Its Effects on Modern Society. Springer (2010)

3 The Golden Rule or ethic of reciprocity is a maxim, ethical code or morality that essentially states that: One

should treat others as one would like others to treat. (extracted from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rule) 4 The Saylor Foundation: Political and Social Impact of the Enlightenment. Available at:

http://www.saylor.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/HIST103-3.3.3-PoliticalSocialImpact-FINAL.pdf

Furthermore, the enlightenment ideals were also powerfully spreading in the Americas,

especially in Latin America. Simon Bolivar5 was returning to Venezuela from Europe after

being educated and trained by Enlightenment thinkers and philosophers. He read deeply

in the works of Hobbes and Spinoza, Holbach and Hume; and the thought of Montesquieu

and Rousseau left its imprint firmly on him and gave him a life-long devotion to reason,

freedom and progress.6 The ideas of liberty and equality inspired independence from

colonial domination in Latin American society, which was mainly driven by social

structure. Similar to the French Revolution, social class struggles and discontent played a

large role in Latin American independence movements. The Spark that ignited wide

spread revolt was napoleon's invasion of Spain. He ousted the Spanish king and placed his

brother Joseph on the Spanish throne. Latin American leaders saw Spain's opportunity to

reject foreign domination and demand independence from colonial rule.

Furthermore, Latin American society was divided into really obvious and apparent social

classes: from native Spaniards to the lowest of the lowest between slaves. The

independence revolutions started (similar to the French Revolution) with the rising of the

lower classes. The respect to the Creoles (Or criollos, people with European ancestry born

in Latin America) was being lost, and the Creoles themselves were rising against the

Spanish crown. The lack of free trade in the colonies also served as a motor to the

revolution and the independence ideas: the colonies produced many goods like wine,

coffee and cacao, textiles, minerals and more, but they were only allowed to trade it with

5 Simon Bolivar: known for l iberating what was La Gran Colombia (Venezuela, Colombia, Per, Panam,

Ecuador and Bolivia) 6 Lynch, John. Simon Bolivar and the Spanish Revolutions. (History Today, 1983). 33:7.

Spain, at rates that were almost non-existent. Many decided to sell illegally to Britain and

North American traders. Spain eventually had to loosen some restrictions.

Moreover, by 1810 the French and the North American revolutions had already happened

and Latin America could see around and notice the revolutions and their results. Some

were a positive influence: the American Revolution was seen by many in South America as

a good example of colonies throwing off European rule and replacing it with a more fair

and democratic society (later, some constitutions of new republics borrowed heavily from

the US Constitution). Other revolutions were negative: the Haitian Revolution terrified

landowners in the Caribbean and northern South America, and as the situation worsened

in Spain, many feared that Spain could not protect them from a similar uprising .

Finally, Spain was getting weaker. The king Charles III died and left his son Charles IV in

charge, who was irresponsible and left the country in charge of his ministers. Spain joined

with Napoleonic France and began fighting the British. With a weak ruler and the Spanish

military tied up, Spain's presence in the New World decreased markedly and the creoles

felt more ignored than ever. After Spanish and French naval forces were crushed at the

Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, Spain's ability to control the colonies lessened even more.

More importantly, there was a growing sense of nationalism in Latin America. Latin

Americans wanted to be different from Spain, and their nationalistic expressions were

seen in men and women that stood up to fight for Latin American rights and freedom, and

it also emerged a new stream of artistic nationalistic expressions, and making music one

of the most important means to deliver the extensively growing nationalism and sense of

property over the land.7

Latin American music was suffering certain modifications, and due to the emerging

nationalism in Latin America, there was an effort to develop artistic activity with the

assistance of local artists. A definable national musical style was starting to be developed

with the emergence of folk and popular characteristics that constituted a large source of

national identity, although the real nationalism and the emergence of national rhythms

were not strongly established until the end of the century. This paper is going to be

focusing specially in Mexico and Cuba, to illustrate what was happening throughout Latin

America.

In Mexico, Italian opera dominated the Mexican musical scene; nevertheless, there were

different national composers that were focusing on nationalism and in the spread of the

revolutionary ideas. The main composer during the revolutionary period was Jos Mariano

Elzaga (1786 1842), who was also influential in the newborn field of music education in

Mexico. Elzaga wrote two influential theoretical treatises: Elementos de la Msica

(elements of the music, 1823) and Principios de la Armona y de la Meloda (Principles of

Harmony and Melody, 1835). His efforts for providing the new republic with solid music

education are widely compared to those of Lowell Mason in the United States 8. As a

composer, Elzaga wrote mostly sacred works in which he adhered to the classical style.

7 Ruiz-Eldredge, Alberto. Nacionalismo y Conflicto en Amrica Latina. Nueva Sociedad (1979). V40, pp 5-18.

8 Behgue, Gerard. Music in Latin America: An introduction. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc. (1979).

On the other hand, Italian Opera was popularized in Mexico by Manuel Garcia, and the

Teatro Principal held a regular annual session of Italian opera. My mid-century local

composers were starting their careers as composers of Italian opera. Composers like Luis

Baca (1826-1855), Cenobio Paniagua (1821-1882), and Malesio Morales (1838-1908)

imitated the models of Italian opera (although those models were getting obsolete in

Europe). The opera Guatimotzin by Angela Peralta is recognized to be the first opera to

integrate and incorporate native elements into Italian style. The libretto, while sticking to

the Italian format, was romanticizing an Aztec theme, which appealed to the nationalist

sentiment of the time.

On the other hand, piano music was also on the rise, and piano solo Mexican composers

were focusing on the national dances, like the jarabe, to compose their works. The

composer Jos Antonio Gmez wrote a series of virtuoso variations using a Jarabe as his

principal theme (1841). Toms Len followed this path in his Jarabe Nacional, and also did

Julio Ituarte in Ecos de Mxico (both ca. 1860), this piece in particular having a

representative and really apparent Mexican style. The national airs contained in Ecos de

Mxico include El Palomo, El Perico, Los Enanos, El Butaquito, El Guajito and Las

Maanitas.

Taken from: Behgue, Gerard. Music in Latin America: An introduction. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc. (1979). Page 99.

Ecos de Mxico illustrates the sort of garb in which popular music had to be clothed to

make it presentable for concert audiences.9

9 IBID. P100

On the other hand, Elorduy and Villanueva cultivated the danza or contradanza Mexicana,

which followed the model of Cuban contradanza which developed in the late eighteenth

and early nineteenth centuries and was the source of many other Cuban dance rhythms

(habanera, danza, danzn) that had a wide influence in Latin America and the world. The

contradanza emphasized typical Afro-Cuban syncopations and new rhythmic figures, and

it also provided of the rhythmic foundation of the tango andaluz. Now, with Villanueva

and Elorduys piano pieces the danza Mexicana emerged as a type of stylized popular

music. These pieces are characterized by the use of polymeter (2/4 versus 3/4), which is

significant, for it reveals the composers awareness of the national quality of hemiola.

IBID. Page 100.

At the same time, Cuba and Puerto Rico were innovating in all musical senses. Music

teaching and music publishing began in Cuba during the first years of the nineteenth

century. The first Academia de Msica in Cuba was opened in 1814 and one of the first

pieces of music published in Cuba was a contradanza, San Pascual Bailn and it was

followed by other national genres like the guaracha and bolero. However, as in other

regions in Latin America, European music dominated the printed sheet music in Cuba.

However, Manuel Saumell and Ignacio Fernandez were two of the composers that

took decisive steps toward musical nationalism in Cuba. As early as 1839 Saumell had

the intention of writing a national opera that would stress certain aspects of Cuban

folkways, but he never carried it out since he was at his best in his small piano pieces

of the Cuban contradanza type, and wrote more than fifty of those in which his

rhythmic and melodic invention is prodigious10. In 2/4 or 6/8, these works reveal a

wide variety of rhythmic combinations. Their second sections generally present the

most national character, by means of rhythmic figuration. Certain rhythmic patterns

that later evolved into dances were certainly introduced by Saumell, like the Cuban

danzn, which appears in mm. 5-8 of La Tedezco.

Taken from: Behgue, Gerard. Music in Latin America: An introduction. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc. (1979). P. 103

10

Carpentier, Alejo. La Msica en Cuba. Mxico: Fondo de Cultura Econmica (1946), p. 257.

Ignacio Cervantes, which is perhaps the most important nineteenth century Cuban

composer, also composed piano contradanzas and other Cuban Dances, and he

successfully incorporated new rhythms such as Afro-Cuban and Guajiro traditions intro

traditional romantic piano style. Cervantes keeps the two parts form of the

contradanza but he adapts habanera and tango rhythms. Also, the rhythms of the son

cubano appear in many of his danzas (zig-zags).

IBID. P. 104

This example reveals some of the most characteristic national traits in Cervantess

danzas. The bass line of the first four measures is founded on the most noticeable

Afro-American type of syncopation, conveyed here with ties over the bar lines. This

figure is a variant of the Cuban conga rhythmic formula. Measure 25 (example 4-4b)

provide a good illustration of the most characteristic figure of Cuban folk and popular

music, known as the cinquillo, which appears in a number of Afro-Caribbean dances

and is the basis for much ritual drumming.

Besides its inherent qualities, Cervantess music foreshadowed a new awareness of

Cuban folk and popular music by Cuban composers, which made possible the further

development of Cuban musical nationalism based on the deepest roots of the country.

Nevertheless, none of this truly resembled or delivered revolutionary or

enlightenment ideas, but they did truly fostered nationalism in Latin America.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, as it can be seen, there were not any examples of music as a deliverer of

enlightenment and revolutionary ideals. Nevertheless, Latin American music did

change after all the revolutionary movements and the spread of enlightenment ideals

of a new nation. Even though according to the research conducted music was not

directly and purposely used as a deliverer of ideals, it was directly affected and it

eventually spread nationalistic ideals, which were necessary for the new born and

growing nations. Music, as always, plays a colossal role in history, and Latin America is

not the exception.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

John M. Schechter, Daniel E. Sheehy and Ronald R. Smith. Ethnomusicology, Vol. 29,

No. 2 (Spring - Summer, 1985), pp. 317-330

Henry Grattan Doyle: The Understanding of Other Cultures: Latin America. The Americas, Vol. 11, No. 1 (Jul., 1954), pp. 19-30

Maria Gembero Ustarroz and Emilio Ros-Fabregas: La msica y el atlantico: relaciones musicales entre Espana y Latinoamerica. (Granada: Universidad de Granada, 2007)

Bethell, Leslie: A cultural history of Latin America: literature, music, and the visual arts in

the 19th and 20th centuries. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998)

Acree, William: Building nineteenth-century Latin America: re-rooted cultures, identities, and nations. (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2009)

Lynch, John. Simon Bolivar and the Spanish Revolutions. (History Today, 1983). 33:7.

Carpentier, Alejo. La Msica en Cuba. Mxico: Fondo de Cultura Econmica (1946), p.

257.

Behgue, Gerard. Music in Latin America: An introduction. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc. (1979).