Edited books by Alberto Hernández Mateos
Dans cet essai, l'abbé Andrés (1740-1817) trace une claire division entre la musique comprise com... more Dans cet essai, l'abbé Andrés (1740-1817) trace une claire division entre la musique comprise comme art, et l'acoustique comprise comme science, et ayant sa propre place parmi les sciences naturelles. C'est dans ce sens que sa conception est totalement moderne: dans son discours, il cristallise un moment critique de l'histoire de la pensée musicale.
Esta publicación, a cargo de Alberto Hernández Mateos, presenta por primera vez la edición comple... more Esta publicación, a cargo de Alberto Hernández Mateos, presenta por primera vez la edición completa del tratado musical de Antonio Eximeno, incluyendo las partes suprimidas o alteradas en la edición española de la obra. El "Estudio preliminar" aborda el perfil biográfico de Eximeno, analiza el sentido innovador del tratado (tanto en su forma como en su contenido), los aspectos no textuales que forman parte esencial del mismo y los cambios introducidos en la traducción.
Este volumen, editado por Alberto Hernández Mateos, reúne los principales escritos sobre música d... more Este volumen, editado por Alberto Hernández Mateos, reúne los principales escritos sobre música de Arthur Schopenhauer. El "Prólogo" analiza el lugar que ocupa la música en el pensamiento del pensador alemán. En su visión, frente a la naturaleza imitativa de las otras artes, la música posee una dimensión "expresiva", en tanto que presenta la voluntad misma a través del sentimiento. La música, ajena a la imitación dle mndo como representación, es un universo autónomo y sujeto a reglas propias.
En este ensayo, extracto de Origen, progresos y estado actual de toda la literatura, el abate Jua... more En este ensayo, extracto de Origen, progresos y estado actual de toda la literatura, el abate Juan Andrés (1750-1817) traza una división clara entre la música, entendida como arte, y la acústica, entendida como ciencia y con un lugar propio entre las ciencias naturales. Su concepción resulta en este sentido plenamenet moderna: en su discurso cristaliza un momento crítico de la historia del pensamiento musical.
Articles by Alberto Hernández Mateos
Popular Music Research Today, 2022
Television ads play a crucial role in election campaigns.
However, there is still a limited numbe... more Television ads play a crucial role in election campaigns.
However, there is still a limited number of studies focused on analysing
the role of music in such spots. The aim of this case study is to analyse the
function of music in one particular electoral advertisement and to study
its contribution to the meaning making process. By drawing on the latest
contributions by Paul Christiansen in the classification of the emotions
evoked by music in electoral spots, and by taking into account other studies
of reference in the fields of musicology and political communication, I put
forward the hypothesis that the music in this ad contributes in structuring
the visual and verbal message, reinforces the candidate’s leadership and
creates an emotional climate of hope. Furthermore, the comparison of this
ad with others from the United States and its interpretation in the context
of the socialist campaign helps expand this hypothesis and explain how
music serves as a transmitter of patriotic feelings. This study allows us to
demonstrate the importance of music in the construction of emotional
narratives in the framework of political communication, and to assess some
factors that explain the success or failure of such narratives.
Artigrama, 2021
La noción de transferencia cultural pone el foco sobre los procesos de reinterpretación de los bi... more La noción de transferencia cultural pone el foco sobre los procesos de reinterpretación de los bienes culturales que transitan entre distintas culturas. Pese a su innegable interés metodológico, esta perspectiva ha sido poco aplicada al estudio de los discursos sobre la música. Partiendo de ese enfoque, en este trabajo se analiza, en primer lugar, la relación con la música de los jesuitas expulsos y su papel como agentes de mediación en la Italia de finales del siglo XVIII. Posteriormente, se examinan los procesos de transferencia de sus discursos al contexto cultural español atendiendo a la relevancia que adquiere en este nuevo marco la actividad de los traductores, así como a la importancia de la coyuntura cultural en los procesos de resignificación de los discursos. Finalmente, y desde una perspectiva diacrónica, se presentan algunos ejemplos que explican los distintos grados de asimilación y reinterpretación de dichos discursos en diversos contextos.
Bulletin of Spanish Studies, 2021
Enseñar y deleitar fueron los objetivos que se autoimpuso el jesuita expulso Antonio Eximeno al e... more Enseñar y deleitar fueron los objetivos que se autoimpuso el jesuita expulso Antonio Eximeno al escribir Investigaciones músicas de Don Lazarillo Vizcardi a comienzos del siglo XIX. Asumiendo la naturaleza doble del texto—como tratado de elocuencia musical y como obra de ficción—, en este trabajo se examina su largo proceso de gestación, se analiza su inserción en distintas tradiciones didácticas (en particular, las asociadas al tratado musical y al Arte poética de Horacio), y se discute su género literario en función de las reflexiones trazadas por el autor en paralelo a lo expuesto por los teóricos de la época.
Mozart a través de sus cartas. Viernes temáticos. Fundación Juan March, 2021
El éxito de la novela epistolar en el siglo XVIII no es sino un reflejo de la importancia que la ... more El éxito de la novela epistolar en el siglo XVIII no es sino un reflejo de la importancia que la comunicación epistolar tenía en aquel momento. Diversos factores habían posibilitado el desarrollo de un tipo de comunicación que permitía que los vínculos familiares, amistosos y comerciales se impusieran a las distancias físicas. El epistolario mozartiano es una buena prueba de esta realidad. Las innumerables cartas escritas por Mozart, por su padre y por otras personas de su entorno describen con detalle sus continuos viajes, sus tribulaciones más íntimas o la génesis de algunas de sus obras. Permiten reconstruir, además, aspectos de la vida cotidiana y del modo de pensar que van más allá de sus circunstancias concrretas y se extienden a cuantos habitaron en la Europa del siglo XVIII. Este amplio corpus documental nos ha permitido conocer con gran detalle la vida del compositor. Pero, al mismo tiempo, ha condicionado su imagen. El paso de estos textos desde la esfera privada a la esfera pública ha hecho que Mozart sea hoy percibido como un personaje literario; como el protagonista de una novela epistolar.
Revista de Musicología, 2019
A mediados del siglo XIX se produce en España un cambio en la actitud hacia la música hispanomusu... more A mediados del siglo XIX se produce en España un cambio en la actitud hacia la música hispanomusulmana, tanto en el ámbito de la composición como en de la historiografía musical. En contraste con la tesis de Eduard Said, para quien el orientalismo es fundamentalmente un instrumento de dominación, son los propios músicos e historiadores españoles quienes llevan a cabo un proceso voluntario de autorientalización y de autoexotización a través del cual recrean el imaginario hispanomusulmán para asimilarlo como una parte integrante de la cultura nacional española. Este artículo analiza las bases historiográficas de esta nueva actitud a partir del estudio de los influyentes textos de Mariano Soriano Fuertes. Para ello, en primer lugar, se describe el tratamiento que Soriano otorga a la música hispanomusulmana y se evalúa en qué medida constituye un paradigma historiográfico heredado por otros historiadores. En segundo lugar, se estudian las fuentes empleadas por Soriano y se analizan las adaptaciones que llevó a cabo para integrar unas ideas de carácter ilustrado en una narrativa eminentemente nacionalista. Finalmente, se interpreta su discurso a la luz de las circunstancias del momento, haciendo aflorar sus presumibles implicaciones políticas.
Clichés musicales: visiones de España, Oct 8, 2018
Con una perspectiva diacrónica, este ensayo aporta algunas claves para entender el origen, el des... more Con una perspectiva diacrónica, este ensayo aporta algunas claves para entender el origen, el desarrollo y la difusión de los clichés vinculados a la "música española" por parte de los compositores no españoles.
Cuadernos de Música Iberoamericana, 2017
En este artículo se plantean algunas cuestiones preliminares a modo de introducción al dosier "Mú... more En este artículo se plantean algunas cuestiones preliminares a modo de introducción al dosier "Música y esfera pública", coordinado por Alberto Hernández Mateos. La primera sección del artículo examina el proceso de traducción, difusión y recepción del texto Historia y crítica de la opinión pública (Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit) de Jürgen Habermas. La segunda analiza las distintas dimensiones del concepto de "esfera pública burguesa" ("Öffentlichkeit"), tal y como ha sido definido por Habermas. La última sección del trabajo expone algunas críticas y ampliaciones del modelo teórico habermasiano, así como distintas vías de aplicación del mismo al ámbito musicológico.
Melodramas. , 2016
El melodrama (también llamado melólogo en España e Italia) es un género teatral que combina la pa... more El melodrama (también llamado melólogo en España e Italia) es un género teatral que combina la palabra declamada y una música compuesta ex profeso. Inventado en el siglo XVIII por Jean-Jacques Rousseau, gozó de una cierta difusión en los años finales de aquella centuria. Tras pasar al olvido como género autónomo, resurgió a mediados del XIX gracias a autores como Liszt o Schumann y, de nuevo, interesó a compositores poswagnerianos como Richard Strauss y a vanguardistas como Arnold Schönberg. Este texto propone una síntesis histórica del género.
Revista de Musicología, 2015
This article studies the process of modernization of musical life in a peripheral city. As such, ... more This article studies the process of modernization of musical life in a peripheral city. As such, it takes the musical activity developed at the Sección de Música of the Escuela de San Eloy in Salamanca between 1838 and 1844 as a starting point. In the text, the social fabric of this institution is analyzed, showing how the Sección de Música served the interests of the new emerging social class. Furthermore, the innovative character of this new model of music education is studied, underlining the social and aesthetic importance of public concerts, which were a novel phenomenon in the city that served to disseminate characteristic repertoire of the period. The article makes reference throughout to the figure of Martín Sánchez Allú, who is linked to the Escuela de San Eloy, and can be considered an archetypal musician (composer and performer) in Isabelline Spain.
Revista de Musicología, 2013
In 1796 and 1797, Francisco Antonio Gutiérrez published his Spanish
translations of Antonio Exime... more In 1796 and 1797, Francisco Antonio Gutiérrez published his Spanish
translations of Antonio Eximeno’s Del origen y reglas de la música and Duda de D. Antonio Eximeno and advertised them in the Diario de Madrid. These advertisements initiated a long series of disputes that at first were focused on the former Jesuit’s texts, but later expanded to include a wide range of aesthetic-musical questions. This article analyzes the debates voiced in the Diario de Madrid between 1796 and
1804 – debates that, from our perspective, constitute a unitary phenomenon articulated through references to Eximeno’s musical thought. This musical thought will be used to construct discourses that reflect the processes of building public opinion in that era, as well as the musical themes that interested both professionals and amateurs at that moment.
Il Saggiatore Musicale, 2012
Questo saggio prende in esame la concezione storiografico-musicale dell’ex-gesuita Antonio Eximen... more Questo saggio prende in esame la concezione storiografico-musicale dell’ex-gesuita Antonio Eximeno (1729-1808), autore del trattato Dell’origine e delle regole della musica (Roma 1774, versione spagnola Madrid 1796), del trattato teorico e polemico Dubbio ... sopra il ‘‘Saggio fondamentale pratico di contrappunto’’ (Roma 1775, versione spagnola Madrid 1797) e del romanzo didattico-musicale D. Lazarillo Vizcardi (ca. 1806, edito a Madrid nel 1872). La visione di Eximeno e` influenzata da
una serie di presupposti personali, quali lo scetticismo nei confronti della possibilita`
di scrivere la storia, l’intento divulgativo, l’utilitarismo: per l’autore, la storia e` lo strumento
con cui dimostrare una teoria musicale logocentrica. Questi aspetti, unitamente
alla mancanza di modelli storiografico-musicali cui riferirsi, danno luogo a una narrazione
dal taglio saggistico: vi si incrociano influenze diverse (promananti dalla
filosofia, dalla storia, dalla filosofia della storia, ecc.), sotto il segno di uno spiccato
carattere soggettivo.
Con tutto cio` , la storia eximeniana si inserisce nella tradizione dell’Illuminismo in
quanto esplicita numerosi concetti caratteristici della storiografia illuminata. Tra essi
risaltano il ‘determinismo geografico’ (esposto dall’Eximeno in termini simili a quelli
di Turgot) e una visione peculiare dell’idea di ‘progresso’, connotata in senso morale.
Occorre inoltre segnalare che l’Eximeno combina modelli di periodizzazione diversi
(in due e in tre stadi, con articolazioni specifiche per il teatro d’opera e per la musica
strumentale), e proietta la sua lettura della storia verso il futuro, pervenendo a conclusioni
non granche´ ottimistiche.
La singolarita` e la soggettivita` del pensiero dell’Eximeno impedirono ch’esso si
imponesse come modello storiografico. I musicografi successivi vi fecero ricorso tutt’al
piu` per estrarne sentenze congeniali alle loro rispettive narrazioni storiche e, in
un’epoca piu` avanzata, per basare su di esso dei cliche´ s di indirizzo nazionalistico.
In ogni caso, ad onta dei suoi limiti, la proposta dell’ex-gesuita rappresenta pur sempre
uno dei primi tentativi di storiografia musicale a livello europeo, e il primissimo in
a`mbito spagnolo. Il suo pregio risiede inoltre nell’esibire come meglio non si potrebbe
le aspirazioni e i limiti del pensiero illuminista, e nel dare accoglienza a multiformi
influenze.
Boccherini Online, 2012
Antonio Eximeno (1729-1808), a Spanish expelled Jesuit, is a prominent representative of the musi... more Antonio Eximeno (1729-1808), a Spanish expelled Jesuit, is a prominent representative of the musical thought of the Age of Enlightenment. Eximeno, the author of diverse musical and aesthetic texts (Dell’origine e delle regole della musica, Dubbio di D. Antonio Eximeno, Las investigaciones músicas de D. Lazarillo Vizcardi), showed great interest for instrumental music precisely when this musical form was on its way to “emancipation”. In this paper we analyse the position that the instrumental music occupies in Eximeno’s thought, stressing his defense of this form of music, despite of those that still had doubts on its possibilities. On the other hand, we study some of his descriptions of events involving the instrumental music; plausible testimonies that contribute to the knowledge of the consumption behaviour of this type of music in the late 18th century Spain. Finally, we study the opinions of specific composers, as well as different meanings they attribute to the concept of “sublime” within their thought, up to becoming the idea that serves to justify the existence of instrumental music, and to outline the existence of two confronted schools: the Northern school (with noted representatives such as Haydn) and the Southern school (with Boccherini at the head).
Book chapters by Alberto Hernández Mateos
En este capítulo se analizan brevemente los puntos en común que mantienen los jesuitas expulsos A... more En este capítulo se analizan brevemente los puntos en común que mantienen los jesuitas expulsos Antonio Eximeno y Juan Andrés en su análisis de la historia de la música.
Enmarcado en un conjunto de estudios en torno al concepto de "lo clásico", este... more Enmarcado en un conjunto de estudios en torno al concepto de "lo clásico", este texto analiza la naturaleza de la "música clásica", entendida como una construcción histórica que solo logra cristalizar cuando la música se desliga de sus vínculos con el clasicismo "histórico"
Intercambios musicales entre España e Italia en los siglos XVIII y XIX - Gli scambi musicali fra Spagna e Italia nei secoli XVIII e XIX, 2019
Among the events that have marked the history of the cultural relations between Italy and Spain, ... more Among the events that have marked the history of the cultural relations between Italy and Spain, the exile of the Spanish Jesuits to the Italian peninsula is a crucial one. On April 2nd, 1767 king Charles III ordered the expulsion of all the members of the Company of Jesus from his kingdom. Almost 5,000 people, most of them highly educated, were forced into exile in the States of the Church.
Once there, they realized that culture was a powerful means to achieve their integration within the host society, and many of them started publishing texts on a wide variety of topics in newspapers, pamphlets and books. Therefore, they were following the strategy the order had marked years beforethat is, to hold a dialogue with the Philosophers, and to strengthen its influence in the public sphere.
Upon their arrival in Italy, many Jesuits became interested in musican art they had payed little to no attention before the expulsionand started writing texts on topics regarding music. This paper discusses the possibility of analyzing this production as a whole and concludes that, since the expelled Jesuits were not a homogeneous group, partial analysis must be carried out. For this reason, I focus on three of the most prominent expelled Jesuits who wrote about music, whose texts share many elements and allow me to study them jointly: Antonio Eximeno, Juan Andrés and Esteban de Arteaga.
First of all, this paper examines the formal aspects of these texts and concludes that all of them can be classified as essays. Such a typological election is not a casual one: since Eximeno, Andrés and Arteaga were amateurs and their target audience were non-professional musicians, they consciously avoided writing traditional theoretical treatises, which would have been interesting only for a small portion of their readership.
After that, their conception of music, its origins and nature are analyzed. Influenced by various French authors, Eximeno, Andrés and Arteaga affirm that music and language had one common, instinctive origin. Furthermore, they assumed that music was able to imitate and communicate the human passions. This led them to remove the music from the realm of Mathematical Sciences and place it among the Fine Arts, thus abandoning traditional categories and aligning themselves with the most progressive views of that times.
This conception of music leads them to place the opera at the top of their musical hierarchies. The present paper studies their views on the opera and shows that, in spite of affirming that all the components of the spectacle (poetry, music, painting) had the same importance, they still gave pre-eminence to the libretto. At the same time, an analysis of their historiographical discourses reveals their ambivalences towards Metastasio’s operatic model, coinciding with a moment when it started to show signs of exhaustion.
The combination of influences that arises in the discourses of Eximeno, Andrés and Arteaga positions these authors as brilliant exponents of the so-called Catholic Enlightenment. But, above all, it proves that the expulsion of the Jesuits was a decisive element that helps us understand the importance and deepness of the musical interchanges between Italy and Spain during the eighteenth century.
Fronteras y definiciones en la música isabelina, 2018
Diálogo con Juan José Carreras a propósito de su publicación Historia de la música en España e Hi... more Diálogo con Juan José Carreras a propósito de su publicación Historia de la música en España e Hispanoamérica. 5. El siglo XIX en España.
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Edited books by Alberto Hernández Mateos
Articles by Alberto Hernández Mateos
However, there is still a limited number of studies focused on analysing
the role of music in such spots. The aim of this case study is to analyse the
function of music in one particular electoral advertisement and to study
its contribution to the meaning making process. By drawing on the latest
contributions by Paul Christiansen in the classification of the emotions
evoked by music in electoral spots, and by taking into account other studies
of reference in the fields of musicology and political communication, I put
forward the hypothesis that the music in this ad contributes in structuring
the visual and verbal message, reinforces the candidate’s leadership and
creates an emotional climate of hope. Furthermore, the comparison of this
ad with others from the United States and its interpretation in the context
of the socialist campaign helps expand this hypothesis and explain how
music serves as a transmitter of patriotic feelings. This study allows us to
demonstrate the importance of music in the construction of emotional
narratives in the framework of political communication, and to assess some
factors that explain the success or failure of such narratives.
translations of Antonio Eximeno’s Del origen y reglas de la música and Duda de D. Antonio Eximeno and advertised them in the Diario de Madrid. These advertisements initiated a long series of disputes that at first were focused on the former Jesuit’s texts, but later expanded to include a wide range of aesthetic-musical questions. This article analyzes the debates voiced in the Diario de Madrid between 1796 and
1804 – debates that, from our perspective, constitute a unitary phenomenon articulated through references to Eximeno’s musical thought. This musical thought will be used to construct discourses that reflect the processes of building public opinion in that era, as well as the musical themes that interested both professionals and amateurs at that moment.
una serie di presupposti personali, quali lo scetticismo nei confronti della possibilita`
di scrivere la storia, l’intento divulgativo, l’utilitarismo: per l’autore, la storia e` lo strumento
con cui dimostrare una teoria musicale logocentrica. Questi aspetti, unitamente
alla mancanza di modelli storiografico-musicali cui riferirsi, danno luogo a una narrazione
dal taglio saggistico: vi si incrociano influenze diverse (promananti dalla
filosofia, dalla storia, dalla filosofia della storia, ecc.), sotto il segno di uno spiccato
carattere soggettivo.
Con tutto cio` , la storia eximeniana si inserisce nella tradizione dell’Illuminismo in
quanto esplicita numerosi concetti caratteristici della storiografia illuminata. Tra essi
risaltano il ‘determinismo geografico’ (esposto dall’Eximeno in termini simili a quelli
di Turgot) e una visione peculiare dell’idea di ‘progresso’, connotata in senso morale.
Occorre inoltre segnalare che l’Eximeno combina modelli di periodizzazione diversi
(in due e in tre stadi, con articolazioni specifiche per il teatro d’opera e per la musica
strumentale), e proietta la sua lettura della storia verso il futuro, pervenendo a conclusioni
non granche´ ottimistiche.
La singolarita` e la soggettivita` del pensiero dell’Eximeno impedirono ch’esso si
imponesse come modello storiografico. I musicografi successivi vi fecero ricorso tutt’al
piu` per estrarne sentenze congeniali alle loro rispettive narrazioni storiche e, in
un’epoca piu` avanzata, per basare su di esso dei cliche´ s di indirizzo nazionalistico.
In ogni caso, ad onta dei suoi limiti, la proposta dell’ex-gesuita rappresenta pur sempre
uno dei primi tentativi di storiografia musicale a livello europeo, e il primissimo in
a`mbito spagnolo. Il suo pregio risiede inoltre nell’esibire come meglio non si potrebbe
le aspirazioni e i limiti del pensiero illuminista, e nel dare accoglienza a multiformi
influenze.
Book chapters by Alberto Hernández Mateos
Once there, they realized that culture was a powerful means to achieve their integration within the host society, and many of them started publishing texts on a wide variety of topics in newspapers, pamphlets and books. Therefore, they were following the strategy the order had marked years beforethat is, to hold a dialogue with the Philosophers, and to strengthen its influence in the public sphere.
Upon their arrival in Italy, many Jesuits became interested in musican art they had payed little to no attention before the expulsionand started writing texts on topics regarding music. This paper discusses the possibility of analyzing this production as a whole and concludes that, since the expelled Jesuits were not a homogeneous group, partial analysis must be carried out. For this reason, I focus on three of the most prominent expelled Jesuits who wrote about music, whose texts share many elements and allow me to study them jointly: Antonio Eximeno, Juan Andrés and Esteban de Arteaga.
First of all, this paper examines the formal aspects of these texts and concludes that all of them can be classified as essays. Such a typological election is not a casual one: since Eximeno, Andrés and Arteaga were amateurs and their target audience were non-professional musicians, they consciously avoided writing traditional theoretical treatises, which would have been interesting only for a small portion of their readership.
After that, their conception of music, its origins and nature are analyzed. Influenced by various French authors, Eximeno, Andrés and Arteaga affirm that music and language had one common, instinctive origin. Furthermore, they assumed that music was able to imitate and communicate the human passions. This led them to remove the music from the realm of Mathematical Sciences and place it among the Fine Arts, thus abandoning traditional categories and aligning themselves with the most progressive views of that times.
This conception of music leads them to place the opera at the top of their musical hierarchies. The present paper studies their views on the opera and shows that, in spite of affirming that all the components of the spectacle (poetry, music, painting) had the same importance, they still gave pre-eminence to the libretto. At the same time, an analysis of their historiographical discourses reveals their ambivalences towards Metastasio’s operatic model, coinciding with a moment when it started to show signs of exhaustion.
The combination of influences that arises in the discourses of Eximeno, Andrés and Arteaga positions these authors as brilliant exponents of the so-called Catholic Enlightenment. But, above all, it proves that the expulsion of the Jesuits was a decisive element that helps us understand the importance and deepness of the musical interchanges between Italy and Spain during the eighteenth century.
However, there is still a limited number of studies focused on analysing
the role of music in such spots. The aim of this case study is to analyse the
function of music in one particular electoral advertisement and to study
its contribution to the meaning making process. By drawing on the latest
contributions by Paul Christiansen in the classification of the emotions
evoked by music in electoral spots, and by taking into account other studies
of reference in the fields of musicology and political communication, I put
forward the hypothesis that the music in this ad contributes in structuring
the visual and verbal message, reinforces the candidate’s leadership and
creates an emotional climate of hope. Furthermore, the comparison of this
ad with others from the United States and its interpretation in the context
of the socialist campaign helps expand this hypothesis and explain how
music serves as a transmitter of patriotic feelings. This study allows us to
demonstrate the importance of music in the construction of emotional
narratives in the framework of political communication, and to assess some
factors that explain the success or failure of such narratives.
translations of Antonio Eximeno’s Del origen y reglas de la música and Duda de D. Antonio Eximeno and advertised them in the Diario de Madrid. These advertisements initiated a long series of disputes that at first were focused on the former Jesuit’s texts, but later expanded to include a wide range of aesthetic-musical questions. This article analyzes the debates voiced in the Diario de Madrid between 1796 and
1804 – debates that, from our perspective, constitute a unitary phenomenon articulated through references to Eximeno’s musical thought. This musical thought will be used to construct discourses that reflect the processes of building public opinion in that era, as well as the musical themes that interested both professionals and amateurs at that moment.
una serie di presupposti personali, quali lo scetticismo nei confronti della possibilita`
di scrivere la storia, l’intento divulgativo, l’utilitarismo: per l’autore, la storia e` lo strumento
con cui dimostrare una teoria musicale logocentrica. Questi aspetti, unitamente
alla mancanza di modelli storiografico-musicali cui riferirsi, danno luogo a una narrazione
dal taglio saggistico: vi si incrociano influenze diverse (promananti dalla
filosofia, dalla storia, dalla filosofia della storia, ecc.), sotto il segno di uno spiccato
carattere soggettivo.
Con tutto cio` , la storia eximeniana si inserisce nella tradizione dell’Illuminismo in
quanto esplicita numerosi concetti caratteristici della storiografia illuminata. Tra essi
risaltano il ‘determinismo geografico’ (esposto dall’Eximeno in termini simili a quelli
di Turgot) e una visione peculiare dell’idea di ‘progresso’, connotata in senso morale.
Occorre inoltre segnalare che l’Eximeno combina modelli di periodizzazione diversi
(in due e in tre stadi, con articolazioni specifiche per il teatro d’opera e per la musica
strumentale), e proietta la sua lettura della storia verso il futuro, pervenendo a conclusioni
non granche´ ottimistiche.
La singolarita` e la soggettivita` del pensiero dell’Eximeno impedirono ch’esso si
imponesse come modello storiografico. I musicografi successivi vi fecero ricorso tutt’al
piu` per estrarne sentenze congeniali alle loro rispettive narrazioni storiche e, in
un’epoca piu` avanzata, per basare su di esso dei cliche´ s di indirizzo nazionalistico.
In ogni caso, ad onta dei suoi limiti, la proposta dell’ex-gesuita rappresenta pur sempre
uno dei primi tentativi di storiografia musicale a livello europeo, e il primissimo in
a`mbito spagnolo. Il suo pregio risiede inoltre nell’esibire come meglio non si potrebbe
le aspirazioni e i limiti del pensiero illuminista, e nel dare accoglienza a multiformi
influenze.
Once there, they realized that culture was a powerful means to achieve their integration within the host society, and many of them started publishing texts on a wide variety of topics in newspapers, pamphlets and books. Therefore, they were following the strategy the order had marked years beforethat is, to hold a dialogue with the Philosophers, and to strengthen its influence in the public sphere.
Upon their arrival in Italy, many Jesuits became interested in musican art they had payed little to no attention before the expulsionand started writing texts on topics regarding music. This paper discusses the possibility of analyzing this production as a whole and concludes that, since the expelled Jesuits were not a homogeneous group, partial analysis must be carried out. For this reason, I focus on three of the most prominent expelled Jesuits who wrote about music, whose texts share many elements and allow me to study them jointly: Antonio Eximeno, Juan Andrés and Esteban de Arteaga.
First of all, this paper examines the formal aspects of these texts and concludes that all of them can be classified as essays. Such a typological election is not a casual one: since Eximeno, Andrés and Arteaga were amateurs and their target audience were non-professional musicians, they consciously avoided writing traditional theoretical treatises, which would have been interesting only for a small portion of their readership.
After that, their conception of music, its origins and nature are analyzed. Influenced by various French authors, Eximeno, Andrés and Arteaga affirm that music and language had one common, instinctive origin. Furthermore, they assumed that music was able to imitate and communicate the human passions. This led them to remove the music from the realm of Mathematical Sciences and place it among the Fine Arts, thus abandoning traditional categories and aligning themselves with the most progressive views of that times.
This conception of music leads them to place the opera at the top of their musical hierarchies. The present paper studies their views on the opera and shows that, in spite of affirming that all the components of the spectacle (poetry, music, painting) had the same importance, they still gave pre-eminence to the libretto. At the same time, an analysis of their historiographical discourses reveals their ambivalences towards Metastasio’s operatic model, coinciding with a moment when it started to show signs of exhaustion.
The combination of influences that arises in the discourses of Eximeno, Andrés and Arteaga positions these authors as brilliant exponents of the so-called Catholic Enlightenment. But, above all, it proves that the expulsion of the Jesuits was a decisive element that helps us understand the importance and deepness of the musical interchanges between Italy and Spain during the eighteenth century.
In the first chapter, the relevance of the study and the objectives of the research are examined and established. It is followed by a second, more extensive chapter, in which the aforementioned texts are summarized and typologically analysed. It also appraises the used scientific methodologies. The third chapter outlines, firstly, a concise intellectual biography of Antonio Eximeno that allows for a better comprehension of some of the topics set out in his texts. This biography is completed with a meticulous state of the art that has ascertained the existence of different historiography traditions that have projected themselves over the time.
The fourth chapter offers a panoramic overview of the key concepts that articulate the Enlightened musical thought in Europe that, at the same time, is reflected in Eximeno's thought. Thereby, this chapter connects with the following one, where Eximeno's stance regarding questions such as the conceptualization of the music and the arts, the different music genres, his stance regarding the European and non-European oral music tradition, or his historiographical-musical discourse is analyzed. This analysis, which constitutes the main focus of the present investigation, has allowed us to affirm that Eximeno's thought is fully inserted in the European musical debates and to evaluate the originality of his thought. In this sense it is important to emphasize the value of his idea on the origins of the language and the music, his firm distinction between the sciences and the arts, his reflections on the theatrical and religious music of his time, or his modern approach to the issue of the instrumental music. His contribution to the music historiography is also worth mentioning, a field that had almost no precedents. This is presented in an essay type discourse in which he employs a large number of intellectual references.
The sixth and last chapter of the dissertation analyses the reception of Eximeno's thought in the Spanish context, both in his own time period and during the 19th century. In order to study his reception, based mainly on the Castilian translation of Dell’origine e delle regole della musica, a publication that has experienced modifications in regards to the original, we had to research the strategies employed by Eximeno and his translator to adapt his text to the potential readership. Furthermore, we analysed the reactions on this publication which has led us to the conclusion that Eximeno's musical thought was received in a polemic manner. This is exposed both in the periodicals of the time (Diario de Madrid) and in theoretical texts such as Defensa del arte de la música, by Agustín Iranzo, or Sobre el verdadero origen de la música, by José de Teixidor. This polemic reception was caused by the crisis of the production structures of music; a crisis that was acknowledged by the author. Lastly, the analysis of the impact of Eximeno's thought on the 19th century music historiography has allowed for a valuation both of the importance of the studied author, as well as of the levels of deviation in which his thought has been frequently passed on.