Abstract: O Violão na corte imperial, by Marcia Taborda offers a compelling analysis of the guitar’s role in 19th-century Rio de Janeiro, exploring its integration into the social and economic fabric of the city. This well-structured, source-rich work is an invaluable resource for scholars of musical history.
Keywords: History of the guitar, Brazilian music, and Rio de Janeiro in the Empire.
O Violão na corte imperial, published in 2021 as part of the Cadernos da Biblioteca Nacional series, is a book that presents the results achieved during the period when professor and musicologist Marcia Taborda had the privilege of serving as a resident researcher at this esteemed institution. The work aims to provide a history of the guitar in Rio de Janeiro throughout the 19th century, a period during which the country was forming as a nation. In this context, a set of sources consulted aims to demonstrate to the reader the social movement of the guitar across different strata and spaces of the Court, especially those linked to the social elite of Rio de Janeiro. This work builds on two decades of studies initiated during Marcia’s doctorate in Social History at the Institute of History of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. From this formative process, the author produced a pioneering work in the systematization of documentary sources (literary, organological, iconographic, musicographic, and phonographic) on the instrument for the Ibero-American world, as seen in “Guitar and National Identity: Rio de Janeiro 1830-1930” (2011). In “The Guitar in the Imperial Court,” Marcia delves deeper into the social integration of the instrument into the daily life of the royal family, starting with the arrival of Princess D. Leopoldina in 1817 and its economic context.
The book is structured in two main parts. The first part refers to the social history of culture, considering the arrival of the instrument in Brazilian territory. It is during this period of urbanization in Brazil, specifically in Rio de Janeiro, that the guitar first gained popularity in European courts during the latter part of the 18th century. The instrument’s circulation in European salons contributed to the desire of the Rio de Janeiro elite to emulate the European environment brought to this side of the Atlantic with the arrival of the Portuguese royal family. The second part touches on the social history of labor, offering a glimpse into the local economic landscape through the lens of the business model employed by craftspeople dedicated to the tradition of guitar-making within the context of their familial workshops.
The first chapter illuminates the instrument’s role in the realm of education and culture, tracing its presence in European courts. Here, Marcia presents a detailed case study on the connection of the Habsburgs (D. Leopoldina’s family) with the artistic manifestations of their time. The study emphasizes the musical development process orchestrated by the master-teachers who guided the family’s artistic formation. The presence of the virtuoso guitarist and composer Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829) and his friendship with Maria Luisa, Leopoldina’s sister, is noted. The author suggests that Leopoldina may have developed her musical practice on the instrument under her sister’s influence, as evidenced by the letters exchanged between relatives. While the Thereza Cristina Maria collection, donated to the National Library by D. Pedro II, incorporated D. Leopoldina’s musical collection, there are no records of guitar works in this documentary collection, as indicated by the author. However, another document deposited in the Imperial Museum of Petrópolis, “Note des Morceaux de Musique” (1817), reveals a list of works requested by Leopoldina, which presents a relationship of pieces dedicated to the instrument. The chapter also addresses the teaching of the guitar to the female audience by music teachers advertised in local newspapers.
In the second chapter, the circulation of the instrument in the residences and social spaces of Rio de Janeiro is observed. Here, the author presents accounts produced by some foreigners who settled in the city and established a strong network of contacts, which included the promotion of gatherings, dinners, and balls. From the selected accounts, it is noted that the consumed repertoire consisted of songs, chamber music, opera aria arrangements, and solo instrument variations. Another scene reported in this chapter is the references to the instrument during the summer stay seasons, a common practice adopted by the wealthy classes to escape the high summer temperatures. In this chapter and the subsequent one, the author mentions the activity of teachers and concert artists who operated in the city, promoting an active musical scene and providing a period of vitality for the guitar during the first half of the 19th century. However, it could be said that a new reality was imposed during the second half of the century due to the absence of personalities that highlighted the process of creation, interpretation, and teaching of the instrument.
In the third chapter, Marcia presents two mappings based on advertisements published in Rio de Janeiro newspapers. Here, the focus is on the musical activities of Professor Bartolomeo Bortolazzi (1772-1845/46). The author provides a synthesis of the teaching methods and specialized publications dedicated to the guitar that were advertised between the 1820s and 1850s. It is notable that there were relatively few written works for the guitar compared to other instruments and musical formations during this period. Marcia hypothesizes that the diffusion of guitar knowledge may have been more connected to oral tradition and based on accompanying songs with chords.
In the fourth chapter, a network of social connections is observed that attests to the dissemination of the guitar and its appropriation by the city’s musical practices. From the Spanish teacher and guitarist Vicente Ayala, we can gain insight into the local and foreign musicians who were active in the Rio de Janeiro musical scene in benefit concerts, for example. Another noteworthy figure is Marziano Bruni and his teaching activity, which proposed the possibilities of musical performance on the guitar by playing more technically demanding works such as fantasies and concerts. The musical activities of Pedro Nolasco Baptista, Luiz Vento, and amateur guitarist Clementino Lisboa contribute to the broader picture of the instrument’s circulation in the city’s musical spaces.
At the heart of the work is a set of 23 iconographies, each accompanied by a brief reflection on the text that preceded it.
The second part of the book begins with an examination of the importance of building musical instruments and the Lusitanian tradition in the art of guitar making (Chapter 5). As Marcia points out, studies on the activity of guitar makers have been overlooked, even with existing documentation, as in the case of Rio de Janeiro. Throughout the 19th century, downtown Rio de Janeiro recorded the economic activity of Portuguese immigrant guitar makers who brought with them the knowledge, practices, and organizational structure of work.
Chapters 6, 7, and 8 focus on the activity of the Portuguese craftsman João dos Santos Couceiro, who migrated from Coimbra to Rio de Janeiro in 1871. Marcia presents aspects of Couceiro’s activity in Portugal, including his participation in musical instrument exhibitions and organizing benefit events in musical societies.
Portuguese immigrants on their way to Brazil | Photo: Benjamin Stone, ca. 1893 (Taborda, 2021, p.73)
In Rio de Janeiro, Couceiro established the store A Rabeca de Ouro, which became a significant commercial establishment on Rua da Carioca and received several names that became prominent in the Rio de Janeiro musical scene. Couceiro’s activity extended beyond the boundaries of the craft, encompassing the production and participation in local benefit activities. The craftsman-businessman is regarded as one of the main figures who contributed to the dissemination and practice of the mandolin in the city.
In the final chapter, there is a valuable mapping of forty-four guitar makers who settled in the city and were identified from advertisements published in the Almanak Laemmert. Up until that point, we only had the names and addresses of these economic agents. Marcia took on the challenge of providing us with as much information as possible about the lives of some guitar makers, despite the scarcity of records on the daily life of the lower classes.
This work suggests that the periodicals collection deposited in the National Library could be a valuable resource for researchers interested in analyzing a set of specific activities, such as the instrument market, the publishing and sale of printed music, the movement of concert artists, the activity of music, singing, and instrument teachers, and the craft of artisans. Thus, it fully meets the objectives declared by the author, in the sense of telling the History of the instrument in Rio de Janeiro, in the 19th century, and should be read, mainly, by researchers interested in the Cultural History of Rio de Janeiro Music in its multidimensions.
Summary of O violão na Corte Imperial
Apresentação da 2ª edição | Luiz Carlos Ramiro Junior
Apresentação | Marcus Venicio Toledo Ribeiro
Prefácio | Isabel Lustosa.
Introdução
I. A elite de executantes
1. Uma novidade europeia
2. O violão nos salões da corte
3. O repertório e os métodos divulgados
4. Novos sons na agenda musical do século XIX
II. Os artífices da construção
5. Uma tradição portuguesa
6. João dos Santos Couceiro: de artesão a empresário
José Jarbas Ruas holds a PhD in Music from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and is a professor in the Degree in Field Education: Arts program at the Universidade Federal do Norte do Tocantins (UFNT). He was one of the organizers of the volume dedicated to the Northern region, in the series História da Música do Brasil, published by Associação Nacional de Pesquisa e Pós-graduação em Música (2023); ID LATTTES: http://lattes.cnpq.br/7940410678686273; ID ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7435-8684; Redes sociais: Instagram: @josejarbasruas; E-mail: jose.jarbas@ufnt.edu.br.
To cite this review
TABORDA, Marcia. O violão na corte imperial. 2ed. Rio de Janeiro: Fundação Biblioteca nacional, 2021. 180p. Review by: RUAS, José Jarbas. O pinho imperial. Crítica Historiográfica. Natal, v.4, n.17, May/June, 2024. Available in <https://www.criticahistoriografica.com.br/en/sounds-of-the-empire-jose-jarbas-ruass-ufnt-review-of-the-book-o-violao-na-corte-imperial-by-marcia-taborda/>.
Abstract: O Violão na corte imperial, by Marcia Taborda offers a compelling analysis of the guitar’s role in 19th-century Rio de Janeiro, exploring its integration into the social and economic fabric of the city. This well-structured, source-rich work is an invaluable resource for scholars of musical history.
Keywords: History of the guitar, Brazilian music, and Rio de Janeiro in the Empire.
O Violão na corte imperial, published in 2021 as part of the Cadernos da Biblioteca Nacional series, is a book that presents the results achieved during the period when professor and musicologist Marcia Taborda had the privilege of serving as a resident researcher at this esteemed institution. The work aims to provide a history of the guitar in Rio de Janeiro throughout the 19th century, a period during which the country was forming as a nation. In this context, a set of sources consulted aims to demonstrate to the reader the social movement of the guitar across different strata and spaces of the Court, especially those linked to the social elite of Rio de Janeiro. This work builds on two decades of studies initiated during Marcia’s doctorate in Social History at the Institute of History of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. From this formative process, the author produced a pioneering work in the systematization of documentary sources (literary, organological, iconographic, musicographic, and phonographic) on the instrument for the Ibero-American world, as seen in “Guitar and National Identity: Rio de Janeiro 1830-1930” (2011). In “The Guitar in the Imperial Court,” Marcia delves deeper into the social integration of the instrument into the daily life of the royal family, starting with the arrival of Princess D. Leopoldina in 1817 and its economic context.
The book is structured in two main parts. The first part refers to the social history of culture, considering the arrival of the instrument in Brazilian territory. It is during this period of urbanization in Brazil, specifically in Rio de Janeiro, that the guitar first gained popularity in European courts during the latter part of the 18th century. The instrument’s circulation in European salons contributed to the desire of the Rio de Janeiro elite to emulate the European environment brought to this side of the Atlantic with the arrival of the Portuguese royal family. The second part touches on the social history of labor, offering a glimpse into the local economic landscape through the lens of the business model employed by craftspeople dedicated to the tradition of guitar-making within the context of their familial workshops.
The first chapter illuminates the instrument’s role in the realm of education and culture, tracing its presence in European courts. Here, Marcia presents a detailed case study on the connection of the Habsburgs (D. Leopoldina’s family) with the artistic manifestations of their time. The study emphasizes the musical development process orchestrated by the master-teachers who guided the family’s artistic formation. The presence of the virtuoso guitarist and composer Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829) and his friendship with Maria Luisa, Leopoldina’s sister, is noted. The author suggests that Leopoldina may have developed her musical practice on the instrument under her sister’s influence, as evidenced by the letters exchanged between relatives. While the Thereza Cristina Maria collection, donated to the National Library by D. Pedro II, incorporated D. Leopoldina’s musical collection, there are no records of guitar works in this documentary collection, as indicated by the author. However, another document deposited in the Imperial Museum of Petrópolis, “Note des Morceaux de Musique” (1817), reveals a list of works requested by Leopoldina, which presents a relationship of pieces dedicated to the instrument. The chapter also addresses the teaching of the guitar to the female audience by music teachers advertised in local newspapers.
In the second chapter, the circulation of the instrument in the residences and social spaces of Rio de Janeiro is observed. Here, the author presents accounts produced by some foreigners who settled in the city and established a strong network of contacts, which included the promotion of gatherings, dinners, and balls. From the selected accounts, it is noted that the consumed repertoire consisted of songs, chamber music, opera aria arrangements, and solo instrument variations. Another scene reported in this chapter is the references to the instrument during the summer stay seasons, a common practice adopted by the wealthy classes to escape the high summer temperatures. In this chapter and the subsequent one, the author mentions the activity of teachers and concert artists who operated in the city, promoting an active musical scene and providing a period of vitality for the guitar during the first half of the 19th century. However, it could be said that a new reality was imposed during the second half of the century due to the absence of personalities that highlighted the process of creation, interpretation, and teaching of the instrument.
In the third chapter, Marcia presents two mappings based on advertisements published in Rio de Janeiro newspapers. Here, the focus is on the musical activities of Professor Bartolomeo Bortolazzi (1772-1845/46). The author provides a synthesis of the teaching methods and specialized publications dedicated to the guitar that were advertised between the 1820s and 1850s. It is notable that there were relatively few written works for the guitar compared to other instruments and musical formations during this period. Marcia hypothesizes that the diffusion of guitar knowledge may have been more connected to oral tradition and based on accompanying songs with chords.
In the fourth chapter, a network of social connections is observed that attests to the dissemination of the guitar and its appropriation by the city’s musical practices. From the Spanish teacher and guitarist Vicente Ayala, we can gain insight into the local and foreign musicians who were active in the Rio de Janeiro musical scene in benefit concerts, for example. Another noteworthy figure is Marziano Bruni and his teaching activity, which proposed the possibilities of musical performance on the guitar by playing more technically demanding works such as fantasies and concerts. The musical activities of Pedro Nolasco Baptista, Luiz Vento, and amateur guitarist Clementino Lisboa contribute to the broader picture of the instrument’s circulation in the city’s musical spaces.
At the heart of the work is a set of 23 iconographies, each accompanied by a brief reflection on the text that preceded it.
The second part of the book begins with an examination of the importance of building musical instruments and the Lusitanian tradition in the art of guitar making (Chapter 5). As Marcia points out, studies on the activity of guitar makers have been overlooked, even with existing documentation, as in the case of Rio de Janeiro. Throughout the 19th century, downtown Rio de Janeiro recorded the economic activity of Portuguese immigrant guitar makers who brought with them the knowledge, practices, and organizational structure of work.
Chapters 6, 7, and 8 focus on the activity of the Portuguese craftsman João dos Santos Couceiro, who migrated from Coimbra to Rio de Janeiro in 1871. Marcia presents aspects of Couceiro’s activity in Portugal, including his participation in musical instrument exhibitions and organizing benefit events in musical societies.
Portuguese immigrants on their way to Brazil | Photo: Benjamin Stone, ca. 1893 (Taborda, 2021, p.73)
In Rio de Janeiro, Couceiro established the store A Rabeca de Ouro, which became a significant commercial establishment on Rua da Carioca and received several names that became prominent in the Rio de Janeiro musical scene. Couceiro’s activity extended beyond the boundaries of the craft, encompassing the production and participation in local benefit activities. The craftsman-businessman is regarded as one of the main figures who contributed to the dissemination and practice of the mandolin in the city.
In the final chapter, there is a valuable mapping of forty-four guitar makers who settled in the city and were identified from advertisements published in the Almanak Laemmert. Up until that point, we only had the names and addresses of these economic agents. Marcia took on the challenge of providing us with as much information as possible about the lives of some guitar makers, despite the scarcity of records on the daily life of the lower classes.
This work suggests that the periodicals collection deposited in the National Library could be a valuable resource for researchers interested in analyzing a set of specific activities, such as the instrument market, the publishing and sale of printed music, the movement of concert artists, the activity of music, singing, and instrument teachers, and the craft of artisans. Thus, it fully meets the objectives declared by the author, in the sense of telling the History of the instrument in Rio de Janeiro, in the 19th century, and should be read, mainly, by researchers interested in the Cultural History of Rio de Janeiro Music in its multidimensions.
Summary of O violão na Corte Imperial
Apresentação da 2ª edição | Luiz Carlos Ramiro Junior
Apresentação | Marcus Venicio Toledo Ribeiro
Prefácio | Isabel Lustosa.
Introdução
I. A elite de executantes
1. Uma novidade europeia
2. O violão nos salões da corte
3. O repertório e os métodos divulgados
4. Novos sons na agenda musical do século XIX
II. Os artífices da construção
5. Uma tradição portuguesa
6. João dos Santos Couceiro: de artesão a empresário
José Jarbas Ruas holds a PhD in Music from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and is a professor in the Degree in Field Education: Arts program at the Universidade Federal do Norte do Tocantins (UFNT). He was one of the organizers of the volume dedicated to the Northern region, in the series História da Música do Brasil, published by Associação Nacional de Pesquisa e Pós-graduação em Música (2023); ID LATTTES: http://lattes.cnpq.br/7940410678686273; ID ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7435-8684; Redes sociais: Instagram: @josejarbasruas; E-mail: jose.jarbas@ufnt.edu.br.
To cite this review
TABORDA, Marcia. O violão na corte imperial. 2ed. Rio de Janeiro: Fundação Biblioteca nacional, 2021. 180p. Review by: RUAS, José Jarbas. O pinho imperial. Crítica Historiográfica. Natal, v.4, n.17, May/June, 2024. Available in <https://www.criticahistoriografica.com.br/en/sounds-of-the-empire-jose-jarbas-ruass-ufnt-review-of-the-book-o-violao-na-corte-imperial-by-marcia-taborda/>.
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The book is structured in two main parts. The first part refers to the social history of culture, considering the arrival of the instrument in Brazilian territory. It is during this period of urbanization in Brazil, specifically in Rio de Janeiro, that the guitar first gained popularity in European courts during the latter part of the 18th century. The instrument’s circulation in European salons contributed to the desire of the Rio de Janeiro elite to emulate the European environment brought to this side of the Atlantic with the arrival of the Portuguese royal family. The second part touches on the social history of labor, offering a glimpse into the local economic landscape through the lens of the business model employed by craftspeople dedicated to the tradition of guitar-making within the context of their familial workshops.
José Jarbas Ruas holds a PhD in Music from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and is a professor in the Degree in Field Education: Arts program at the Universidade Federal do Norte do Tocantins (UFNT). He was one of the organizers of the volume dedicated to the Northern region, in the series História da Música do Brasil, published by Associação Nacional de Pesquisa e Pós-graduação em Música (2023); ID LATTTES: http://lattes.cnpq.br/7940410678686273; ID ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7435-8684; Redes sociais: Instagram: @josejarbasruas; E-mail: jose.jarbas@ufnt.edu.br.
