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Liberalism—in its political, economic, and ethical forms—shaped the 19th-century Western world. Rooted in philosophy and expressed through economic and political systems, liberalism was complex and often contradictory. This book explores the influence of liberalism on music in Portugal, Spain, and Latin America—regions where liberalism evolved amid conflict that left deep cultural marks. Rather than focusing on nation-states, the authors trace the circulation of music across borders and highlight cultural exchanges during pivotal moments such as the “Atlantic crises” (after 1807-08) and the revolutionary cycle of 1820–1823. Through operas, zarzuelas, the press, wind and brass bands, as well as debates on slavery, they reveal how liberalism was performed and imagined, offering a fresh perspective on music and ideology.
Luísa Cymbron is a professor of Music History at NOVA University Lisbon (NOVA FCSH). She has directed CESEM (the Centre for Music Studies) since 2023. Her research on 19th-century Portuguese music was groundbreaking. Her 2012 book Olhares sobre a música em Portugal no século XIX is the first to provide in-depth analyses of various aspects of 19th-century music in Portugal, while Francisco de Sá Noronha’s Biography (2019) explores the musical relations between Portugal and Brazil. Since 2020, she has edited two further books, and her current research focuses particularly on the history of music in the Atlantic region.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Liberalism and Musicology: An Avoided Relationship
Alberto Hernández Mateos, João Silva, Luísa Cymbron
Part I: Liberalism on Stage
Chapter 1. Staging Liberalism at Lisbon’s Teatro de S. Carlos in the Mid-Nineteenth Century: Angelo Frondoni’s I Profughi di Parga and Giuseppe Verdi’s I Vespri Siciliani
Luísa Cymbron
Chapter 2. Zarzuela in the Lisbon Stage in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century: Neighbor or Guest?
Ignacio Jassa Haro
Chapter 3. Theatrical Censorship and Zarzuela During the Final Crisis of the Reign of Isabel II
Enrique Mejías García
Part II: Streets and Salons
Chapter 4. Public Spaces for Recreation and Instruction: Wind Bands’ Promenade Concerts in Portugal and Brazil during the Liberal Period
Rui Magno Pinto and Inez Martins Gonçalves
Chapter 5. Building Citizenship in the Nineteenth-Century: The Mexican Musical Salon
Yael Bitrán Goren
Part III: Music, Market, and Cultural Identity
Chapter 6. Musical Snapshots of the Lisbon Press in the Constitutional Monarchy
João Silva
Chapter 7. Selling Music in a Liberal Market: Publishers in Lima, Peru, in the Mid-Nineteenth Century
José Manuel Izquierdo König
Chapter 8. Beethoven on Tour. Oscar de la Cinna’s Iberian Tournée (1855-57): Strategies for Adaptation, Identity-Building and Cultural Networking
Alberto Hernández Mateos
Part IV: Music and Slavery
Chapter 9. Engaging the Elite: Abolitionism on Stage in Monarchic Brazil
Rogério Budasz
Chapter 10. Symphonic Abolitionism: Nicolás Ruiz Espadero’s El lamento del esclavo (The Slave’s Lament)
Fernando Delgado García
Index