El Catecismo De Las Sonatas Y Los Cuartetos

This article focuses on the program notes that Cecilio de Roda wrote for the cycles of Ludwig van Beethoven’s sonatas and quartets that were organized by the Madrid Philharmonic Society at the beginning of the 20th century. His writings synthesized values and expectations that disclosed, to a large extent, the acceptance of an idea of history strongly influenced by the model of biological progress developed by Herbert Spencer. We will examine the interaction between early musicology and classical music promotion as documented in these program notes that advanced a discourse relatively new to Spain at the time. In order to achieve this goal, we will identify the sources from which Roda took his ideas. He quoted mainly German and English texts that, at the beginning of the 20th century, were incontestable references regarding this repertoire. Ultimately, this study reveals the importance of the role played by Roda as a cultural mediator. He contributed to the creation of a community of listeners who, through reading his texts, learned how and why to enjoy Beethoven’s music

Art · Humanities · Comparative Literary Analysis and Criticism · Cultural and Mythological Studies · Galician and Iberian cultural studies