"Se hallan de venta una porción de arias"la música como mercancía en torno a 1800 en España

Abstract

With the emancipation of the bourgeoisie in the Eighteenth century one observes a new appreciation of music. When the new bourgeois class is gradually emancipated, this has consequences for the musical production because most musical works are no longer composed in terms of representation but from the point of view of the market. This idea regards compositions as if they were goods or merchandise, like any other product that obeys the well-known mechanism of supply and demand. This text sketches the market mechanism to show the mercantile character of music, a fact that can be recognized in the system of distribution, the sale in newspapers, the subscription system, etc. In a next step we try to elaborate the necessary categories to define and clarify what is or could be musical merchandise from the composition itself. Especially in the texts of Karl Marx and Th. W. Adorno we find a lot of operable and adaptable economic concepts apt for its application as aesthetic category. Consequently, the composition process will be analysed through some pieces of the Spanish market. This will show that composition's structure itself reveals a character as goods.