Essays on Art in Venezuela (Ramón de la Plaza, 1883): an Ethnohistorical Musical Perspective

Abstract

General Ramon Plaza Manrique (1831-1886), distinguished character of the Caracas elite, published in 1883 a collection of essays which offered a wide panorama of the art in Venezuela, including music. One of the most interesting sections is about the indigenous world, abounding in details regarding the unequivocal origin of pre-Hispanic music. The treatment of topics, the references to old sound systems, the comparison as study method and, in general terms, the background of the ideas reveal a world of shades that can be approached from new perspectives. Interdisciplinarity enables the exchange of glances adapted to the times, allowing extensive understanding of objects of study such as music; in the case of ethno-history, whose objectives are achieved thanks to the parallel deployment of the methodology of ethnography and history sciences. In this paper a canonical text of the Venezuelan and Latin American musical historiography is analyzed in order to update its approaches through an ethno-historical musical bias