Music and everything that revolves around it exercised an essential role in the culture of the Spanish high nobility for centuries. The noble families used instrumental and vocal music as an element of external influence and a large part of its members received from their childhood.
Despite the well-known importance of the contribution of the Spanish nobility to this art in the past, pointed out by some historians and musicologists, it had not been studied systematically through a doctoral thesis up to now. Juan Pablo Fernández-Cortés, member of the research group Musical patronage in Andalusia and its influence in America of the Universidad de Granada, has analysed the musical influence in his doctoral thesis “The musical patronage of the Houses of Osuna and Benavente (1733-1844). A study of the role of music in Spanish high nobility”, supervised by professor María Gembero Ustárroz.
The intense musical activity generated by the Houses of Osuna and Benavente and presented in this study contributes new and revealing data on the importance in certain social circles of chamber music, the orchestral repertoire and theatre music, genres which had not been studied in depth up to now.
The musical education of Spanish aristocracy was always provided by the best musicians. In the case of the Houses of Osuna and Benavente –whose presence was very important in Andalusia and in all the peninsula and even in the Italian colonies of Naples, Sicily and Milan-, the nobles received lessons from important musicians and composers who worked in the service of kings Charles the 3rd and Charles the 4th, such as Luigi Boccherini, Gaetano Brunetti or José Lidón.
In his doctoral thesis, Juan Pablo Fernández has analysed for the first time in a wide and scientific way the musical patronage of Spanish nobility, dealing with musical aspects and exploring in the genealogy of both Houses and their mechanisms of cultural positioning. Osuna and Benavente were lineages with an enormous political and social influence in Spain and abroad, and they supported numerous artists of the stature of Goya or Ramón de la Cruz. The study carried out by the UGR has allowed to know the existence and functioning of important orchestras and instrumental groups supported by both noble houses, appreciate the decisive contribution of the Houses of Osuna and Benavente to musical theatre and religious music and revive some of the musical works guarded for centuries by these families, like a book of Italian Arias and Cantatas compiled in the first half of the 18th century for the Duchess of Osuna preserved at present in the outbuildings of the Spanish National Library (Madrid).
Reference: Juan Pablo Fernández. Department of Art History (Area of Music) of the Universidad de Granada.
Phone number: 91 528 89 44 / 958 246 382.
E-mail: feryuste@telefonica.net