The musical elites in Portugal, end of 19th to the early 20th centuries: strategies and patterns of internationalization

The main goal of this article is to contribute to an understanding of the processes of legitimation of Portuguese musical elites, meeting the patterns of change during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The research refers to a prosopography of the 460 most successful musicians who lived or were in Portugal between 1860 and 1930, a period of expansion and reconfiguration of musical teaching and learning structures. It is propounded that, for analytical purposes, the population selected from specialized dictionaries corresponds to the musical elite. In previous studies it was found that one of the strategies of recognition of the musicians in Portugal was linked to the internationalization. The Portuguese musical field was, apparently, composed of musicians who transited through other countries and cultures, whether through migration strategies or through periods of study in a large European capital. This connection between the constitution of a symbolic capital and the cross-border movements was analysed here. The observation of the trajectories of generations of musicians allowed to partially deconstruct this hypothesis: the relation with the foreigner –whether by immigration, or by studies in a neighbouring country– was actually very rarefied. It is recognized that the acquisition and maintenance of symbolic capital is intertwined with the processes of transmission of the artistic disposition within the family, which has guaranteed for generations the artistic disposition and specific knowledge that characterize the musical capital. These processes of family transmission were benefited by the internationalization of trajectories, but at least in this period, solely internationalization is not seen as the main success factor.