Origins of the teaching of bel canto in Caracas. In regard to the study of the first two singing methods printed in Venezuela

Abstract

Through the contextualization, description, analysis and interrelation of the first two singing books published in Caracas, the article reveals very particular details about the first practices of systematic bel canto teaching in Venezuela. The study, based on first-hand eighteenth and nineteenth-century sources, is part of a broader research project aimed at analyzing the bibliographic sources of Venezuelan musical thought. The analysis of the primary sources was complemented with specialized studies of very recent date, all with links available here so that the subject can be deepened. At the end, some additional considerations are added, in order to estimate the value of these texts as part of an editorial and civilizing project designed by the political elite in the origins of Venezuelan republican life, in order to modernize the nation in cultural terms.