Músicos como trabajadores. Estudio de caso de la Sociedad Musical de Socorros Mutuos de Valparaíso (1893-1930)

Abstract

From the analysis of the Musicians’ Mutual Aid Society of Valparaíso (or SMSMV) this article proposes to include the perspective of labour to music studies, understanding musicians as workers that have gathered in organisations to better their life or working conditions. This also means to understand music in its multiple dimension, including musical, historic, economic and social. This article proposes a brief reconstruction of the history of this Society of musicians, but, by analysing it through the prism of musicians as workers, it argues, at the same time, that this organisation played a key role towards the education and provision of musicians for the music industries and in the development of the labour movement of the time. From the case study of the working and organised musicians of Valparaíso from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, this article seeks to answer how these musicians defined themselves; why they created an organisation like this one; how their work affected the way they organised themselves; and to what extent they were linked to the mutualist movement.

Keywords

• social organization
• music and work
• valparaíso
• mutualism