The Modernization of Mexican Wind Bands and their Ingression into the Phonographic Industry at its Beginning

Abstract

This article analyses the coming into being and the consolidation of Mexican wind bands, by highlighting the transit between the music whose harmonies had their roots in the viceroyalty, to modern music created with technically perfected instruments. The analysis is based on the idea that these musical ensembles were fundamental for the cultural development of the Mexican society of the nineteenth century, either due to their performing of a European repertoire, in accordance with their Hispanic heritage, or through the incorporation of hymns, marches, sones, and songs which boosted the creation of a musical nationalism, and with it a sense of identity and belonging. This is why it is of interest to examine the incursion of this music into the burgeoning phonographic industry, as well as looking into the first recordings, made between 1904 and 1910, focusing on three exceedingly important ensembles, which are: the band of the Artillery, the band of Zapadores, and the band of the Gendarmes of Mexico City. For the purpose of said examination, hermeneutics was the chosen method to study nineteenth-century press, references to sound archives, and the historiography related to the subject.