Sound Maps
In the mid-nineteenth century, New Granadian society sought to transform the newly-formed republic into a space of interregional integration and global circulation of material goods, people and ideas. This was a joint effort to overcome national fragmentation, which still divided the then Republic of New Granada (1831–1858) into semi autonomous regions, a geographical configuration that state elites of the time considered as a colonial legacy [1]. On the other hand, these elites set out to make Bogotá into an urban space where all the major cities of the republic could connect with each other.
Music’s ability to evoke places contributed to this cultural transformation through which the territory that we now call Colombia could be imagined as an avant-garde republic, at once interconnected and open to internal trade and global connections. The sounds inscribed in Ana and Cristina Echeverría's binder’s volume reveal in them both material and musical flows, which reflect this push to transform Colombia and Bogotá into places of integration, mobility, and circulation.
Not only did the Echeverría family migrate from Caracas to Bogotá, bringing with them memories and stories materialized in the form of manuscripts and press clippings from Venezuela, but the printed scores collected in this album come from publishing houses located in countries such as Germany, Austria, France, Italy, and Venezuela, evincing a transnational network of music trade. In turn, the manuscripts that are part of this binders’ volume contain annotations and references to cities such as Santa Marta, Barranquilla and Bogotá. Many of this compositions were also dedicated to important figures in the political life of the nation such as Rafael Núñez, when he was President of the United States of Colombia (1880–1884), and General Solón Wilches, President of the State of Santander on two occasions (1870-1872; 1878-1884). Such practices suggest that the musical performances enabled by these binder’s volumes had political importance beyond the purely private sphere.
The maps included in this room show the places where the pages contained in the album were printed, the places of birth of the composers whose works Ana and Cristina collected, and the cities or nations that the musical genres contained in this binder’s volume evoked in their listeners when they were performed in spaces like the salon.
Haz click aquí para escuchar la pieza
Rosa Echeverría. ca.1881. “Las dos patrias, mazurca para piano”. Manuscrito de la compositora.
Intérprete: Manuela Osorno. Ingeniería de grabación y mezcla: Noelia Rego y Daniel Eduardo Rodríguez Castellanos.
Global prints
How to use this map?
By holding down the right button of your mouse you can move the map to discover the different places contained within the album. You can zoom in or out using your computer's "zoom" function or by "clicking" on the + and - icon in the lower left corner of the map. Finally, by clicking on each blue icon on the map, you will be able to see the cover of each score, which is accompanied by a short description. In many cases there is more than one score per city! Can you find them all?
What does this map show?
This map shows the places where the music scores found in the Echeverría binder’s volume were printed. This map indicates the flows and connections— both regional and global— created through music, which allowed for the exchange of ideas, practices, tastes and sounds in a place like Colombia and which the Echevarría sisters and their family took an active part of.
Cartografía de géneros musicales y procedencia de compositores y compositoras
How to use this map?
By holding down the right button of your mouse you can move the map to discover the different places contained within the album. You can also zoom in or out using your computer's "zoom" function or by "clicking" on the + and - icon in the lower left corner of the map. Finally, when you "click" on each icon on the map, you will see an image taken from the album, accompanied by a short description. The blue icons represent the musical genres and the red icons indicate the origin of the composers. Green icons show dedications and other references to places that appear in the manuscripts and printed scores.
What does this map show?
This map shows the cities and nations that the musical genres contained in this binder’s volume evoked for their listeners when they were performed in spaces such as the salon. The map also indicates the places of birth of the composers of the musical works collected by Ana and Cristina Echeverría.
Fuentes
[1] Lina del Castillo, La Invención Republicana Del Legado Colonial: Ciencia, Historia, y Geografía de a Vanguardia Política Colombiana En El Siglo XIX, trans. Maria José Montoya Durán, Ediciones Uniandes: Banco de La República (Bogotá: Universidad de Los Andes, 2018).