Capital city of Chile. From the early colonial period churches held festivities honouring the Virgin and saints, in which a mixture of folk music (African, Amerindian and Spanish) and Spanish religious songs alternated with the use of plainchant. By the mid-18th century the former had been forbidden and art music by the Spaniards Soler and Pons and by the Italians Porpora, Pergolesi and Paisiello prevailed. French influence grew during the 18th century. Certain genres of salon dances were popular, but church music was also cultivated with distinction by such appointees to the Metropolitan Cathedral as the Spaniards Cristóbal Ajuria and José de Campderrós, and later the Peruvian José B. Alzedo y Larrain.
Independence completely changed the city’s cultural life. Secular music widened its repertory from earlier imitations of French salon dances to copies of European display pieces, accomplished by a host of native composers of very basic skills. By far the most popular form was opera; musical life was dominated by the influences of Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, Mercadante and later of Verdi and the most italianate French composers. The first attempts to present an opera season, in 1830, developed into regular seasons in 1844 at the Teatro de la Universidad, the auditorium of the Royal University of S Felipe (founded 1744). In 1853 the opera moved to the Teatro de la República, remaining there until the new Teatro Municipal was inaugurated in 1857 with Verdi’s Ernani. It burnt down in 1870; a replacement was inaugurated in 1873. In 1895 the Municipal gave the première of the first opera by a Chilean, Eliodoro Ortiz de Zárate's La florista de Lugano. Opera seasons alternated there with zarzuelas, ballets, orchestral concerts, and recitals by Chilean and visiting performers. However, the first permanent ensembles were not established in this house until the 1950s, the best-known being the Orquesta Filarmónica founded in 1955 by Juan Matteucci, its permanent conductor until 1963, and the Ballet Municipal (1955).
In 1819 a pioneering attempt to develop chamber music beyond the private circles of the upper class, instigated by the Danish amateur cellist Carlos Dretwetcke, led to the establishment of the Sociedad Filarmónica (1827–95), the Sociedad de Música Clásica (1879–83) and the Sociedad del Cuarteto (1886–90). Their public concerts were supplemented by those of the Conservatorio Nacional de Música (1849), which maintained a small orchestra and chorus. Performances of Verdi’s Requiem (1890) and Handel’s Messiah (1896) were given in Santiago. The Sociedad Orquestal (1912–14), in spite of the success of its first presentation of Beethoven’s nine symphonies under Nino Marcelli in 1913, did not continue after its conductor’s departure for Europe. Many efforts to organize continued concert seasons were finally realized in the 1920s by the Sociedad Bach (1917–32), which emerged as a powerful force for change in Santiago’s musical life. It promoted the reform of specialized education in music and its incorporation into the university (see Chile), and laid the groundwork for a regular concert life. The Asociación Nacional de Conciertos Sinfónicos (1931–8) led to the establishment of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Chile (1941) by Armando Carvajal, its artistic director until 1947, when he was succeeded by Victor Tevah. The Instituto de Extensión Musical (1941), part of the University of Chile, sponsored this orchestra and many other ensembles which raised the standard and quantity of events of Santiago’s musical life to a level comparable to that of the most important cities of Latin America.
Choral singing has developed extensively since the establishment of the Orfeo Catalá (1913). The universities have several proficient groups, such as those of the Universidad Católica (1938), the Universidad de Chile (1945) and the Universidad Técnica (1952), as do individual communities such as the German Singkreis (1942). Choral groups are also active at the Universidad de Santiago and the Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educacíon. The work of the universities in training performers and raising musical standards has been supplemented effectively by various private academies; among the best is the Escuela Moderna de Música (1940). Similarly many organizations have shared with the University of Chile and the Teatro Municipal the maintaining of a high level of concert activity in Santiago. In the field of contemporary music the Sociedad Nueva Música (1946–8), the Asociación Nacional de Compositores (1950–58) and the Agrupación Tonus (1954–9) have offered representative seasons. The Catholic University maintained the Orquesta de Cámara (1961), conducted by its artistic director Fernando Rosas and guest conductor Juan Pablo Izquierdo; the Cuarteto Santiago was founded in 1956. Other concert-promoting bodies include the Sociedad Mozart (1947–54), the bi-national cultural centres, particularly the Goethe Institute (since 1955) and the Mozarteum (1968). The Ancient Instruments Ensemble (1954) has given consistently good performances of pre-Baroque and Ibero-American colonial music.
Festivals in Santiago are the Chilean Music Festival (1948–69, partially resumed in 1979 and 1998), the Choral Festival sponsored by the Music Educators Association (from 1950) and the Contemporary Music Festival of the Catholic University (from 1968). Between 1984 and 1989 the Agrupación Musical Anacrusa played an important role in the performance of contemporary music. The Ensemble Bartók has been active since 1983.
GroveO (R. Stevenson)
D. Quiroga: ‘Aspectos de la ópera en Chile en el siglo XIX’, RMC, nos.25–6 (1947), 6–13
D. Santa Cruz: ‘Centenario del Conservatorio’, RMC, nos.35–6 (1949), 3–10
D. Santa Cruz: ‘Mis recuerdos sobre la Sociedad Bach’, RMC, no.40 (1950–51), 8–62
E. Pereira Salas: Historia de la música en Chile, 1850–1900 (Santiago, 1957)
E. Pereira Salas: ‘El centenario del Teatro Municipal: 1857–1957’, RMC, no.53 (1957), 30–35
D. Santa Cruz: ‘El Instituto de Extensión Musical: su origen, fisonomía y objeto’, RMC, no.73 (1960), 7–38
For further bibliography see Chile.
JUAN A. ORREGO-SALAS/R