The Scientific, Literary and Artistic Athenaeum and musical culturisation in Menorca (1905-1936)

Abstract

In this article we will focus on a specific area of sociability in our contemporaneity: the associationism model that is adopted regarding culture and education or instruction, first of all by the better-off classes, and subsequently transferred to the popular classes, and which was known generically as Athenaeum. The cultural and educational associative model that was represented by the Athenaeums all over the country, in Menorca finally became consolidated in the early nineteen hundreds, when up to three Athenaeums were created in Maó and one in the neighbouring town of Es Castell. We aim to account for and analyse the work of musical culturisation carried out by the most emblematic cultural organization of these characteristics in nineteenth century Menorca: the Scientific, Literary and Artistic Athenaeum of Maó, through its section of Literature and Music, and the diverse subsidiaries involved.

Key words: sociability, associationism, Athenaeums, music, culture, Menorca.