Are musicians ‘ordinary workers’? Labor organization and the question of ‘artistic value’ in the first years of the Portuguese Musicians’ Class Association (1909-1913)

This article explores how unionized Portuguese musicians tried to address the paradoxes of their social position in a period marked by the development of the entertainment industries. While considering themselves as being part of the “great army of workers,” the members of the Portuguese Musicians’ Class Association (ACMP) remained strongly attached to the ideal of the symphony orchestra and the notion of musical art as a pure and non-market “spiritual activity.” I argue that the study of union debates can offer new perspectives on the ways musicians have historically, aesthetically, and politically constructed their own representations of what being a “professional musician” is.