Controllo monopolistico e strategie protosindacali: le iniziative dell’Irmandade de Santa Cecílianella Lisbona liberale (1833-1853)

This article is dedicated to the musical life of Lisbon in the nineteenth century, with particular emphasis on the initiatives of the Irmandade de Santa Cecília, the brotherhood that, since the beginning of the eighteenth century, brought together musicians from the Portuguese capital and that, thanks to a royal privilege, had a monopoly on the musical activity in the city. Within the political climate determined by the eventual introduction of liberalism in Portugal, the Irmandade was forced to adopt new methods to protect their corporate interests in the attempt to create a system of social protection through the establishment of Montepio Filarmónico (1834). Following the Associação Música 24 de Junho (1842), the Irmandade de Santa Cecília attempted to appropriate associationism (in particular Freemasonry) to increase the bargaining power of the musicians contracted to the orchestras of municipal theatres. Whereas on the one hand the initiatives of this association, in relation to theatre managers, resembles those of a trade union, on the other, its general policy tended to establish a strict self-referential system removed from the laws of the market, able to generate privileges for its members and discrimination against musicians outside the association.