Enrique Fernández Arbós: la trayectoria profesional de un maestro español a través de la prensa londinense: 1891-1939

Abstract

This PhD offers the first study of the musical life of the violinist, composer, teacher and conductor Enrique Fernández Arbós during his professional stay in London, and through the general English press of the time, framed between 1891 and 1939. Through the organization of the information obtained from the press - divided into advertisements and criticisms - in a database created specifically for this thesis work, the information has been rigorously and exhaustively exploited and organized. The relationship of all this information with the existing bibliography about the protagonist of the thesis has allowed us to analyze four fundamental profiles in the musician's profession, these being performance, composition, teaching and conducting. We have been able to establish a calendar of concerts, teaching activities and various events of the teacher, even establishing a professional itinerary that includes specific references on his musical and professional activity in Spain. An approximate total of 4537 records has allowed to build 200 total events between the years 1891 and 1939 distributed in the four mentioned profiles. The establishment of the historical social and musical context of the time has allowed us to understand the situation of Enrique Fernández Arbós, as a foreign professional musician in London, attending to the changes in the evolution of the nineteenth-century musician in one of the fundamental places of musical art, attending to the causes of his mobility and the reasons that prompted him to settle abroad while maintaining his professional life in Spain. This work has also made it possible to carry out a prosopographic analysis of maestro Arbós with Spanish musicians, such as Isaac Albéniz, Carlos Sobrino or Agustín Rubio, but also with international musicians such as Joseph Joachim, Henru Vieuxtemps or Eugene Isayë. Definitively, we have been able to verify the importance of the press as a means of studying the professionalization of the musician, and in the case of this work, the strategy that it has assumed in the British capital to gradually become known and integrated into London musical life. Finally, the creation and use of the database can be considered a starting point for its application in the study of other musicians through publications, both general and specialized.