The civilizing process and the decline of the viola in Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

This paper shows that violas faded in popularity in Rio de Janeiro due to a civilising process that transformed the city and with it the lives and musical tastes of its inhabitants. The civilising process started with the transfer of the entire Portuguese royal court to Rio de Janeiro in 1808 changing the Brazilian capital politically, socially and culturally in the first half of the nineteenth century. Intending to Europeanise and modernise the city, the new establishment created administrative and cultural institutions, opened the country to international trade and implemented a new social order that fixed the parameters of behaviour and etiquette that significantly influenced the inhabitants of the city.