The musician under control: the process of licensing in the first half of the 18th century

Abstract

 In the administrative connection between the Portuguese Metropolis and the American Colony, the ritual forms, mainly religious, were essential to ideological matters. During the kingdom of D. João V, politics, regarding to social correction, were implanted based on closed affinity between Kingdom and Church, reflecting the monarchy of D. João and its mystic vocation. In a neither clear nor united process, State and Church shared the civilizer mission of establishing the ideological instruments of control. The Church, which assumed the control of the depleted music field as institutional administrative action, since the final part of the 17th century, unfolded its insertion into the tasks of controlling the liturgical spectacle, consequently requiring the musicians’ licensing. This text is about analyzing these processes and its consequences in establishing the music practice in Brazil, during the first half of the 18th century. Keywords: Colonial music. Church in Brazil. Licensing. Brazilian administration during colonial time.