El pensamiento musical

As a consequence of the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain, ordered by
Charles III, about 5000 people were forced to go into exile in Italy in 1767.
Antonio Eximeno (Valencia, 1729 - Rome, 1808) was among those Jesuits.
Philosopher, mathematician and professor of rhetoric, he used the Theory of
Music as a means to become a part of the Italian cultural and social networks,
reflecting the influence of the Enlightened thought in Europe and acting as a
"cultural mediator" between Italy and Spain. In the doctoral dissertation entitled
"El pensamiento musical de Antonio Eximeno" I study the concepts that
articulate Eximeno's thought by analysing his writings that contain ideas on
music: the treatises Dell’origine e delle regole della musica (1774), the Dubbio di. D.
Antonio sopra il Essemplare o sia Saggio fondamentale pratico del M. R. P. M.
Giovanni Battista Martini (1775) and his didactic novel Las Investigaciones
músicas de D. Lazarillo Vizcardi (c.1806).
In the first chapter, the relevance of the study and the objectives of the
research are examined and established. It is followed by a second, more extensive
chapter, in which the aforementioned texts are summarized and typologically
analysed. It also appraises the used scientific methodologies. The third chapter
outlines, firstly, a concise intellectual biography of Antonio Eximeno that allows
for a better comprehension of some of the topics set out in his texts. This
biography is completed with a meticulous state of the art that has ascertained the
existence of different historiography traditions that have projected themselves
over the time.
The fourth chapter offers a panoramic overview of the key concepts that
articulate the Enlightened musical thought in Europe that, at the same time, is
reflected in Eximeno's thought. Thereby, this chapter connects with the following
one, where Eximeno's stance regarding questions such as the conceptualization
of the music and the arts, the different music genres, his stance regarding the
European and non-European oral music tradition, or his historiographicalmusical
discourse is analyzed. This analysis, which constitutes the main focus of
the present investigation, has allowed us to affirm that Eximeno's thought is fully inserted in the European musical debates and to evaluate the originality of his
thought. In this sense it is important to emphasize the value of his idea on the
origins of the language and the music, his firm distinction between the sciences
and the arts, his reflections on the theatrical and religious music of his time, or
his modern approach to the issue of the instrumental music. His contribution to
the music historiography is also worth mentioning, a field that had almost no
precedents. This is presented in an essay type discourse in which he employs a
large number of intellectual references.
The sixth and last chapter of the dissertation analyses the reception of
Eximeno's thought in the Spanish context, both in his own time period and
during the 19th century. In order to study his reception, based mainly on the
Castilian translation of Dell’origine e delle regole della musica, a publication that
has experienced modifications in regards to the original, we had to research the
strategies employed by Eximeno and his translator to adapt his text to the
potential readership. Furthermore, we analysed the reactions on this publication
which has led us to the conclusion that Eximeno's musical thought was received
in a polemic manner. This is exposed both in the periodicals of the time (Diario
de Madrid) and in theoretical texts such as Defensa del arte de la música, by
Agustín Iranzo, or Sobre el verdadero origen de la música, by José de Teixidor.
This polemic reception was caused by the crisis of the production structures of
music; a crisis that was acknowledged by the author. Lastly, the analysis of the
impact of Eximeno's thought on the 19th century music historiography has
allowed for a valuation both of the importance of the studied author, as well as of
the levels of deviation in which his thought has been frequently passed on.

As a consequence of the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain, ordered by
Charles III, about 5000 people were forced to go into exile in Italy in 1767.
Antonio Eximeno (Valencia, 1729 - Rome, 1808) was among those Jesuits.