Músicas patrimonializadas: el Carnaval de Cádiz

Abstract

The article examines the processes of heritagization of the Carnival of Cádiz and its musical ensembles from the nineteenth century to the present, approaching them through the conceptual and normative framework of Intangible Cultural Heritage promoted by the 2003 UNESCO Convention. Drawing on a methodology that combines ethnographic fieldwork, documentary analysis, and the review of historical, sound, and audiovisual sources, the research explores how the progressive institutionalization of the festival has shaped an urban carnival model centered on the copla and its contemporary performing groups: comparsas, coros, chirigotas, cuartetos, and romanceros. During the nineteenth century, municipalization and regulation by the bourgeoisie fostered and encouraged the refinement, incipient professionalization, and spectacularization of carnival ensembles and their music. Under the Franco dictatorship, the prohibition of carnival enabled its reconfiguration as the “Fiestas de Coros” and “Fiestas Típicas Gaditanas,” subject to strict political control. With the advent of democracy, the Concurso Oficial de Agrupaciones Carnavalescas became consolidated as the central mechanism for the canonization and media dissemination of the coplas, intensifying the mass mediation and commodification of musical practice. Finally, the article addresses the current levels of heritage activation -local, regional, national, and international- highlighting the tensions between institutionalization, community participation, and musical creativity, and demonstrating how the heritagization of the Cádiz carnival constitutes a dynamic process shaped by political, identity-based, touristic, and cultural interests.