Social, pedagogy and proselitism action in the catholic workers´ circles: music and artistic education in the first social catholicism in Spain (1875 – ca. 1900)

Abstract

The Catholic Workers’ Circles became from the last quarter of the nineteenth century, among other initiatives, authentic social movements for education, more or less innovative.His pedagogical action, although instrumentalized by the Church, constituted in his moment an alternative to the inability of the public administrations to defuse certain unresolved social assistance and educational needs. The aim of this article is to highlight the educational action carried out by the Catholic Circles in the first stage of Social Catholicism, roughly coinciding with the First Restoration and the first decade of the 20th century. These societies arose as a response to the social issue and to the problematic situation of the Church in the nineteenth century, a time of crisis for the institution in which it sought to adapt to the new liberal becoming of the times. Among the idiosyncrasies and essential tasks of the Catholic Circles - assistance, ideological, corporate, etc. - stands out its cultural and educational dimension that, despite being imbued by a proselytizing duty, they were going to offer diverse educational training to the most disadvantaged sectors of Spanish society. In this sense, particular attention is given to the teaching of plastic and music education. In the latter, we will highlight the instrumental vocal praxis, concretized essentially in the creation of choirs, bands of music and rondallas, as the most significant materializations.