Incaism and habit in the Peruvian lyrical scene of the 20th century

the cases of Mariano Béjar and Benigno Ballón

Abstract

In the first decades of the 20th century, a strong nationalist tendency became evident in the Peruvian lyrical scene, both in the capital and the provinces. Works with Inca and costumbrista themes were released that appealed both to languages familiar to audiences and to new sound symbols. This work addresses the contributions of Mariano Béjar Pacheco (Puno, 1893- Lima 1969) who premiered his works in Lima in the 1920s and Benigno Ballón Farfán (Arequipa, 1898-1957) who developed his compositional career entirely in the province from the same decade. The first opted for a romanticized vision of the Inca empire from the historicist perspective to exhibit the great diversity of Andean music of his present, while the second based his musical writing on the traditional songs of peasants and artisans who converged on the streets of a provincial city that was rapidly linked to modernity.