Luis Bedmar

The social function of the musician and the music

Abstract

In this paper the musical and professional activities of the musicians Luis Bedmar Encinas is analyzed into account the functional perspective theorized by Alan Merriam and later deepened by John Blacking. Starting from a contextualization of his vital and social experience and his professional career, special attention is paid to the different musical groups promoted by Luis Bedmar, identifying in each of them the existence of certain functions – which correspond to a large extent to those that Merriam raised in the 60s of the twentieth century – to the point of proposing two further functions of music: the function of social change and the economic function. The objectives of this work, then, are to analyze the musical activity of Luis Bedmar Encinas from the point of view of the functions that he has attributed to them throughout his career, and to demonstrate that Luis Bedmar Encinas has raised his activity with attention to the social dimension of the musical product directing its initiatives to the effective fulfillment of certain functions. At present, the application and linking of the social vision of music to the educational and professional field, as well as its consideration as a factor of social development, are still in process. The methodology used is mixed, having been necessary to combine the documentary analysis of various printed sources with the interview method according to current oral historiography.