Flowers, Fragrances and Scents in Adolfo Salazar’s Music Criticism: Modern Music and New Masculinity during the Roaring Twenties

Abstract

Adolfo Salazar is a particularly well-known music critic, especially in Spain and Mexico. However, there are still many issues to explore in his complex and rich musical discourse. Probably some of the most important and overlooked are the issues of gender (taking into account, in addition, that the critic was homosexual, with the non-prescriptive assumption that this implies). As analysed in this article, these perceptions of gender in his critical texts implicitly suggest a new masculinity that deeply pervades various facets of music. Of the issues related to new masculinity, one that is especially clear in his texts will be analysed: the use of flowers, aromas and scents, focusing on a particularly important scent, the oriental, and its relation to homoeroticism and modern music.