Abstract
The article discusses the tension between high culture, the emerging popular culture, and the incipient mass culture through an analysis of the status of music in Machado de Assis’s work. Devoting special attention to a set of newspaper chronicles and to the stories “Um homem célebre” and “O machete”, the article postulates that Machado’s work was the first literary reflection on music as a privileged cipher of nationality.
Key words:
music; popular culture; Machado de Assis