Current music as heritage assets for artistic education

Abstract

This article analyzes the educational value of contemporary artistic heritage through the study of the opera Chaxiraxi (2024), composed by Emilio Coello with a libretto by Benito Cabrera. The work recreates the discovery of the image of the Virgin of Candelaria by the Guanche people, generating a symbolic narrative that enables the classroom exploration of topics such as identity, cultural hybridity, historical memory, and religious syncretism. The study adopts a critical heritage education perspective, integrating contributions from music pedagogy, cultural history, and heritage didactics.

The methodology combines documentary analysis with a structured study of the libretto and the score, addressing their literary, symbolic, musical, and performative dimensions. The results are articulated on three levels: the exploration of the text as a poetic, heritage-based, and educational construction; the musical analysis of the score, with particular attention to its formal design, choral and rhythmic language, and references to insular folklore; and the didactic assessment of the work as an interdisciplinary tool applicable in educational contexts.

The article highlights the pedagogical potential of Chaxiraxi for engaging with musical language alongside long-standing cultural processes, through active and interdisciplinary approaches. It concludes by emphasizing the importance of incorporating contemporary repertoires with symbolic and territorial anchoring in music education, especially at the secondary and university levels, as a means to resignify cultural heritage through aesthetic experience, critical reflection, and identity construction in the present.