Women's Musical Education in XIX Century Madrid. Some notes on the Association for the Education of Women (1870-1900)
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Abstract
The Association for the Education of Women (Asociación para la Enseñanza de la Mujer) was founded in Madrid in 1870 by Fernando de Castro, who under the influence of the Free Educational Institution (Institución Libre de Enseñanza), took as a reference the hypotheses of pedagogues such as Johann H. Pestalozzi (1746-127) and Friedrich Fröebel (1782-1852).
The significance of this center, which more than 6000 female students attended, is that it allowed women to study at any level of education - from learning as Preschool students, to doing courses for the post office and telegraph service (Correos y Telégrafos), and to training to work as governesses. All in all, its most ourstanding institutional repercussions were its contribution to the development of the Madrid School of Female Teachers (Escuela de Maestras de Madrid) and its fruitful relationship with several institutions, such as the Athenaeum (Ateneo) or the Circle of the Mercantile Union (Círculo de la Unión Mercantil), among others.
The present proposal attempts (1) to delve into the musical education received by women in this Association, in order to (2) specify the contents and methodologies used by the specialist teachers of this subject. In this way, the conclusions will provide information about (a) the role which music played in female education in the transition from the XIX to the XX centuries and (b) the possibilities that music opened for them.