The Music Composition by Elite Women During the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century in Chile

Abstract

Music practice and composition were central to nineteenth-century Latin American culture. One can find huge volumes of sheet music to be performed in contemporary salons in libraries and archives across the region, and several of these collections have been recently catalogued. In this context, an important number of pieces written by women have been unearthed, as well as music compiled and transcribed by women. In this paper, I want to describe female authorship in terms of their music creation in the second half of nineteenth century in Chile. I consider that this was a space for autonomous composition, since music was mostly perceived as a female practice, and thus it became a place from where women could communicate their ideas, and a way to enter the field of public cultural life in which political and social opinions could be addressed in ways otherwise impossible.