Toward a New Ideal of the Feminine: the Nineteenth-Century Pianism of Guadalupe Olmedo and María Garfias

Abstract

The article presents analytical and contextual commentaries upon a selection of piano pieces composed by Guadalupe Olmedo (1856–1889) and María Garfias (1849–1918), showing similarities and differences between their respective musical aesthetics. The scores of these pieces were found at different archives in institutions in Mexico, as well as in private collections. This repertoire has been seldom performed and shows the first concert-pieces composed by Mexican women in the Nineteenth century. Garfias studied with well-known Mexican composers and Olmedo was the first woman ever to graduate in composition at Mexico’s National Conservatory. Both composers proposed an innovative musical language: they wrote virtuoso piano pieces that stood out on account of their boldness, originality and risk-taking musical language which contradicted the feminine ideal of this period.