“Teaching of singing” by Pedro Aedo. An approach to musical education during the Porfiriato through México intelectual journal

Abstract

This paper offers an analysis and description of an article published in Mexico Intellectual journal, undertaken by the pedagogue Enrique C. Rébsamen, who served as a pillar in the educational methods and practices during the Porfirio Díaz regime, as well as in the foundation of the Veracruz Normal School in 1886. Among the many articles on education in the journal, one stands out, devoted to music: “Teaching of singing”, by Pedro Aedo, in volume xv corresponding to 1896. The discourse was constructed from the perspective of music education in dialogue with the history of education, and the journal was framed as a school textbook for teacher training students. In its nine pages we can glimpse the role of singing in modern pedagogical currents and its link with Díaz’s policies. The subject of singing was part of the normalist curriculum; thus, Aedo provides the reader with a series of suggestions and recommendations for an optimal class. The text indicates that music was not only for ornamentation, as it suggests that, seen from a pedagogical and not purely musical point of view, it has a function of being in human development, particularly in the formation of the citizen; finally, music emerges as an element of aesthetic formation and appreciation. Aedo’s article allows us to understand the function of music through singing and its inclusion in pedagogy, the elaboration and execution of a singing class in Mexican classrooms at the end of the Porfiriato, to sign the importance of music in the educational project and to provide notes on the first steps of music education as a discipline.