Analysis of the feminine cultural and pedagogical codes of the musical talent of the Spanish prodigy pianist Maria Vallès at the early 20th century

Abstract

This paper aims to find details about an excellent Spanish pianist from the beginning of the 20th century who starred when she was a little child: her name was Maria Vallès. Not many news are known about her brief biography since she had a short life and little could develop and become known as a pianist. Through a research work some press articles from the first decades of the 20th century were found, which highlight the excellence of her piano performances in Spain. The aim of this research is to analyze the pedagogical codes for the training of a musical talent in Spain at the beginning of the 20th century, as well as the feminine cultural codes against a female prodigy artist, on the axis of Maria Vallès. This research was carried out according to the type of document analysis, which is one of the qualitative research types. Evidence documents regarding the prodigy phenomenon of the Spanish pianist were found. She played concerts basically in Catalonia, where she moved with her family when she was a little child. It should be also noted that she studied with one of the most prestigious pedagogues of the time, Molinari. He was her mentor and the one who introduced her to the Catalan cultural and musical life of the twenties, making her known among her peers who were also pedagogues and musicologists and the public attending her concerts. This research includes some codes for practitioners and pedagogues for the development of piano talent, in the example of Spanish pianist Maria Vallès, who was a prodigy child.

Keywords

• Maria Vallès
• women
• music
• piano
• prodigy

References

1. Álvarez, J. (2019). La política de bienes culturales del Gobierno republicano durante la guerra civil española [The cultural property policy of the republican government during the Spanish civil war]. Madrid: CSIC.
2. Asafyev, B. (1971). Muzykal’naya forma kak prozess (Musical form as a process). Books 1 and 2 (2nd ed.). Muzyka. Atienza-Barthelemy, J., Martín-Gutiérrez, S., Losada, J. C., & Benito, R. M. (2019). Relationship between ideology and language in the Catalan independence context. Scientific Reports, 9, 17148. https://doi. org/10.1038/s41598-019-53404-x
3. Barcelona Registry Office’s (2022). Death Records. Death Records.
4. Blanco Pérez, M. & González, A. (2020). La Barcelona de la Guerra Civil española a través de la mirada de Antoni Campañà. Análisis fotográfico e histórico [The Barcelona of the Spanish Civil War through Antoni Campañà’s perspective. Photographic and historical analysis]. Historia y Comunicación Social, 25 (2), 309-321.
5. Ezquerro Esteban, A., & Ezquerro Guerrero, C. (2018). Barcelona y la música de moda. De lo finisecular decimonónico a comienzos del siglo XX (nuevos bailables y llegada del jazz). El caso de Clifton Worsley (*1873; †1925). Parte I. Una biografía en su contexto [Barcelona and trendy music. From the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century (new dances and the arrival of jazz). The case of Clifton Worsley (*1873; †1925). Part I. A biography in context]. Cuadernos de Investigación Musical, 5, 5–98. https://doi. org/10.18239/invesmusic.v0i5.1915
6. Font Batallé, M. (2010). Blanche Selva y el “Noucentrisme” musical en Cataluña [Blanche Selva and the musical “Noucentrisme” in Catalonia]. Revista de Musicología, 33(1/2), 541–553. https://doi.org/10.2307/41959334 Gassol, O. & Sopena, M. (2017). La cultura catalana, asediada. Un balance crítico de los estudios sobre la censura franquista [Catalan culture under siege. A critical balance of studies on Franco’s censorship]. Represura, 2, 95-138.
7. Gutierrez, E. (2022). Las mujeres militares en la Guerra Civil española. Política, sociedad y Administración Militar de la II República (1936-1939) [Military women in the Spanish Civil War. Politics, society and Military Administration of the Second Republic (1936-1939)]. Doctoral dissertation. Tarragona: Universitat Rovira i Virgili(Spain). http://hdl.handle.net/10803/674262
8. Karr, C. (1907). La nostra finalitat [Our finality]. Feminal, 1(4), 2.

9. La Publicitat. (1929, July 10). Article Maria Vallès [Maria Vallès Article]. La Publicitat.
10. La Publicitat. (1929, November 27). Notes oficioses sobre recital de piano [Unofficial notes on piano recital]. La Publicitat.
11. La Vanguardia. (1929, November 30). Música y teatros [Music and theatres]. La Vanguardia.
12. La Vanguardia. (1932, June 14). Una fiesta en el Palacio de Pedralbes [A party at the Pedralbes Palace]. La Vanguardia.
13. Lapeña-Gallego, G. (2020). Arte contemporáneo y arqueología del desastre en las fosas comunes de la Guerra Civil española [Contemporary art and archeology of the disaster in the mass graves of the Spanish Civil War]. Arte, Individuo y Sociedad, 32(4), 885-902. https://dx.doi.org/10.5209/ aris.64042
14. Martín-Aceña, P., Martínez Ruiz, E., & Pons, M. A. (2012). War and economics: Spanish civil war finances revisited. European Review of Economic History, 16(2), 144–165. https://doi.org/10.1093/ereh/her011
15. Molas, J. (1975). Una història de la premsa catalana [A history of the Catalan press]. In: Lectures crítiques (pp. 40-47). Edicions 62.
16. Narayan, U. (1998). Essence of Culture and a Sense of History: A Feminist Critique of Cultural Essentialism. Hypatia, 13(2), 86-106. doi:10.1111/j.1527-2001.1998. tb01227.x
17. Oriol, N. (2005). La música en las Enseñanzas de Régimen General en España y su evolución en el siglo XX y comienzos del XXI [Music in the Teachings of the General Regime in Spain and its evolution in the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st]. Revista Electrónica Europea de Música en la Educación, 16, 1-33. https://ojs.uv.es/index.php/LEEME/ article/view/9756/9190
18. Pugh, A. (1992). Women in music. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
19. Rabaseda, J. (2023). L’oblit culpable de Felip Pedrell [The guilty oblivion of Felip Pedrell]. L’Avenç: Revista de Història i Cultura, 497, 62.
20. Recvll. (s.f.). Divagacions. El formatge familiar. Sección “De música”, un recital de piano por Maria Vallès [Ramblings. The family cheese. Section “On music”, a piano recital by Maria Vallès]. Recvll.
21. Rodrigo, I. (2017). Las artistas catalanas, su lugar en la revista “Feminal” (1907-1917) [Catalan women artists, their place in the magazine “Feminal”]. Locus Amoenus, 15, 223-244.
22. Soler, S. (2017). Mujeres y música. Obstáculos vencidos y caminos por recorrer. Avances hacia la igualdad y metas por alcanzar en el campo de la composición, interpretación y dirección orquestal [Women and music. Overcome obstacles and ways to go. Progress towards equality and goals to be achieved in the field of composition, interpretation and orchestral direction]. Doctoral dissertation. Tarragona: Universidad Rovira Virgili (Spain). http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/ TDX2757
23. Soler, S. (2018). Maria Vallès Sostres: Cent anys del naixement d’una nena prodigi [Maria Vallès Sostres: Cent years of the birth of a prodigy girl]. Revista Catalana de Musicología, 11, 307-320. http:// revistes.iec.cat/index.php/RCMus/article/ viewFile/145297/143919
24. Soler, S., & Saneleuterio, E. (2022). Maria Vallès (1917-1937). Una joven y talentosa pianista catalana [Maria Valles (1917-1937). A young and talented Catalan pianist]. En R. Sanmartín, & S. Manaut, Creadoras mediterráneas de todos los tiempos (pp. 319-328). Madrid: Lastura.
25. Sonlleva, M., Sanz, S., & Maroto, A. (2020). La educación femenina en la Guerra Civil española. Un análisis desde las voces de la infancia de clase popular [Female education in the Spanish Civil War. An analysis from the voices of popular class childhood]. Revista Educación, Política y Sociedad, 5(1), 39-59.
26. Torrent, J., & Tasis, R. (1966). Història de la premsa catalana [History of the Catalan press]. Vol. 1. Bruguera.
27. Wilson E, L. D. (2005). A ‘relative escape’? The impact of constraints on women who travel solo. Tourism Review International, 9(2), 155–75. https://doi. org/10.3727/154427205774791672