La compositora Carmen Ibáñez e Ibáñez (1895-1962)vida, pedagogía y obra musical

Abstract

METHODOLOGY The principal methodology used to develop this thesis was the consultation of various archives, bibliography and the provision of unknown documentation, especially personal letters, photographs, recordings, and scores. Additionally, there are diagrams, tables, and footnotes to support the text, a final annex of unpublished documents, and a catalogue of the composer's scores. OBJECTIVES This thesis has tried to provide answers to its principal objective: to know what was the contribution of Carmen Ibáñez in issues of gender, musicology, pedagogy, education, interpretation, and composition during the first half of the twentieth century in Spain. CONCLUSIONS Carmen Ibáñez Ibáñez was born in Mula, Murcia, in 1895. She began studying piano in her hometown, and later continued her studies in Murcia and Madrid under some of the most important professors of Spanish music in the beginnings of the 20th century. Even though she had won a piano award and performed in public, she could not pursue a career as a professional musician because of the difficulties faced by women and, like most women of her time, chose to devote herself to teaching. After passing the music teaching exams at the "Escuela Normal" of Albacete, she settled down in the city and started to write for the press about music. At this institution she experimented with new educational methods and put into practice the pedagogical heritage of Pestalozzi and the "New School" through the pedagogical books she edited and her new invention, the "Rigo-Móvil", considered an ideal object for the intuitive learning of music by children and people with hearing problems. She also was one of the first Spanish women to organize and direct a choral society composed of her own students, which had a didactic purpose and served to spread known popular and cult pieces around Albacete. On the other hand, Carmen Ibáñez contributed to the creation of the Music Conservatory of Albacete, and applied to be a professor of piano, only to have the job offered to a man with less musical merits than her. Regarding her dedication to composition, it has been demonstrated that she followed trends similar to Chopin, in addition to other nationalist and regionalist trends learned from her teachers, and mixed them with the complex sounds of post-romanticism and flamenco music. Ibáñez applied this music style in popular Spanish genres and other newly arrived genres to Spain, like the fox-trot. Like many women did at that time, the majority of her compositions were signed under a pseudonym to facilitate the dissemination of her work. After the Spanish Civil War, the governmental authorities chose her to be a musical instructor and consultant for the "Sección Femenina" of Albacete, an aspect that helped facilitate the collection of popular music in the province with the purpose of creating a songbook as a record of this folklore. Such a book was used as an educational resource and some of her pieces were used in national music competitions organized by this institutions, where choruses conducted by Carmen Ibáñez won in some of its annual editions. Her songbook was one of the most representative of Spain and when she finished it, she was given an award from the state government. The composer died in 1962, and since then, there have been continuous tributes to her music and a national piano award has been created in her name, especially because she is considered to be the most representative musicologist and compositor in Albacete.