Manuel Carrasco and the piano without solfège: three pedagogical discourses for the optimisation of musical learning in nineteenth-century Spain

Abstract

This article examines three piano teaching methods published in Spain during the second half of the nineteenth century, with the aim of identifying the pedagogical discourses underlying their proposals for the optimisation of musical learning. In a context marked by the expansion of the piano within domestic and educational settings, as well as by persistent criticism of the preliminary and exclusive study of solfège, these methods emerged in response to the need to facilitate earlier access to the instrument and to promote more autonomous forms of learning among students.

The study adopts a hermeneutic methodology based on paratextual analysis and the examination of technical and musical content. Three representative methods are analysed: La aurora de los pianistas by Casimiro Martín (1854), Método de cifra compasada para piano by Manuel Carrasco (1866), and Método especial de piano by Antonio Pasamar (1884). The analysis of these texts allows for the identification of three distinct approaches to a shared pedagogical concern: the simultaneous teaching of solfège and piano, the replacement of traditional musical notation with alternative systems, and the functional avoidance of solfège without its complete suppression.

The results reveal a shared concern with reducing study time and minimising the difficulties associated with musical theory, with the aim of establishing a more immediate relationship with instrumental practice. Moreover, the methods analysed highlight the influence of social, cultural and editorial factors on the configuration of pedagogical proposals, positioning piano teaching as a space negotiated between tradition and innovation and anticipating contemporary debates on learner autonomy, the pragmatism of notational systems and the optimisation of educational processes in music pedagogy.