Family rooms and railways: An approach at piano’s use in Mexican ‘porfiriato’, as an educational tool and as an import item

Abstract

The piano, in its route through wealthy Mexican families from late 19th Century to the early 20th, has left a trail of important historic indicators which transcend the purely musical. It turned into a link between multiple social and cultural activities. Meanwhile, this instrument transcended its sound properties to become an essential document, an irreplaceable source for studying the daily lives of wealthy Mexican families of the time. The present article will expand two of the many qualities: The piano as an ideal tool for every young high-class miss’ education; and the piano as an economic resource being transported from the United States to Mexico, via the railway system in the porfiriato (1876-1911). The primary sources that were used in supporting said piano traits come from Mexican literary costumbrismo, multiple documents gathering trade and price information between theUnited States and Mexico, and a special compilation of printed American piano advertisements which was spread throughout the Mexican territory. It is also important to recognize the fact that Mexican musicology has not given enough attention to piano as a source of commercial trade, while it has been busy analyzing transatlantic sales almost exclusively. This is why the research in this article about U.S. piano importation may be considered the first approach.