Singing lessons for amateurs in the 18th century. An overview of Italy, England and Germany contexts with a gender focus on women’s history

Abstract

This work investigates singing lessons for amateurs in 18th century Italy, England and Germany with a gender focus on womens’ history, approaching gender related aspects in the learning process. We first use important historical sources from singing teachers of that century aiming to understand their position regarding the amateur public. Later we discuss more recent works which bring social aspects that might have influenced teachers and pupils in the teaching-learning process. Lastly, we focus on the gender cut, discussing music lessons for ladies in domestic education and connecting them with conduct books for women published at the time. Keywords: singing lessons, amateur singers, domestic education, conduct books, ladies' education.