Flora e seu piano : música e capital cultural.

Abstract

This study aims to understand the significance of piano study for a woman from Paraíba above 60 years old: “Flora” (a fictitious name to maintain the participant's anonymity). Its specific objectives are: to discuss the cultural and historical context regarding piano study for women of a certain social position; to analyze the trajectory of musical experiences that mark the Flora’s life path; and to identify the motivations and expectations for her piano studies in old age. For this research, a qualitative approach was adopted, with Musical Life History as the methodology. In the search for these memories, the narrative interview was used as an empirical data collection, focusing on understanding the significance of piano study at the time of data collection, which, however, relates to the individual’s lifelong engagement with music, particularly within the family context. The narrative interview was complemented by another narrative interview, based on a flexible script, formulated from inherent content of the first interview. The research is interdisciplinary, drawing on theoretical references from Sociology and Music Education. Based on Pierre Bourdieu's theory of cultural capital, the musical life trajectory of Flora, a 71 years old merchant and piano student, was analyzed. From her accounts, three main points of analysis were identified: interest in music conditioned by beliefs such as "aptitude" and "talent", family influence on initial music studies, and the piano as an object of family heritage. The concept of embodied cultural capital translates conceptions of musical development associated not only with economic investment but, above all, with time spent on musical practices; in turn, objectified cultural capital reveals the family inherited musical instrument as an active capital, both material and symbolic, with benefits derived from its use and practice are only perceived by those who have incorporated the acquired cultural capital throughout their life trajectory, influenced by family. It can be concluded that piano musical practice – by Flora’s perspective, and analysed data – is recognized as a vestige of bourgeois humanistic education, which enphasizes the comprehensive cultural development of young women, preparing them to fulfill their social roles as wives and mothers.