Mexican composer Manuel María Ponce (1882-1948) was born when the European Romantic-era of music was most dominant and lived through the musical eras of Romanticism, Impressionism, and Modernism. His passion and pursuit of Mexican nationalist music influenced the different periods of his composing career, making him one of the most prominent figures in the progression of Mexican music. Due to colonialism, 19th century Latin America was heavily influenced by Europe’s Romantic music through France. Musicians sought the styles and forms of European compositions, Ponce was no exception. After learning classical music in Mexico, he then departed to Italy and France to advance his studies. In his time abroad, he rediscovered the importance of national music, thus incorporating Mexican folk music elements into his compositions, which then became the typical style of Mexican nationalist music.

In his later years of composing (after 1925), Ponce wrote many song cycles for his wife. During this period, Ponce matured in his composing by incorporating different techniques and styles from earlier studies and at the same time internalizing these techniques to form his distinct voice. He portrayed his modernist style through the use of modern symbolism in his lyrics and the flexible use of neo-modality, chromatic, and unresolved dissonances in his compositions.

This thesis discusses two song cycles written by Ponce in his later years, “Seis Poemas Arcaicos” and “Tres Poemas de Enrique Gonzales Martinez”. The first chapter explains the motivation and methodology of this study. The second chapter is an overview of the characteristics and different genres that comprise Latin American music. The third chapter focuses on the life and musical styles of Ponce. The fourth and fifth chapter deals with the background, lyrics, song analysis of both songs respectively. The sixth chapter provides a conclusion for this thesis. This thesis aims to take a deeper look into Ponce’s unique musical style and the charm of modern Mexican folk music.