Other Cultural Perspectives in this Era:
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Women and Music: A Feminist Issue
Cultural Perspective 11
Introduction : Overview : Issues : Projects : Links
Have you wondered why we study so few works by women composers? We have seen that in earlier eras, upper-class women frequently studied music, especially keyboard playing and singing—indeed, such study was a near necessity in proper society. Some, like the medieval abbess Hildegard of Bingen, were inspired to compose music, but exclusively for the needs of the church; others, like Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre, worked as musicians and composers, but strictly within the confines of aristocratic court society. One Baroque-era musician, Lavinia della Pietà, composed in secret; as she confided to her diary, "I could not do otherwise. They would not take me seriously, they would never let me compose. The music of others is like words addressed to me; I must answer and hear the sound of my own voice. . . . Woe betide me should they find out."
Although the gender barrier began to break down in the later nineteenth century, many still held the view that women lacked creativity in the arts. This attitude drove some women to pursue literary careers under male pseudonyms: George Eliot (alias Mary Ann Evans), George Sand (alias Baronne Aurore Dudevant), and Daniel Stern (alias Comtesse Marie d’Agoult), to name just three. Despite the social attitudes of the era, Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, among others, saw their compositions published and critically acclaimed. But the odds were against them in this endeavor. George Upton, writing in 1880, claimed, "Not only are women too emotional and lacking in stamina to write music, but a woman's mind simply cannot grasp the scientific logic of music making," and even Clara Schumann herself remarked that "women always betray themselves in their compositions." Still, women made their musical mark, especially in songs, piano music, and chamber works.
Repression of women became an important social issue at the beginning of the twentieth century. A women's movement arose to bring about social reform: some worked against societal problems such as alcoholism, some fought for improved education, and many rallied for suffrage, or the right to vote. (It was not until 1920, with the passage of the Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution, that women won legal equality in the political arena.) By the turn of the century, some female musicians had adopted militant feminist perspectives.
One activist was the English composer Ethel Smyth, a prominent suffragist who fought against sexual discrimination in music. Her March of the Women became the anthem of a feminist organization called the Women's Social and Political Union. It was sung at meetings, in the streets, and even in prison. (Smyth herself was imprisoned for two months, for breaking the window of a cabinet minister.) She also led a campaign to secure positions in all professional orchestras for women performers. (This crusade was not altogether successful in her lifetime—the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra reluctantly admitted its first permanent woman member, a harpist, in 1997!) In her later years, Smyth was viewed as somewhat eccentric when she began wearing manly tweed suits and smoking a pipe.
Not all women composers followed her courageous path. As we have seen, the American composer Amy Beach was more conservative, choosing to be known professionally as Mrs. H. H. A. Beach in deference to her married status; however, in later life, she headed several important educational organizations that reached out to both sexes.
Feminists today have posed some interesting questions regarding women composers. For example, do women and men speak differently through music? Is there a woman's "voice" in music, and if so, what characterizes it? More scientifically, does biology play a role in the creative process? Reviewers, mostly male, have criticized musical works by nineteenth-century women that failed to conform to traditional structural procedures. Did women base their choice of forms on their concert settings (which were mostly salons instead of public halls), on the makeup of their audiences, or on their musical training, which usually occurred at home? Or did they avoid the common procedures of composition because of the "masculine" implications of the forms—which were, after all, designed and defined exclusively by men? Critics have not always applied the same standards to compositions by both sexes: while a woman might be criticized for writing music that was too "feminine," a man who writes music considered "feminine" (Chopin, for example) is credited with having a full range of emotional expression.
Society has clearly come a long way in accepting women and their creative musical expressions. And while we have not fully resolved the intriguing questions raised above, differences between the sexes include the ideas men and women express through music. One of the major contributions of the feminist perspective in modern times has been the recognition of women's own experiences, as distinct from men's perception of women's experiences. Thus, the multimedia artist Meredith Monk often composes works about women and their views of life. Her 1988 film Book of Days, for example, tells the tale of a fourteenth-century Jewish girl who is troubled with baffling visions of the future, and her operas Education of the Girlchild (1975) and Atlas (1991), the latter commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera, both focus on women and their lifetime quests. The composer Libby Larsen (b. 1950), whom we will meet later, frequently sets women's writings to music. Her Songs from Letters: Calamity Jane to her Daughter Janey (1989) is a song cycle based on excerpts from the famous frontierwoman’s diary; her opera Frankenstein, the Modern Prometheus (1990) reinterprets Mary Shelly's famous novel; and she has also set poems by Emily Dickinson and short stories by Willa Cather, among others.
Popular music has opened up to a new woman's voice and to improved perceptions of women. While many rock songs have made demeaning references to women and expressed violent attitudes toward them, modern artists such as Salt 'N Pepa, the first successful female rap group, and Queen Latifah have sounded a strong voice against female bashing through their own artistic creations. As society gradually moves not only to accept the creative contributions of women, but to welcome and understand them, there is no doubt that more female musicians and composers will achieve success and inspire others in their chosen professions.
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Overview:
This Cultural Perspective examines the reasons for women's marginal role
in Western music, and why the music of women has not been represented in our
histories of music. The research of feminist scholars has suggested a number
of reasons centering on a mix of societal attitudes, women's musical education,
and women's own feelings about their place in the artistic world.
Issues:
Until recently, it was widely held that women had no real place in our studies
of music. Clearly this is not the case. Research has shown that in various times
and places, there was a substantial number of women involved in composing and
performing music. Yet it is a separate history, with its own rules and ways
of being understood. The study of women's music raises a number of interesting
questions:
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