Owing to sexism, women composers of Western classical music are disproportionately absent from the music textbooks and concert programs that constitute the patriarchical Western canon, even though many women have composed music.[a]
The reasons for women's absence are various. The musicologist Marcia Citron writing in 1990 noted that many works of musical history and anthologies of music had very few, or sometimes no, references to and examples of music written by women.[1] Among the reasons for historical under-representation of women composers Citron has adduced problems of access to musical education[2] and to the male hierarchy of the musical establishment (performers, conductors, impresarios etc.);[3] condescending attitudes of male reviewers, and their association of women composers with "salon music" rather than music of the concert platform;[4] and denial of female creativity in the arts by philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Immanuel Kant.[5] All this needs to be considered in the perspective of restrictions against women's advancement in cultural, economic and political spheres over a long historical period.[6]
Such discrimination against women composers can be considered in the context of general societal attitudes about gender or perceived roles of men and women, many musicologists and critics have come to incorporate gender studies in assessing the history and practice of the art.
^Print sources include the Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers, edited by Julie Anne Sadie and Rhian Samuel (New York; London: W. W. Norton, c.1995), Barbara Garvey Jackson, "Say Can You Deny Me": A Guide to Surviving Music by Women from the 16th Through the 18th Centuries (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1994), and Aaron I. Cohen, International Encyclopedia of Women Composers (New York: Books & Music, 1987).
Citations
^Citron (1990), 102–103.
^Citron (1990), 105–106.
^Citron (1990), 106–107.
^Citron (1990), 108–110.
^Citron (1990), 111–112.
^Citron (1990), 112–113.
^"Queen's new composer Judith Weir hails 'boss'". The Herald. 2014-07-22. Retrieved 2024-06-08.
^Cohen 1987a, p. 6.
^Partington, Angela (11 March 2003). "One enchanted evening". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2020-11-10.
List partially created using Grove's "Explore" function, Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (accessed 23 September 2006), grovemusic.com (subscription required).
Further reading
"Women Composers". Kapralova Society. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
Briscoe, James R. (ed.) (1986). Historical Anthology of Music by Women. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-21296-0
Gates, Eugene (2006). "The Woman Composer Question: Philosophical and Historical Perspectives" Kapralova Society Journal, vol. 4, issue 2. Accessed 23 November 2020.
Launay, Florence (2006). Les Compositrices en France au XIXe siècle. Paris: Fayard. ISBN 2-213-62458-5
The 2022 report of the International Society for Chilean Music contains information on many Chilean female composers and performers. Their data relating to women composers and performers can be searched and filtered on its database.[1]
External links
International Alliance for Women in Music
The Woman Composer Question a bibliography by Dr. Eugene Gates
French women composers (in French)
List of Iberoamerican and Spanish Women composers by Dr. Cecilia Piñero Gil
"And Don't Call Them 'Lady' Composers" by Pauline Oliveros
Historical Notes for collection of melodies by women composers
Audio links Female Composers 19th, 20th en 21st century
^"International Society for Chilean Music Database".
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