Despite the chilly Canberra weather the atmosphere this past week at the Women in the Creative Arts conference has been incredibly warm. The academic papers, panels, performances and the rigorous discussions were all under-girded with encouragement and cheers of support.
WICA composers, performers, academics. Photo William Hall
I was able to witness the impact Women of Note has had in the landscape, something I hadn't realised from Perth. I was told countless stories about how my book had influenced people in their commissioning, their perfoming, and their careers.
Photo William Hall
I was overwhelmed by how much people felt supported and affirmed by my work. And it was so exciting to see the next generation of composers learning from the work of their forebears:
"....I confess to my shame I hadn't heard of Margaret Sutherland before now..."..
".... a couple of years ago I read your book and decided I wanted to meet Helen Gifford, to see her, to commission her..."
"...the bridge building you are doing for the music industry is so important..."
Liza Lim, Natalie Williams, Mathew Dewey (ABC), Naomi Johnson (ABC), Lisa Cheney
There are are significant changes afoot around the visibility and celebration of our women composers and I am so excited to be part of it. 47 papers, 4 recitals, 5 keynotes and 3 panels later I think some of the changes are going to stick this time around. In the immediate future:
* Cat Hope has offered to host the conference next year at Monash.
* Vanessa Tomlinson will be rollling out her research from Queensland University to include every tertiary institution documenting the works that are being performed in graduation recitals.
* Joanna Drimatis is collating a database of graded works for performance by schools and community groups.
Add that to the ongoing work from the Hildegard Commissioning Project, the findings from the APRA/AMCOS commissioned report on results from RMIT research, the Skipping a Beat report, the Australian Women Screen Composers report, and there is a sense of growing awareness and action toward increasing visibility for women composers.
I'll post my keynote paper soon to add to the discussion.
With the magnificent composer Judith Clingan
I have the satisfied feeling that my book has done what it was meant to do.I sold out of copies of Women of Note at the conference. Which means my print run with Fremantle Press is finished and it is time for an eBook.
So now it is time to head back home to my family, filled with a warm glow, and work out where to from here.
Huge thanks to Natalie Williams and ANU for hosting this incredible event.
You are about to hear a whole lot more from women in the creative arts. When I was writing my book Women of Note I was surprised to discover that 25% of Australian composers are women. This is more than almost any other country - our best kept secret! However despite the statistics it became clear from my interviews and research that many women still struggle with visibility issues. The majority of commissions by far go to male composers, who also hold most of the positions in institutions and on boards.
Logo for the Women in the Creative Arts Conference
That is beginning to change. In August the Australian National University is holding a Women in the Creative Arts Conference. The key note speakers are Liza Lim and Cat Hope and the conference has already attracted over 100 delegates across a range of art forms. Conference director Natalie Williams hopes the conference will "provide an opportunity for research professionals to gather, present their methodologies, discuss the unique issues surrounding the creative arena, and propose strategies to enhance and enrich their working lives as strong members of an international cultural and artistic voice. The gathering will feature a rich exchange of research ideas, including round-table discussions and panels that develop and enhance practices for women in the creative fields." The WICA conference is riding the crest of activist revival addressing the visibility issue for women composers. Other developments include Musica Viva's Hildegard Project established last year, the first national program designed to encourage and commission women composers. The appointments of Cat Hope as Head of Music at Monash University and Liza Lim at the University of Sydney are also significant. Lim will be involved with the National Women Composers' Development Program, another recent development tackling the issue of mentoring emerging women composers. Hope has been part of a research team collecting data on the working life of arts practitioners. Some of these ideas are quite innovative and it is significant they are all happening at once - four years ago when I wrote Women of Note there was nothing like this occurring. I am particularly excited about the ANU conference; I have been invited to present a paper on Women of Note and I am looking forward to catching up with east coast networks. I don't know of any other Australian conference like this for composers. The last women composers' conference was in the nineties when there were gatherings around Australia that were significant for galvanizing support for women in composition and contributing to an increase in the numbers of women composers. I have high expectations for this one. Especially given the current proactive climate around women in the arts. Could women composers be leading Australia's fourth wave feminist revival??
Thanks to Joondalup Library for hosting so elegantly and to Jacquie Davidson for being my paparazzi!
There were a number of comments about the celebratory and creative atmosphere around the topic of International Women's Day, which can often be a gloomy/bombastic affair. Certainly women in composition continue to suffer from visibility issues. But in Australia we have the benefit of up-to-date documentation (The Australian Music Centre and Women of Note) and given 25% of our composers are women - more than almost any other western country - we have plenty to celebrate. I look forward to this being represented more accurately in our concert programming and commissioning. And meanwhile, I'll keep celebrating!
International Women's Day is tomorrow: 8th March, Here are some ways to listen to music by Australian women composers as part of your day.
Andrew Ford from the Music Show has done a fascinating interview with composer Liza Lim, recently returned to Australia to take up a post at the University of Sydney. She is profiled alongside pianist Jeanell Carrigan who has written a book and recorded an album of early 20th century women composers and their piano music. To listen to the interview go here.
The new music podcast Making Waves have released their March playlist titled Social Activism Waves: music that interrogates or reflects on different aspects of society including gender politics.
Tune in to ABC Classic FM to enjoy listening to their all-women program. While I'm driving to Joondalup Library to present my Musical Soiree I'll be listening to Mairi Nicolson broadcast music by women composers (Betty Beath, Ann Carr-Boyd, Cathie Travers, Ros Bandt) who are featured in my book Women of Note. A perfect way to set the scene!
For those whose voice isn't being heard, I can think of nothing more appropriate and healing than Betty Beath playing her Lament.
I’m always interested to follow the progress of composers from Women of Note. Elena Kats-Chernin’s output continues at an incredible speed. Her many fans will be pleased to know her latest album is another collaboration with pianist Tamara-Anna Cislowska, this time with Eric Satie as the muse. Unsent love letters contains 26 miniatures by Kats-Chernin inspired by Satie’s extraordinary life and music.
“Satie’s life was a fascinating, fervoursome affair,” says pianist Tamara-Anna Cislowska, who recorded the album, “from the first strike of love and then lifelong estrangement with artist and muse Suzanne Valadon, to the unexpected celebrity and conflict of his last ten years. After he died friends, gaining access to his apartment for the first time in almost three decades, found conditions both perplexing and romantically fastidious in their own way: two grand pianos one atop the other, one chair, one table, seven velvet suits and the love letters – many, many unsent love letters.”
The album reflects on idiosyncrasies and anecdotes from Satie’s life, with music that ranges from seductive orientalism to hypnotic melodies reminiscent of the ground-breaking, transcendent beauty of Satie’s own piano pieces. Kats-Chernin's miniature ‘imaginary building’ reflects on Satie's sketches of imaginary buildings (which he even advertised in the newspaper for rent and purchase); ‘very shiny’is a reflection on one of his characteristically opaque performance directions and ‘postcard to a critic’ is named after Satie’s explosive response to a negative review (leading to a spell in gaol).
Kats-Chernin and Cislowska
The buoyant rhythms and rhapsodic harmonic style that have brought Kats-Chernin a reputation as one of the best-loved composers of her generation provide the perfect lens to reflect on a musical great of the previous century. Together Kats-Chernin and Cislowska The album is released today by Universal Music and available from ABC Shops and iTunes.
International Women's Day is just around the corner and I'm proud to be participating with a Musical Soiree at Joondalup Library.
If you are in the area on Wednesday 8th March pop in to Joondalup Library at 6pm for a glass of wine and a chance to hear some stunning music and stories from my book Women of Note.
It's essentially an author talk but more fun with musical samples and (sometimes scandalous) stories which invariably provoke plenty of discussion. My presentation gives a quick history of Australian composition by tracing three generations of women composers. The musical range is enormous. I find people are surprised by how much they enjoy my talks - I guess most people assume classical music is going to be a bit dull, but the lives and music from Women of Note are anything but dull!
I can't think of a better way to celebrate women in Australia than to profile the work of our women composers. It's our best kept secret: we have more women composers than almost any other western nation! Definitely something worth celebrating and I do love putting together the missing jigsaw pieces of our musical history.
Feel free to circulate among your networks. The details regarding registration and location are here.
“A welcome – and overdue – publication. Appleby displays an expertise probably honed by her years as a journalist. She writes engagingly, achieving a fine balance between conveying information about the women’s personal lives and their music.”
Jillian Graham
Australian Book Review March 2012.
“Women of Note makes an excellent starting point for anyone interested in exploring the music of Australian women composers. The musical lives and survival stories of all the womenare inspiring. One can almost believe anything is possible. At the very least women of all ages can find in it a variety of survival tips...”
Jenny Game-Lopata, Musicological Society of Australia Journal July 2013
Last night's concert ticked so many musical boxes I'm not sure where to start!
Eighth Blackbird
The premiere of a work by a young woman composer was always going to grab the attention of the author of a book on Australian women composers. Holly Harrison's Lobster Tails and Turtle Soup was premiered by Eighth Blackbird, America's rockstars of classical music. Clarinetist Michael Maccaferri from the sextet described the work as extremely difficult, (even for them!) but it exploded off the page with a quirky energy that had the audience in raptures. Harrison drew inspiration from the nonsensical writing of Lewis Carol and her music captured the whimsy and madness incredibly well in a mash of extended techniques, experimental rock and blues.
with Holly Harrison shortly before her world premiere
Harrison's work sat alongside works written in the past four years by American composers Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner, Timo Andres and Ted Hearnes. These are composers born in the 70's and 80's and young enough to be freer than previous generations of the style-police of modernist ideology - free in other words to be the composers they want to be. Yes there were plenty of modernist extended techniques and nods to minimalist composers but there were also hip hop vibes and musical conversations about contemporary art and politics.
Eighth Blackbird played with professionalism and high octane energy. As an ensemble they were tightly coordinated but also able to relax into a groove.
There was a sense of an international family, drawn together under the umbrella of the organisation Musica Viva, (with support from the Perth Festival). American performers rocking out to music by an Australian composer, with program notes by UK critic Jessica Duchen and an audience of very enthusiastic new music appreciators.
Setting up for Pre-concert talk
I admit to being pleasantly surprised at the full chairs for my pre-concert talk and the large concert hall crowd. There was an atmosphere of enthusiasm and curiosity. The questions in the post show Meet the Artist interview came from mostly elderly audience members (exploding my sterotypes!) who were keen to clarify and learn more. Musica Viva has educated and grown an audience who do not fear the unknown.
This concert was a gift: music written today, for us, for our time. Thank you Musica Viva for being one of the few Australian organisations brave enough to champion this repertoire.
On Monday night I had the privilege of presenting the pre-concert talk at the launch of Musica Viva's national Beilman & Tyson tour. I've often thought it would be a lot of fun to give a pre-concert talk, and I was right!
Selling books at Perth Concert Hall
I enjoyed preparing by reading scores and listening to violin sonatas by Mozart, Janacek, Saint Saens and Jane Stanley, and I enjoyed sharing my discoveries with the audience. The sonatas essentially chartered the development of the violin sonata genre from the 18th century to present day. They were well-crafted in their different ways. Each was built around a motif or pool of notes that generated the structure of the entire work. My goal was to highlight those themes so the audience could recognise them in performance. It makes such a huge difference to the listening experience if the audience feels they are following the musical conversation.
One of the pieces on the program was by Australian composer Jane Stanley, so I was also invited to sell copies of Women of Note at interval. What a fabulous opportunity! It's nights like these where I really love my job!
It is always hard to know whether these public speaking gigs have been a success or not, but I received overwhelmingly enthusiastic responses from the audience, including from a self-described 'concert virgin' who said I was his life-saver and had been very interesting. I was also told I was difficult to hear, a serious issue given most in the audience were elderly and probably struggling with hearing complications. I will have to project my voice more in the future!
My greatest challenge was to present the music of Jane Stanley in a way that was going to help open the ears of the audience to a musical language they were less familiar with. Stanley's music is unique and incredibly beautiful. Here is an excerpt of what I shared:
JANE STANLEY b Sydney 1976 Cerulean Orbits
Stanley follows a tradition of female Australian composers who have made significant
contributions to Australian music. 25% of Australian composers are women, more
than almost any other western country. Women began being recognised as
composers at the beginning of the 20th century. Margaret Sutherland was the mother of
women composers in Australia and her impact was huge – she almost
single-handedly pioneered Australian new music in the first half of the
century. She was one of the first
composers to develop a uniquely
Australian musical voice. She had a hard life, married to a psychiatrist
who thought a woman wanting to compose music was a sign of mental illness! She
once said
“My musical life has been a frustration of half promises, then bad
performances, followed by no more performances. The world at large thinks a
woman can’t be creative. A woman can contribute in a special way. I don’t think
that women want to write the same thing as men, but their contribution is no
less important.”
I
share that with you as an example of the difficulties women have had and in some
cases are still having trying to find equal footing in the male dominated world
of composition. Research done in the last few years shows there are still
visibility issues for women composers who are under represented in
commissioning, concert programs, radio programs and as staff in music education
faculties. Which is why the Hildegard project and its commissioning of women
composers is so important. Because there
are SO MANY fabulous women composers out there, particularly in Australia,
where as I mentioned 25% of our composers are women, far more than for example
the UK and Finland who clock in at 13% and the US which has 20%. It really is our best kept secret and I am
delighted to see Musica Viva celebrating this with the Hildegard commissioning project.
Jane
fits into what I would call the emerging 4th generation of Australian
women composers. She was born in the 70’s when the definition of classical
music had broadened considerably since the days of Sutherland. Jane is a fairly traditional composer
in that she writes for traditional instruments as distinct from electronics or
noise or performance installations. Jane has studied her craft very deeply - studied
with the greats of Australian composers: Peter Sculthorpe, Ross Edwards and Bernard Rands in the US.She has participated at the Wellesley
Composers Conference, Tanglewood and Aspen Music Festival. She also completed
a PhD in composition at University of Sydney under Ann Boyd, from whom she
learned an appreciation for space and silence.
Stanley is now
Lecturer in music at University of Glasgow where the Scots have embraced her
and aren’t letting go – she has been there 10 years. Jane tells me she is very
sad she is unable to return to Australia for the premiere of this work. The
reason is because has a two month old baby who is still a little small for flying.
As
a composer she has established very distinctive voice. In
most of her works there is an absence of recognisable time signature or pulse.
Which gives a floating, drifting, stasis. It has a hazy weightlessness. It is beautiful and otherworldly but also sometimes
wild.
The composer
indicates in the program notes of Cerulean Orbits that the two
instruments are orbiting around each other. Their music is drawn from the same
pool of notes and the composer allows them sometimes to blend, sometimes to
antagonise each other.
You
will notice the piano is emancipated from being a purely accompaniment
instrument; both instruments are complete equals. In fact the piano often treated like
violin – as a single line shared between the two hands rather than block
chords.
Analysis:
The music is very
carefully crafted – it is not just random notes! Piano
begins with a sextuplet of semiquavers which is the thematic core of the work. (Play sample on piano). This
is the pool of notes getting introduced that will be the core of the piece. Then the violin
enters and hovers on B for 6 bars. In the score the piano part is marked ‘smeared’ and the violin par ‘featherlike’. Jane’s textural style is coming through - it is very tactile; the composer wants us to experience this like it is
coming into contact with our skin! There are huge variation of dynamics and articulation
the composer has written into the score giving it an instant intensity even
though it is flowing and gentle.
The piano
part is typical Stanley - scattered notes over a sustained pedal, sounding like droplets.
Notes are grouped in 3's, 5's, 6's, spread across the beat so the effect is
unpredictable, ungrounded, pulseless, a bit of a nod to Luciano Berio’s piano
writing.
The middle
section is where it gets wild, the score is marked "pulsating... hammered... propulsive... fff " It is excited and busy, the sort of music that
causes audiences to say “It’s not music,
its too noisy.” Did you know Mozart’s
music was criticised for the same thing? Archduke Ferdinand criticised one of
Mozart’s pieces for having "too many notes”! Mozart’s ideas exploded beyond the
perimeters of what was usual or predictable and people found it hard to digest.
It sounds so elegant and simple to us now. So don’t be put off by the ‘noise’,
instead recognise it as fresh thinking that our ears aren’t yet accustomed to.
The
sense of calm returns at the end of Cerulean Orbits, and the sextuplet from the opening
is heard again. This time the piano gets the repeated B’s. it is a floating, spacious ending.
The challenge
with contemporary music like this is how to make the ideas and phrases clear
even when the usual signposts that our ears are used to from traditional music
aren’t there?
Two
Tips:
Listen
to the texture. Some of Jane’s music
is sparse so you get to listen to the beauty and colour of each note as it
passes. There are also great washes of sound and the contrast between the
textures is like listening to a trickling stream compared to the crashing waves
of the ocean.
Watch
the performers - they help with
this: it is their job to bring out the different colours in each phrase, to make
each note extremely beautiful. Their body language will hopefully cue the mood
changes, to draw us in so we are enthralled.
The enterprising Australian composer Betty Beath has created a YouTube channel where you can access free recordings of her music. There are now almost twenty recordings of her work available with original graphic illustrations by her partner, the illustrator David Cox.
Betty Beath
The latest addition is a solo piano piece called A Little Love Music, taken from the album The Music of Betty Beath on the Wirrapang label. There are three songs, the first "A Loving Embrace" opens with a jazz-inflected spread chord. The harmony continues to wander unsettled with glimpses of Betty's familiar gamelan sounds imbedded in what is a wistful, unhurried song. "Let's Dance" is more chromatic and didactic while "Dance... very slowly" returns to the meandering feel of the opening. Despite the sentimental title there is nothing saccharine about these carefully crafted little snapshots, with harmonic twists and turns that are equally surprising and delightful.
David Cox's idiomatic sketches (he has done some fabulous children's books) are emboldened by strong colours and the video includes photographs of the two artists.
I wanted to share this gift as it is another lovely opportunity to access the music of this much-recorded and highly regarded composer, who is well into her eighties and continues to compose and work with community ensembles in Brisbane where she lives.
It's time to take a fresh look at Australian history!
On Tuesday August 9th a the University of Western Australia I will be sharing some startling discoveries about the contribution of women to Australian classical music. My presentation will draw on research from my book Women of Note to piece together the missing pieces of history, sharing stories and music from women composers spanning the twentieth century to today.
The presentation is part of UWA's Research Seminar series and will be held 5pm at the Tunley Lecture Theatre in the School of Music. Entry is free. I am looking forward to sharing my work with music lovers and colleagues in the music industry. Hope to see you there!
It is as though I have just heard from Miriam Hyde!
Miriam Hyde circa 1930's
The Australian composer (who featured in my book Women of Note) died in 2005 but today her daughter Christine Edwards contacted me to let me know Miriam's letters from 1932-1935 have been digitized by the National Library. Every envelope and page of the letters have been photographed and are now available to view.
The letters were written to her Adelaide family while Miriam was studying at the Royal College of Music in London. It was a momentous time for the young pianist and composer. She performed her own Piano Concertos with the London Philharmonic and London Symphony and studied composition with R.O. Morris. In fact she worked so hard she suffered a nervous breakdown and had to take a break form her studies.
In her email today Christine described the letters as "not only about her studies and the London music scene (concerts, new music etc) but much social history - the cost of clothes/food, transport from A to B, a pea soup fog, brief holidays with friends outside London, etc."
The 3399 pages of hand-written letters look something like this:
'Letter 3/9/35, Papers of Miriam Hyde, National Library of Australia, MS 5260.
Reading them gives an intimate insight into the mind and heart of this remarkable woman. It makes me want to listen to her music and read her autobiography and her chapter in Women of Note and just drench myself in her all over again!
The NLA collection also includes a detailed journal of the boat trip to London, letters to colleagues and scores of the works Miriam wrote during this time. It also includes correspondence with Currency Press about the publication of Miriam's autobiography Complete Accord.
I thought I'd share a few pics from the inaugural MSS Women in Music event on Tuesday. The very classy cocktail event was enthusiastically attended by students from the UWA Music Department. What a privilege to present alongside fellow UWA graduates percussionist Louise Devenish and conductor Jessica Gethin.
Louise Devenish, Jessica Gethin and me
Louise gave a hefty introduction to the topic of gender and music before a moody performance of a percussion work by Cat Hope. Jessica shared her journey as a conductor with tips on how to survive a cut-throat industry. I was delighted at the responsiveness of the audience to my presentation of Australian women composers in Women of Note.
There was a student composer among those who came up afterwards to thank me for addressing a topic so relevant and inspiring to their lives. It's certainly nice to have an audience of passionate musicians!
Congratulations to Rishma Pragash and the well-organised MSS team for a fantastic launch. I hope there will be many more.
Selfie with students Hannah Tungate and Clare Tweedie
I have been invited to speak at a cocktail event organised by the UWA Music Student's Society profiling women in the music industry. I'm flattered to be presenting alongside conductor Jessica Gethin and percussionist Louise Devenish. We are all UWA graduates and it will be fun to get together and swap stories over champagne.
I will be sharing about Australia's amazing women composers and how my career trajectory took me around Australia meeting them and documenting their music to create Women of Note.
Women in Music is 6pm Tuesday 10th May at St George's College.
If you are interested in coming along for some inspirational stories, champagne and live music, tickets are available from Try Booking.
Or you can try your luck and contact me as I have some to giveaway!
It is tricky with these sorts of "positive discrimination pieces" to avoid profiling the women as "exceptional one-offs" and separate from mainstream composers. Really everyone just wants to be evaluated by their musical contributions not their gender. I have tried to include a range of composers - both high and low profile - including of course the best kept secret about the huge numbers of Australian women composers.
Enjoy the words and the music!
In the early twentieth century British conductor Sir Thomas
Beecham famously declared “There are no women composers, there never have been
and possibly, there never will be.” Around the same time in Australia Margaret
Sutherland wrote “To pluck music from the air, and fashion it according to
one’s own whim... that was what made my heart beat faster.”
Beecham was obviously wrong. Sutherland and her contemporaries
were part of a worldwide surge of women composers establishing their presence
in the male-dominated world of composition. In fact Beecham later recanted and
became a champion of Ethyl Smyth’s music.
Research is showing increasingly that women have been active
as composers throughout western music history, traceable back to Hildegard von
Bingen in the 12th century. Perhaps there have not been as many
women as men but they have always been there. Unfortunately too many of them
have slipped out of the pages of music history.
Loss of visibility is not an issue unique to women. Some of
the greatest male composers disappeared into obscurity after their death. Where
would the music of Bach sit in the ‘canon’ without its revival by Mendelssohn
in the 19th century? Similarly there is a growing awareness of the
significant contributions of many ‘invisible’ past women composers.
Hildegard von Bingen
The rediscovery in the 1980’s of the extraordinarily
accomplished abbess Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) is one example. Von Bingen
left behind one of the largest repertoires of any medieval composer including
her Play of the Virtues which
predates the earliest morality play by more than a century. Her works are accessible
to us because they were notated and preserved down the centuries in the
monastery system.
In the centuries after von Bingen musical composition was
restricted to the aristocracy and abbeys where women had access to learning and
the leisure time to create. An organ hymn setting from 1557 by Spanish nun
Gracia Baptista is regarded as the first work published by a woman. Three years
later Maddalena Casulana published the first book of madrigals. Little is known
about the composer although the dedication in the front of the book states her aspirations
clearly: ‘To show to the world the foolish error of men who so greatly believe
themselves to be the masters of high intellectual gifts that cannot, it seems
to them, be equally common among women'.
Francesca Caccini's Lasciatemi Qui Solo
The courts and nobility of the Baroque era supported the
careers of several notable women. Francesca
Caccini (1587 – c.1641) was educated by her father in
music and humanities and was the highest paid musician hired by the Medici
court. Her opera La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina was
performed in Florence in 1625, the first opera by a woman. In France the child
prodigy Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre (1665-1729) had similar success in the
court of Louis XIV composing across an unusually wide variety of forms
including opera, ballet, keyboard music and Italian genres such as cantatas and
trio sonatas.
The famous singer Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677) published her
book of solo madrigals in 1644, part of a printed output which made her the
most prolific composer - man or woman - of printed secular vocal music during
that time in Venice. Her monastic equivalent was Isabella Leonarda (1620 –1704) whose nearly 200 compositions
written from the convent in Novara makes her one of most productive women
composers of her time.
Maria Antonio Walpurgis
During the 18th century women tended to write
music for instrumentation they had access to – miniatures, songs and chamber
works. But this was also the beginning of the Age of Enlightenment and some
composers had greater ambitions: Camilla de Rossi (c.1670–c.1710)
was commissioned by Joseph I of Austria to write four oratorios. The Bavarian princess
Maria Antonia Walpurgis (1724-1780) was a member of Rome’s operatic institution
Accademia dell’Arcadia and sung the
leading role in her opera Talestri regini
della amazoni which was published by Breitkopf, unusual for opera at that
time. She also founded a textile factory and brewery, had nine children and acted
as joint Regent for five years.
In the early 19th century the expanding economy
and middle class meant there was an increased interest in the arts and music. Sophie
Bawr contributed the first published history of women in music in the Encyclopedie des dames (1823).
In this era it became possible for performers and composers
to build careers from public concerts and Polish
composer Maria Szymanowska (1789
– 1831) was one of the first professional virtuoso pianists of the 19th
century. A decade ahead of Liszt and
Schumann she toured extensively throughout Europe
before settling permanently in St. Petersburg where
she composed for the court, gave concerts and taught music. In her influential
salon she hosted the likes of Rossini, Hummel and Goethe who is thought to have
fallen in love with her.
It was also possible for someone like Maddalena Sirmen
(1745-1818) born to poverty-stricken parents to build an international musical
career. She studied music at a Venetian orphanage and became a renowned
violinist. Her compositions were performed throughout Europe and praised by
Leopold Mozart.
Clara Schumann
We have the middle class, arts-loving families to thank for
producing Clara (Weick) Schumann (1819 – 1896) Fanny (Mendelssohn) Hensel (1805
–1847) and Louise Farrenc (1804-1875). The restrictions on these talented women
are well-documented. Abraham Mendelssohn provided an excellent education for
his precocious children Fanny and Felix. But when Fanny was fifteen he cautioned her
saying "Music will perhaps become his [i.e. Felix's] profession, while for you
it can and must be only an ornament".
Clara Schumann’s compositional output slowed as her domestic
responsibilities (eight children!) grew. Her astute husband Robert observed
this, writing:
“Clara has composed a series of small pieces, which show a
musical and tender ingenuity such as she has never attained before. But to have
children, and a husband who is always living in the realm of imagination, does
not go together with composing. She cannot work at it regularly, and I am often
disturbed to think how many profound ideas are lost because she cannot work
them out.”
Dame Ethel Smyth
At the turn of the century Ethyl Smyth (1858–1944)
wrote her opera Wreckers which was
premiered in Leipzig in 1906. Three years later she wrote March of the Women in
support of the Suffragette movement and in 1922 she was the first woman to be
made a Dame of the British Empire. Ethyl Smyth studied in Leipzig where she met
Tchaikovsky, the Schumanns and Brahms. Smyth’s contemporaries included Amy
Beach (1867-1944) in America; Lili (1893-1918) and Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979)
and Germaine Tailleferre (1892–1983) in France and Elisabeth Kuyper (1877
-1953) in the Netherlands.
The increasing numbers of women composers in the twentieth
century coincided with the rise of feminism. Women were given the right to vote
and with the outbreak of the First World War more women began to move into the
workforce. English violist and composer Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979)paved the way for women
musicians to be included in orchestras when she was appointed to the Queen’s
Hall Orchestra in 1912. The river of music that had flowed from the Baroque era
through the Classical and Romantic periods had begun to branch into multiple
streams and in the upheaval women composers managed to find a toe-hold.
During a time when it was still thought disrespectful to
pursue composing beyond the domestic sphere Australian composer Peggy
Glanville-Hicks (1912-1990) wrote eighteen orchestral works, five operas and
eight ballets.
In England composer Elizabeth Maconchy (1907-1994) wrote at
least 40 orchestral works and thirteen string quartets. Elisabeth Lutyens (1906-1983)
is credited with bringing Schoenbergian serialist technique to the UK and became
known as the horror queen for her prolific scores for horror films.
The music by Sofia Gubaidulina (b1931) was deemed
"irresponsible" during her studies in Soviet
Russia due to its exploration of alternativetunings. She
was supported however by Dmitri Shostakovich who encouraged her to continue
down her "mistaken path”. Her music has since become internationally
lauded.
Florence Price broke new ground in America when her Piano
Concerto was performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1933, the first
African-American woman to have a work performed by a major American orchestra.
One of the most-performed composers in the US is Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (b1939)
who was the first woman to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize for music in 1983.
The development of contemporary classical music in America
was assisted by Grammy Award winning composer Libby Larsen who co-founded the
Minnesota Composers Forum, now the American Composers Forum.
Pauline Oliveros co-founded and directed the San Francisco Tape Music Centre
(later Centre for Contemporary Music). Oliveros is best known for forming the
Deep Listening aesthetic which has almost become a franchise with a training
institute, albums, retreats and an ensemble.
In the 21st century women have moved into the
celebrity spotlight. Today Elena Kats-Chernin, Laurie Anderson, Unsuk Chin, Jennifer
Higdon and Kaija Sariaaho are likely to rank higher on the international
circuit than their male contemporaries. The boundaries of classical music have
never been so broad and now include electronics, noise, sound installations,
experimental and ambient music.
Margaret Sutherland paved the way for Australian composers
Leading
the charge are Australian women, following the path pioneered by Margaret
Sutherland. Today the Australian Music Centre database shows 25% of Australian
composers are women – more than most other western nations where women tend to
make up 10-15% of the composers. Much has changed since the days of Sutherland
when her psychiatrist husband considered a woman composing music to be a sign
of mental illness. Three generations later it is considered unremarkable that a
composer like Liza Lim will have her fourth opera premiered by Opera Cologne
(on 9th April) or that there will be concerts dedicated to the music
of Mary Finsterer (Melbourne
Recital Centre on March 21st) and Sarah Hopkins (LIFT Gallery,
Maleny, QLD March 13th). Also this month Ros Bandt’s sound
sculpture Moonah Dreaming ‘for
ruined piano excited by wind recordings’ will be part of the Lorne Sculpture Bienniale and Thoroughbass
Ensemble will be touring Ann Carr-Boyd’s Crimson Rosella for two harpsichords through regional NSW before the
work receives its European premier at the Geelvinck Early Music Festival in Amsterdam in October.
Mary Finsterer's Silva performed by Ensemble Offspring
This snapshot of women composers is by necessity brief and
in no way exhaustive. Around the world there are many, many more. Yet the myth
is still being perpetuated that there are no great women composers. As recently
as 2015 the UK’s Spectator newspaper published an article criticising the
decision to include women composers in the A-level music syllabus. Music by
Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn was described as “embarrassingly banal”
and “bloody awful”.
Despite their activity women composer still seem to struggle
with visibility. For some reason composition is taking a lot longer than
literature and the visual arts to reach equilibrium. Finnish composer Saariaho in a 2013 speech at McGill
University said, “30 years after my own battles, young women still have to
experience much the same everyday discrimination I went through. In reading
more studies about our recent history in this matter, I have understood that
the situation is not slowly getting better, but that the improvements seem to
have stopped a while ago.”
Similar alarming patterns are emerging in Australia’s new
music scene. Sally Macarthur’s essay in Musicology Australia (Vol 36 No 1,
2014) used evidence from concert programs and commissions to argue that the representation
of women composers is worse now (11%) than in the nineties (35%). A 2013 survey
of international electronic artists found similar results. The 2015 government
funding cuts to the Australia Council are likely to be particularly damaging
for women already struggling with visibility and inclusion. New research into
the area has been commenced by Associate Professor Macarthur, Associate Professor Cat Hope and Professor
Dawn Bennett to gather more concrete data on gender and composition internationally.
So how to redress the visibility issue? Macarthur suggests music
by women will continue to struggle to be heard unless ongoing mechanisms are
implemented to ensure women get equality of opportunity. Hope argued in her
keynote address for the 2015 Australasian Computer Music Conference that it is
time for men and those in power to start carrying the torch.
The simplest way to redress visibility issues is to
celebrate what we do have. Fortunately our increasing knowledge of past
composers is making that easier and the success story of Australian women
composers means we have plenty to celebrate. Because there are women composers,
there always have been and there always will be.
