Amy Beach Women In Music Analysis

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Throughout history, women’s only function in music was as a muse, as a man’s “impulse support, and consolation”. However, through Amy Beach, “one of America’s leading composer”, we know that women can be more than just an inspiration for men. Despite being tied down by her aristocrat background, she went against the expectations imposed on her by society and succeeded. Her life remains an example that it isn’t women who are incapable of becoming great composer and musicians but rather the societal limitations that are hindering their success. In the 18th century, an “accomplished” women was defined as being educated in the sense that she must learn self discipline, her role in life according to her sex and status, and the principle of domesticity. …show more content…

Although this became the stigma associated with women, we know that it is far from the truth; that the reason why there was such disparity between women and men composers was solely because they were not given the same opportunity. This is especially true for Amy Beach because even though she was a child prodigy and was given musical training at a young age, she was discouraged by her father from becoming a professional musician. Amy’s brother, on the other hand, was able to make a career out of it whereas her talent could only be seen as an ornament, a status symbol, and nothing beyond that. She was not any less of a musician than her brother, however the path that they were allowed to take was a world of a difference. This could also be seen in Mr. Bulwer’s novel “The Parisians”, where the female character Isaura Cicagna was warned not to become a composer because as a women, she will be no better than a third rate opera writer. Even before Cicagna got the chance to pursue her dreams, she was already predestined to fail due to the gender

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