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Two attitudes towards women participating in music
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Smith and Stirling Since the 18th century, music making for women was simply a social skill. However, in the Romantic Period, music making was considered more than just an ornament. For women of this period, it was often very difficult for them to have their music published especially if they were not born into a musical family like Schumann or Mendelssohn. Even if they were born into a musical family it was still difficult for women to become composers. This is due to the fact that, it was not common to hear of women musicians or musicologists of this era. However, several improvements that were made in this time period allowed women to learn music through private female institutions and seminaries. Currently in the 21st century, female composers …show more content…
However in the past this was not the case, since gender biases and societal pressures inhibited women from publishing their music. The Romantic Period is one of many time periods in which women experienced difficulties with publishing. Even if the women were exceptionally talented, they still did not receive the same recognition as male composers. Talented musicians such as Alice Mary Smith faced these same issues. Alice Mary Smith (b. 1839) was an English composer who produced Romantic music. At a young age she received private music lessons from William Sterndale Bennett and G.A. Macfarren who were involved in the Royal Academy of Music. Even though she was well educated in music she still had issues with publishing to the extent which several of her works went unpublished. As a way to counteract her oppositions, she used her talent to produce several exceptional large-scale works in her early twenties. She attracted attention in London in which her First Piano Quartet was performed by the London Musical Society (Grove Music Library). These were quickly and positively taken by music critics in which she was elected as the Female Professional Associate of the Philharmonic Society. Therefore, Alice Mary Smith represents the female composers of this time period which made their success through their hard work and compassion …show more content…
In comparison to the Romantic period, many female composers today possess exceptional talents in their works. These talents can range from possessing a high vocal range, creative songwriting skills, or having advanced knowledge in a musical instrument such as violin or guitar. The most popular talent out of all of these, would include being highly skilled in an instrument. Being able to play an instrument can be a big advantage in terms of success for a female composer. An example of a female composer who uses this gift to the best of her ability would include, Lindsey Stirling. Lindsey Stirling (b. 1986), is an American violinist, composer, performance artist and dancer. As a teenager, she studied violin and would often showcase her talent through her Youtube channel, Lindseystomp. In 2007 she was a finalist on the television show, America’s Got Talent, which brought her to prominence to many music lovers of her style. Her music style includes a mix of classical, dub-step and electronica. In addition to her music, when she performs she includes personal choreographed dances. However as a classical, dubstep violinist she is most likely the only artist to include dances as she performs and although this makes her unique it has made her difficult to be
I chose to do my composer report on Florence Price. Florence Price was born April 9, 1887 in Little Rock, Arkansas to Florence Gulliver and James H. Smith. She had two siblings. Florence gave her first recital at four years old. She attended the same elementary school as William Grant Still where they both studied under educator Charlotte Andrews Stephens. Florence Price is considered the first black woman in the United States to be recognized as a symphonic composer. Her training was steeped in European tradition, but still Price’s music consists of mostly the American idiom and reveals her Southern roots. Her mother, who was a soprano and pianist, carefully guided her early musical training. At the age of fourteen, Price enrolled in the New England Conservatory of Music with a major in piano and organ. She studied composition and counterpoint with George Chadwick and Frederick Converse. She wrote her first-string trio and symphony in college, and graduated in 1907 with honors and both an artist diploma in organ and a teaching certificate.
Cutter, Martha J. “The Search for a Feminine Voice in the Works of Kate Chopin”. Unruly Tongue: Identity and Voice in American Women’s Writing, 1850-1930, pp. 87-109. Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 1999.
During the postclassical era, major societies and religions developed various perspectives about how women should be treated and how they should behave. One viewpoint on how women should be treated included the idea that they were a symbol of enticement and possessed liberal and unintelligent qualities; making them considered unequal to men. Dissimilar to this belief, another standpoint concluded that women had equivalent roles as men and should be treated with respect. Women played both a demeaning and dignifying role in the post classical era in multiple significant societies and beliefs, which decided how they should be regarded and viewed.
Hence while Clara Schumann did face a myriad of obstacles to becoming a recognized composer, her accomplishments are noted and serve as a catalyst even today as historical information is relooked and understood.
She became an established, solo composer and performer and her famous ‘Gaelic Symphony’ was widely popular all over Europe. She was forced to go back to the United States when WWI broke out and chose to live in New York for the rest of her life.
Female composers, all through countries, have committed their selves to all types of music. From song-writing to performing, the diversity in genre of music where women have contributed is enormous. Women, in different cultures, couldn’t compose music due to motherly duties, restriction for women, village women commitments and spiritual beliefs. “In the middle ages, St. Paul took the bible scripture, Timothy (2:11-12), which states “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence;” meaning to not let women compose music, especially religious music.” (Green 17) Reading Black Women Composers: a Genesis by Mildred Denby Green helped keep diversity in the research of women composers. There were also women who came from families that were already professional composers in the nineteenth century, such as fathers, brothers and husbands. (Green 22) Opera is one of the most competitive and public of all musical genres but that didn’t stop Isabella de Charriere (1740-1805). Charriere wrote nine operas between 1784 and 1793. (Letzter, Adelson 2) Unfortunately, none of her operas were performed. In the first fifth years of opera in France (1670-1720), only seven works by three women are known. That number increased as time went on. As a total, there are hundreds of thousands of women composers from far and near. In recent time, women have slowly but surely have more support with composing music. Recognition is what women strived to gain while composing and possibly performing. Throughout centuries, women have played a tremendous role in music composing, despite their resistance to the public.
Major works by Clara Schumann included ‘Quatre Polonaises pour le pianoforte’, published in 1831, ‘4 Pièces caractéristiques for piano’ published in 1836, ‘Piano Trio in G minor’, published in 1846, and ‘Drei romanzen für pianoforte und violine’, published in 1855. In 1838, Clara was awarded the Royal and Imperial Chamber Virtuoso, Austria's highest musical honor. She was one of the most prominent female composers of the Romantic era, during a time there weren’t
Overall, Isadora Duncan was an amazing and revolutionary person. She discovered intense emotions and a strong spirituality within herself, within her soul. She transformed her discoveries into a dance in order to share it with the world.
One form of art which is predominant in The Awakening is piano playing. Piano playing symbolizes a woman’s role in society. In Edna’s society, artistic skill, such as piano playing and sketching, were accomplishments which ladies acquired. They were merely enhancements to their education, not possibilities for occupation. Women artists, whether they were musicians, painters, or writers, had a difficult time being accepted in society (Dyer 86). Kate Chopin presents two women who are foils to Edna: Madame Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz (Koloski 117). Both of these women play the piano; however, their purpose and motivations are vastly different. The way in which they view their piano playing reflects their values.
In at least some convents, women performed polyphony (an extensive discussion of this can be found in Yardley, pp. 24-27). Some of this repertory is preserved in the Las Huelgas codex which stems from the Carthusian monastery for women near Burgos in Northern Spain which housed approximately one hundred nuns and forty choir girls at its prime in the thirteenth century. The manuscript itself contains an extensive coll...
Stirling was born on September 21, 1986 in Santa Ana, California. Even though she was born in California, she grew up in Arizona. As a child, the violin caught her eye. She very much wanted to play the instrument. So with her parents’ consent, she started playing when sh...
Evaluate and respond to the presentations of women in the Romantic period. Feel free to discuss presentations of women, by women (such as Austen’s Persuasion) as well as presentations of women by men (such as the “she” in Byron’s “She Walks in Beauty”). Consider the following questions: are these presentations problematic? What do they tell us about the values and briefs of the Romantic Period? Do any of these presentations subvert (complicate, or call into questions) the time’s notions of femininity?
Roughly from 1815 to 1910, this period of time is called the romantic period. At this period, all arts are transforming from classic arts by having greater emphasis on the qualities of remoteness and strangeness in essence. The influence of romanticism in music particularly, has shown that romantic composers value the freedom of expression, movement, passion, and endless pursuit of the unattainable fantasy and imagination. The composers of the romantic period are in search of new subject matters, more emotional and are more expressive of their feelings as they are not bounded by structural rules in classical music where order, equilibrium, control and perfection are deemed important (Dorak, 2000).
Over the centuries, many diverse musical eras defined the different ages. One musical style, beautiful, indefatigable, and unique, is the Romantic style. It lasted from the late eighteenth century to the early nineteenth century. It was brought about by the political and social stresses after the French Revolution, and the consequential nationalistic trends. The ambition for the Romantic composers was to be individualistic and different.