Today is the International Day of the Woman. While we celebrate and advocate, let us pause and ponder the role of women in Music through the ages.
Unlike most professions, Music has been generally a bit more tolerant and accepting of women, up to a point. There have been many notable performers and composers, but relatively few conductors and directors. I didn't have a woman as a conductor until well into my college years when there was a graduate student on her assistantship that conducted us. She later went on to become a prominent music educator in Arkansas and nationwide. Which parallels the increasing numbers of female band and orchestra directors in today's schools. It used to be that women as music educators were relegated to the elementary general music area. Now, there are women as the music directors of some of the most prominent symphony orchestras in the world.
But that's not why I'm writing this diary. I am highlighting composers, so away we go...
Let us begin at the beginning. The earliest known composer that there is an extant biography in her own time is Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179). We first hear "O Jerusalem" written by her when she founded St Rupert's Monastery in 1150.
That's right. She founded it. In fact, Hildegard was one of the most important figures in the Twelfth Century. As woman of many accomplishments, she is also known as Saint Hildegard, and Sybil of the Rhine; She was a Christian mystic, a German Benedictine abbess, an author, counselor, linguist, naturalist, scientist, philosopher, physician, herbalist, poet, channeller, visionary, composer, and polymath. Elected a magistra by her fellow nuns in 1136, she founded the monasteries of Rupertsberg in 1150 and Eibingen in 1165. She wrote theological, botanical and medicinal texts, as well as letters, liturgical songs, poems, and the first surviving morality play, while supervising brilliant miniature Illuminations. She was one of the most widely sought after preachers and she preached throughout Germany to adoring flocks. As a composer, one of her most important works is the Ordo Virtutum, widely regarded as one of the first liturgical dramas
Venerated by both the Catholic and Anglican Churches, she is not officially canonized, but she is in the Roman Martyrology, the list that includes all the saints and those who Catholics pray for intercession on their behalf during the Mass and elsewhere. Hildegard was one of the first persons for whom the canonization process was officially applied, but the process took so long that four attempts at canonization were not completed, and she remained at the level of her beatification. Hildegard's name was nonetheless taken up in the Roman Martyrology at the end of the sixteenth century. Her feast day is September 17. Numerous popes have referred to Hildegard as a saint, including Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. During her life, she experienced visions and eventually wrote them down. Modern neurologists have read her visions and the descriptions thereof, especially of light, and have diagnosed her with migraines and negative scotoma.
In addition to her faith, she would have also been at home in the nature religions and the New Age movement of today. Aside from her books of visions, Hildegard also wrote her Physica, a text on the natural sciences, as well as Causae et Curae. Hildegard was well known for her healing powers involving practical application of tinctures, herbs, and precious stones. In both texts Hildegard describes the natural world around her, including the cosmos, animals, plants, stones, and minerals. She combined these elements with a theological notion ultimately derived from Genesis: all things put on earth are for the use of humans. She is particularly interested in the healing properties of plants, animals, and stones, though she also questions God's effect on man's health. Hildegard has also become a figure of reverence within the contemporary New Age movement, mostly due to her holistic and natural view of healing, as well as her status as a mystic. Regardless of belief, her music is perfect to focus on one's magicks and inner contemplations. Much much more information about her can be found on her Wikipedia entry.
Forgive me for writing so much about Hildegard, but she is an icon to the music history community, just for being so gosh darned cool.
So now let's jump to the Nineteenth Century. Not that the previous 700 years haven't produced notable woman composers. Quite the opposite, in fact. Anne Boleyn was noted as a composer, and there was Camilla De Rossi, who had four oratorios commissioned by Emperor Joseph I of Austria and performed in the Imperial Chapel. It was a given that "ladies of breeding", to use the Victorian expression, were trained in many things, music being one of them. Many of the noblewomen of that time, such as Maria Antonia Walpurgis Symphorosa, Princess of Bavaria and Electress of Saxony, were composers. One of the problems is finding extant music. And for me, finding music I can embed here.
But back to the 19th Century. It would follow that talents run in families. Take Maria Anna Mozart. The older sister of You-Know-Who, she too was paraded around with her brother to show off their talents. She also inherited some of their father's compositional ability. Alas, none remains. However, this is happily not the case with Fanny Mendelssohn (14 November 1805 – 14 May 1847). Felix's beloved older sister, she is not only renowned as the grandmother of Paul and Kurt Hensel, she was a noted composer in her own right. However, she was limited by prevailing attitudes of the time toward women, attitudes apparently shared by her father, who was tolerant, rather than supportive, of her activities as a composer. Her father wrote to her in 1820 "Music will perhaps become his [i.e. Felix's] profession, while for you it can and must be only an ornament". She ended up composing over 450 pieces of music, mostly songs and piano pieces. One of these songs, "Italy", was a favourite of Queen Victoria, who thought Felix had written it. Here is one of her Lieder ohne Worte (Song without Words).
Many times it seems like musicians also marry musicians. Clara Schumann (née Clara Josephine Wieck; 13 September 1819 – 20 May 1896) was one of the preeminent pianists of the period. Over her 61 year career she revolutionized the format and repertoire of the piano recital and the tastes of the listening public. she was one of the first champions of the music of Brahms, and held strong opinions (good and bad) of the noted composers of the day, from Liszt to Wagner to Richard Strauss. Because of the mental instability of her husband Robert (who was confined to an asylum the last two years of his life), she became the primary breadwinner, while giving birth to eight, and raising seven children (one died in infancy). In later life, as four of her surviving children and her husband predeceased her, she raised her grandchildren as well. She leaves us with a rich legacy of music that is being increasingly performed.
Boston's famous Hatch Shell, where the Boston Pops performs every July 4, has a monument with 87 composers etched in the granite. 86 are men. Amy Beach (September 5, 1867 – December 27, 1944) is the only woman on that shell, among the likes of Bach, Handel, Beethoven, and others. She was born in New Hampshire to a prominent New England Family. A child prodigy, she was able to sing forty tunes accurately by age one; by age two she could improvise a counter-melody to any melody her mother sang, she taught herself to read at age three, and began composing simple waltzes at the age of four. She began formal piano lessons with her mother at the age of six, and a year later started giving public recitals, playing works by Handel, Beethoven, Chopin, and her own pieces. After the family moved to Boston, she was encouraged to go to Europe to attend Conservatory. Her parents brought her local tutors. When she was 14, she had one year of composition training. Other than this year, she was self taught. She made her debut in 1883, and shortly thereafter became a soloist with the Boston Symphony. After her marriage in 1885, by agreement, she limited her performances to one a year, with the proceeds going to charity. Instead, she focused on composition. She became the first president of the Society of American Woman Composers. Here is her entire Piano Concerto:
Being a woman and succeeding in those days was difficult. Imagine being a Black woman during that time. Florence Price (1888–June 3, 1953) entered the New England Conservatory when she was 14. After graduating with honors in 1907, she went to Arkansas to begin her teaching career. While there, she married attorney Thomas Price in 1912. After a series of racial incidents cumlinating in a lynching in 1927, she and her husband moved to Chicago, where she flourished, studying composition, teaching, and constantly taking more college courses in a variety of subjects. In 1932 she entered the competition for a Wanamaker Foundation Award. She won first and second place, for her First Symphony and a Piano Sonata, respectively. The symphony was premiered by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. We hear now her complete Third Symphony, premiered by the WPA Symphony of Detroit, and played in this recording by the Women's Philharmonic, Apo Hsu, director.
In the French family of Boulanger, full of noted musicians, none was more of a prodigy than Lili Boulanger (21 August 1893–15 March 1918). With her talent evident at the age of two, little Lili used to accompany her older sister Nadia to classes at the Paris Conservatoire before she was five, sitting in on those classes soon thereafter. In 1913, at the age of 19, Lili became the first woman to win the Prix de Rome, no mean feat considering that Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Ernest Chausson and Maurice Ravel all attempted the Prix de Rome, but did not win. Jacques-Louis David, having failed three years in a row, considered suicide. Sadly, a case of bronchial pneumonia at age two led to Chron's Disease, which took her life in 1918 at the age of 24. Lili Boulanger remains a classic case of "what if?". The music she has left us with is haunting and powerful. Hear are two selections. First, "Pie Jesu"
As a woman who lived through the First World War, she was very much touched by the horror of that conflict. Here is For The Funeral Of A Soldier. Note the presence of the Dies Irae, the chant sung during the funeral Mass.
We end with two very divergent stories. First, there is the story of Alma Maria Schindler Mahler Gropius Werfel (31 August 1879 – 11 December 1964). Alma Schindler was born into a middle class family in Vienna and showed an interest and aptitude for composition. As she reached maturity, her salon became the place for the artisti in Vienna, and she was the city's most eligible catch. And she enjoyed the attention, having several flirtations before marrying Gustav Mahler in 1902. The one catch--there was to be only one composer in the family, and she was not going to be that composer. During a crisis in their marriage, he allowed her to begin composing again, and even helped her publish several songs. After Mahler's death, she composed very sporadically, giving her attention to her other marriages. She moved to the United States shortly before World War II to avoid the camps. After her death in 1964, her obituary listed not only her husbands, but also a rather lengthy list of gentlemen callers. Those of you that are Tom Lehrer fans know that he made a parody song of her and her men. Thus, she has been given a posthumous reputation which overshadows all her other accomplishments. Another classic case of "what if", only about 17 of her songs remain, and they are performed to this day. Here is one of them:
If Alma Mahler was a poster child for unfulfilled expectations, our last woman composer was the complete opposite. In fact, it could safely be said that she and she alone shaped modern Twentieth Century music. Lili Boulanger's older sister Nadia (September 16, 1887 – October 22, 1979) was the foundation for the Modern American sound, among others. Also very talented at a young age, she attended the Paris Conservatoire at the same time as her sister. Being six years older, she was the Lili's protector and cared for her deeply. After winning every prize at the Conservatoire, in 1908 she caused a minor scandal by submitting a string quartet instead of a vocal fugue for the Prix de Roma. Despite this, she still finished second. After this, she became the teacher of Lili and guided her to her victory 5 years later. After Lili's death, she never composed again, some say due to her great grief. Instead, she concentrater on teaching and conducting. She was the first woman to conduct several major symphony orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and in England the Hallé Orchestra of Manchester and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. On her first American tour she gave the premiere of Aaron Copland's "Symphony for Organ and Orchestra." She also became the most famous music teacher in the world. Ned Rorem has said that Mlle. Boulanger was "the most influential teacher since Socrates". The American composer Virgil Thomson, a Boulanger student, once said that every town in America had a "five-and-dime and a Boulanger pupil". Some of the composers she taught include: Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, Elliott Carter, Leonard Bernstein, Walter Piston, Michel Legrand (Oscar winner), Burt Bacharach, and Quincy Jones. She never kept records of her students, but estimated she taught over 600 American students, among the students from all over the world. Here is a partial list of some of her students. We hear her piano piece Vers la Vie Nouvelle and a Nocturne for Cello and Piano. The piano piece was written in 1918, and is one of the last things she composed.
And last, we have a very rare recording of Mlle. Boulanger conducting in this live recording of Faure's Requiem