The following titles provide narrative histories of women's roles within music composition, conducting, and performance. To locate resources about specific women in music, browse the following call number areas:
Women Making Music: The Western Art Music Tradition, 1150-1950 by 
Women in Music: An Anthology of Source Readings from the Middle Ages to the Present by
The voices of women such as Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Clara Schumann, and Marian Anderson resonate as they emerge from the wide range of materials in this volume, which includes letters, diaries, poems, novels, and reviews that reveal women's achievements not only as patrons and educators but also as composers and performers.
Analytical Essays on Music by Women Composers: Concert Music, 1960-2000 by
Over the past 30 years, musicologists have produced a remarkable new body of research literature focusing on the lives and careers of women composers in their socio-historical contexts. But detailed analysis and discussion of the works created by these composers are still extremely rare. Thisis particularly true in the domain of music theory, where scholarly work continues to focus almost exclusively on male composers. Moreover, while the number of performances, broadcasts, and recordings of women's compositions has unquestionably grown, they remain significantly underrepresented incomparison to music by male composers. Addressing these deficits is not simply a matter of rectifying a scholarly gender imbalance: the lack of knowledge surrounding the music of women composers means that scholars, performers, and the general public remain unfamiliar with a large body of excitingrepertoire.Analytical Essays on Music by Women Composers: Concert Music, 1960-2000 is the first to appear in an exciting a four volume series devoted to the work of women composers across Western art music history. Each chapter, many by leading music theorists, opens with a brief biographical sketch of thecomposer before presenting an in-depth critical-analytic exploration of a single representative composition, linking analytical observations with questions of meaning and sociohistorical context. Chapters are grouped thematically by analytical approach into three sections, each of which places theanalytical methods used in the essays that follow into the context of late twentieth-century ideas and trends. Featuring rich analyses and detailed study by the most reputed music theorists in the field, along with brief biographical sketches for each composer, this collection brings to the fore theessential repertoire of a range of important composers, many of whom otherwise stand outside the standard canon.
Analytical Essays on Music by Women Composers: Secular and Sacred Music To 1900 by
Through musical analysis of compositions written between the mid-twelfth to late nineteenth centuries, this volume celebrates the achievements of eight composers, all women: Hildegard of Bingen, Maddalena Casulana, Barbara Strozzi, Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Marianne Martines, JosephineLang, Fanny Hensel, Clara Schumann, and Amy Beach. Written by outstanding music theorists and musicologists, the essays provide fascinating in-depth critical-analytic explorations of representative compositions, often linking analytical observations with questions of meaning and sociohistoricalcontext. Each essay is introduced by a brief biographical sketch of the composer by the editors.The collection - Volume 1 in an unprecedented four-volume series of analytical studies on music by women composers - is designed to challenge and stimulate a wide range of readers. For academics, these thoughtful analytical essays can open new paths into unexplored research areas in the fields ofmusic theory and musicology. Post-secondary instructors may be inspired by the insights offered in these essays to include new works in music theory and history courses at both graduate and upper-level undergraduate levels, or in courses on women and music. Finally, for soloists, ensembles,conductors, and music broadcasters, these detailed analyses can offer enriched understandings of this repertoire and suggest fresh, new programming possibilities to share with listeners.
Women Performing Music: The Emergence of American Women as Classical Instrumentalists and Conductors by
This book explores the experiences of women from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who pursued careers as public performers, charting a new course in an era when women's musical activities were generally consigned to the parlor. Certain instruments had historically evolved as appropriate for women, and the flamboyant personalities and extroverted emotionalism of Romantic virtuosos and conductors were the antithesis of those qualities traditionally admired in women. However, this work presents an unusual group of young women who nonetheless became noted virtuosos, studying abroad as teenagers and touring North America upon their return. Detailed profiles are given of three remarkable musicians from among that unusual group: Fannie Bloomfield-Zeisler (1863-1927)--virtuoso pianist, wife and mother; Ethel Leginska (1886-1970)--pianist, conductor, and 1920s new woman; and Antonia Brico (1902-1989)--conductor and transitional figure to the late twentieth century. A concluding chapter contrasts the experiences of women classical musicians in the late nineteenth and the late twentieth centuries. Included are a number of photographs and drawings which impart the perceptions of audiences and critics of the stage presence of these performers.
Black Women in American Bands and Orchestras by
Profiles are presented under the headings of orchestras and orchestra leaders, string players, wind and percussion players, keyboard players, and non-playing orchestra/band affiliates. Features 100 photographs.
Women Composers, Conductors and Musicians of the Twentieth Century by
In 3 volumes.
The subjects are: Grazyna Bacewicz, Betty Beath, Anne Boyd, Sylvia Caduff, Ann Carr-Boyd, Gloria Coates, Selma Epstein, Nicola LeFanu, Priscilla McLean, Elizabeth Maconchy, Mary Mageau, Ursula Manlok, Priaulx Rainer, Shulamit Ran, Ruth Schonthal, Margaret Sutherland, Joan Tower, and Gillian Whitehead.
Women and Music in Cross-Cultural Perspective by
This volume offers an introduction to the field of women, music, and culture, examining the implications of gender upon music performance. The presentation focuses on women from many different countries, cultures and historical periods--from the professional musician to the village preserver of traditional music and culture, from the young woman of the 19th century of hymnody tradition of the U.S. to the female tayu or chanter in the male dominated Gidayu narrative tradition of Japan.
Women Composers: The Lost Tradition Found by
With newly recovered information about women composers as well as an updated listing of available scores and recordings, this edition brings together musical and biographical material about 25 composers from the 11th to the 20th centuries; discusses each composer in context and analyzes the conditions required for women to compose and for their works to survive.
American Women Composers Before 1870 by
First study of American women composers and attitudes towards women musicians in the nineteenth century.
Women Composers and Music Technology in the United States by
Featuring analytical discussions or descriptions of about 150 different pieces of electroacoustic music by women composers in the United States, this book is the most definitive attempt to date to discuss the achievements of women as composers of experimental and avant-garde music from the 1930s to the present day. Using a wealth of primary material such as interviews and personal correspondence, Women Composers and Music Technology also explores currently relevant issues in gender and technology. Drawing out the relationships between composers and their working environments, and between teachers and students, Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner discusses the contribution of women composers to electroacoustic music. Complete with a bibliography and discography covering the work of 90 composers, the book is a valuable resource for those wishing to learn more about particular composers and their works. Further volumes are planned which will cover composers from continental Europe, the United Kingdom, Mexico, South America and Australasia.
American Women in Jazz, 1900 to the Present: Their Words, Lives, and Music by LibrarySearch offers a streamlined interface for finding books and other media that combines the collections of UO Libraries and Summit libraries.
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