A Century of Composition by Women: Music Against the Odds

by Linda Kouvaras (Editor), Maria Grenfell (Editor), Natalie Williams (Editor)

Overview

This book presents accounts of creative processes and contextual issues of current-day and early-twentieth century women composers. This collection of essays balances narratives of struggle, artistic prowess, and of "breaking through" the obstacles in the profession.

Part I: Creative Work – Then and Now illuminates historical and present-day women’s composition and various iterations and conceptions of the “feminine voice”; Part II: The State of the Industry in the Present Day provides solutions from the frontline to sector inequities; and Part III: Creating; Collaborating: Composer and Performer Reflections offers personal stories of current creation in music.

A Century of Composition by Women: Music Against the Odds draws together topical issues in feminist musicology over the past century. This volume provides insight into the professional and compositional procedures of creative women in music and stands to be relevant for composers, performers, industry professionals, students, and feminist and musicological scholars for many years to come.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030955571
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date:	08/01/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	23 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Dr Linda Kouvaras, musicologist, composer and pianist, is Professor of Music at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, University of Melbourne, with full artist APRA-AMCOS representation. Her research interests centre on gender issues in music and musical post/modernism (particularly Australian composition), and she is a piano examiner for the Australian Music Examinations Board.

Dr Maria Grenfell is a composer and academic living in Hobart, Tasmania. An Associate Professor at the University of Tasmania, she is widely commissioned by orchestras and chamber ensembles in Australia, New Zealand, and internationally, and has served on the Board of Directors of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. 

Dr Natalie Williams is a composer, academic and artistic manager. Her music has been commissioned and performed in Australia, the United States and Europe. A performing arts leader, she has worked as an academicdean and also held faculty positions in music theory and composition at the University of Georgia and the Australian National University.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction: Composing Women’s (Very) Long 100-year Fight: Evolutions, Illuminations, Solutions, Linda Kouvaras.- Part I Creative Work—Then and Now.- Chapter 2 Synaesthetic Associations and Gendered Nature Imagery: Female Agency in the Piano Music of Amy Beach, Sabrina Clarke.- Chapter 3 “Australian Bush Songs” as Multimodal Discourse: The Remarkable Collaboration of Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, Annie Rentoul, and Georgette Peterson, Johanna Selleck.- Chapter 4 The 1940s Australian Ballet that “Far Outstripped ... ‘Swan Lake’ in Popular Appeal”: Esther Rofe’s Ground-Breaking Ballet, Sea Legend, Emma Townsend.- Chapter 5 Italians, Indians and Indigenous People: Innovative Themes and Materials Found in the Operas of Early-C20^th Australian Women Composers, Jeanell Carrigan.- Chapter 6 “Conjuring Up the Magic”: Helen Gifford’s Compositional Passage to the Creation of Fable for Solo Harp, Jacinta Dennett.- Chapter 7 Of Broken Trees and Elephant Ivories: The Revivification of the Colonial Piano Manifested Through a New Work by Catherine Milliken, Gabriella Smart.- Chapter 8 Beyond Exploitation: Feminist Satire in Jennifer Walshe's XXX_LIVE_NUDE_GIRLS!!!, Jaslyn Robertson.- Chapter 9 Hildegard’s Daughters: Women Composers “Overcoming Their Astonishment”, Natalie Williams.- Chapter 10 Is the Category of the “Woman Artist” Still Helpful?, Susan Best.- Part II The State of the Industry in the Present Day.- Chapter 11 “Dear Women Composers in Australia (and Beyond):” (A Letter from a Music Critic), Rosalind Appleby.- Chapter 12 Programming Orchestral Repertoire by Women Composers: Challenges and Opportunity, Joanna Drimatis.- Chapter 13 Troubleshooting Gender in the Australian Screen Music Industry: An Insider Perspective, Felicity Wilcox.- Chapter 14 Programming with Gender Parity in Call-Based New Music Festivals, Alice Bennett.- Chapter 15 Mentoring Emerging Women Composers, Maria Grenfell.- Chapter 16 Content Targets Work: A Practical Example of Changing Behaviours and Processes in Programming Women Composers, Naomi Johnson and Matthew Dewey.- Chapter 17 Working Towards Gender Equality and Empowerment in Australian Music Culture, Cat Hope.- Part III Creating; Collaborating: Composer and Performer Reflections.- Chapter 18 The Book of Daughters and The Sonic aGender Guitar Project: Inclusivity as Guiding Principle, Lisa MacKinney.- Chapter 19 When We Speak: Creating (“Something Personal”) in a Three-Level Collaboration, Lisa Cheney.- Chapter 20 “It Gently Makes Itself Known...”: A Composer and a Violist Discuss their Collaboration on Cranes, Phoebe Green.- Chapter 21 Children’s Opera in theTwenty-First Century: The Child-Centred Approach to Writing, Emma Jayakumar.- Chapter 22 Making Music in A Chorus of Women, Glenda Cloughley and Johanna McBride.