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Book Review
Jul. 8th, 2010 10:46 pmWomen Making Music: The Western Art Tradition, 1150-1950
By Judith Tick and Jane Bowers, eds.
This book was a little more like a compilation in that each chapter was written by a different author, but the book still held together as a coherent whole. It covers a lot of ground, and had a lot of illuminating information, most of which was unfamiliar to me. I particularly liked the chapters on specific women, all of whom were also composers. The ones on Clara Schumann and Ruth Crawford Seeger were especially interesting in the way they highlighted women who had been successful as composers while having rich and rewarding personal lives. Other highlights were the chapters on medieval and renaissance women because they are so invisible in most general histories of music.
The one thing that I took away from this book was that despite the severe limitations on their lives, obstacles due to sexism, and invisibility to history, women have always engaged in significant musical activity. The major issues regarding women in music are those of gaining respect and attention in a patriarchal society and access to professional status and opportunity.
By Judith Tick and Jane Bowers, eds.
This book was a little more like a compilation in that each chapter was written by a different author, but the book still held together as a coherent whole. It covers a lot of ground, and had a lot of illuminating information, most of which was unfamiliar to me. I particularly liked the chapters on specific women, all of whom were also composers. The ones on Clara Schumann and Ruth Crawford Seeger were especially interesting in the way they highlighted women who had been successful as composers while having rich and rewarding personal lives. Other highlights were the chapters on medieval and renaissance women because they are so invisible in most general histories of music.
The one thing that I took away from this book was that despite the severe limitations on their lives, obstacles due to sexism, and invisibility to history, women have always engaged in significant musical activity. The major issues regarding women in music are those of gaining respect and attention in a patriarchal society and access to professional status and opportunity.
