Female Composers from Bingen to Beach

In the great pantheon of Western art composers, where are the women? We may be ultimately familiar with Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, but what do we know of Bingen and Beach? Historically, women have been prevented from achieving the sort of enduring cultural impact in the field of composition as the many men populating the canon. Which societal and cultural factors contribute to this skewed representation, and how have these factors shifted historically throughout the centuries? Studying the lives, music, and legacies of female composers composing in the Western art tradition will illuminate this disparity.

DELIVERY MODE

• Face-to-Face

COURSE OUTLINE

The course will cover the biographies, major works, and cultural impacts of:

• Hildegard of Bingen; Francesca Caccini
• Barbara Strozzi; Marianna Martines
• Louise Farrenc; Fanny Mendelssohn
• Clara Schumann; Cécile Chaminade
• Ethyl Smyth; Amy Beach; Florence Price

LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

1. Identify key female composers throughout Western art music compositional history
2. Identify key musical works associated with the female composers and the significant aesthetic and compositional features of each work
3. Articulate the social and cultural forces preventing women composers from reaching the same professional standing as their male counterparts
4. Identify the genres and forms of music most commonly associated with female composers, and how these associated genres and forms shifted or endured between the medieval period and the twentieth century