The Pioneering Women Composers

This International Women's Day, OAE leader Maggie Faultless reflects on the pioneering female composers throughout history who struggled to get their voices heard against the odds.
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[@fugithegreat]

There are lots of female composers right here on KZbin! Nahre Sol comes to my mind in particular. Unfortunately not many of them have as big of followings as many of the male composers, but platforms like this at least allow people to share their work.

[@nonman3634]

Somehow you forgot to mention two of the most world-renowned women composers of the 20th century, Galina Ustvolskaya and Sofia Gubaidulina.

[@mattfraser3452]

You forgot to mention Cortney Love 😡

[@oae]

Tell us in the comments if there are any other pioneering women composers you'd like to highlight

[@nonman3634]

Kaija Saariaho.

[@nonman3634]

Francesca Caccini, daughter of Giulio Caccini, her stage work "La liberazione di Ruggiero" is probably the earliest opera by a woman composer. Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, French baroque composer, "her sonatas, from later in her life, are considered triumphs of the genre." Edit: Wow, "Chi desia" by Francesca rocks! Check it out.

[@gabriellef3351]

Can we have a listening and analyzing of their music series please?

[@GMJ7]

I was hoping to see Cécile Chaminade (1857 - 1944) make an appearance. The show _Anne With an E_ introduced me to her, and I felt cheated for never having come across her even in my years at music school. Her gorgeous and playful "Thème Varié" for solo piano is something I dream of being able to play myself one day, though it's far beyond my current reach. 😊 I was also wondering if Nannerl, sister of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, would've gotten a shout-out. I gather there's some speculation that some of her brother's childhood compositions (and maybe even later ones) might actually have been her handiwork, yet he passed them off as his as a favor in order to "legitimize" them in a world that refused to acknowledge female composers. I've never looked into it deeply, so I expect there's far more to the story. But whatever the case may be, the mere suggestion of such a theory speaks to the "no girls allowed" attitude society had toward music composition back then.

[@interruptingPreempt]

Yuki Kajiura. She may be a little further afield, composing soundtracks for anime, but a lot of her work has a classical feel. I recommend her compositions from "dot hack sign"*, in particular, "The World". *This is the correct pronunciation of the series, but I can't write the title as intended; youtube is not sanitizing its comments properly. ETA: I’ve remembered another. Layne Redmond was a gifted riq (arabic tambourine) player. She made her home firmly in the New Age genre (album recommendation: Hymns from the Hive), and instructed a live performance group, “Mob of Angels”. An excerpt from her book “When Drummers Were Women” Ch2 first paragraph: “In 1980, on a whim, I joined a conga-drumming class. Perhaps I was fulfilling an old wish, for I had asked for a drum set once as a teenager. My parents found this so absurd that they didn’t even bother to respond. I might just as well have asked to go to Venus. Many women in my drum classes have come to me with similar stories. When I was growing up, women played the piano or maybe the flute. They didn’t drum.” I do wonder what impact she would have made on rock and roll.

[@idraote]

If we leave the world of classical music, there is a number of remarkable women who compose for the pop industry. They are not performers themselves but they are well esteemed in the industry.

[@Lucius_Chiaraviglio]

If we leave classical, but not exactly pop and not industry either, but instead jazz -- we have Shaye Cohen and Marla Dixon, for starters.

[@Stonmann]

Great video, although I'm surprised you didn't mention Barbara Strozzi. I think she's a great example of an early female composer.

[@davidbishop7181]

Ruth Crawford Seeger

[@vegetablearian_]

Thank you for highlighting these women! Those quotes were heartbreaking. I'm glad women are free to write music nowadays, even if they're sometimes unfairly maligned.

[@soundknight]

Why haven't we heard of them before? Amazing.

[@jeffhrsn]

Hildegard recordings were flying off the shelves in the 1990s. Clara Schumann changed the face of the solo piano recital with her memorizing the music before it was fashionable. Boulanger was the go-to teacher for some of the most famous composers of the 20th century. These names aren't THAT obscure.

[@soundknight]

@@jeffhrsn C Schumann, she could sight read too if she needed I imagine? I can't wait for "Man's Day" the list of composers would be astounding.

[@anahitak9292]

For man's day wtf white Europeans have everyday

[@literally_just_beeb]

Because of mysogyny

[@LearnCompositionOnline]

because they were christian, and not feminist activists.

[@gabriellef3351]

I love learning about women whose stories are re emerging

[@nonman3634]

Barbara Strozzi. She was quite famous in 17th century Italy, according to Wikipedia she had more secular music in print than any other composer of the era.

[@saphiquefemme]

Sadly, Wikipedia is banned in academia because it's a wiki. That means any user can alter the information making it less of an official and reliable resource of information. However, you can use the reference section to review the sources directly. I would also suggest using encyclopedias like Britannica or Oxford Research Encyclopedia.

[@StadinBasso]

Thank you for this video! I had the amazing privilege to perform in Lisbeta - En trollkona skall du icke låta leva (Lisbeta - thou shalt not suffer a witch to live). An opera about the witch hunts in the Åland Islands in the late 17th century. Score by Karolina Eiriksdottìr, libretto by Carina Karlsson, conducted by Anna-Marie Helsing and directed by Ida Kronholm. Women keep getting their voices heard more and more in music, but it is still a male dominant game.

[@saphiquefemme]

Thank you so much for sharing this information. I humbly appreciate this inspiration. I hope there will be more videos on historical women composers!

[@lukecrowley571]

No mention of Alma Deutscher? WT actual F?

[@tudormiller887]

Watching from the UK. ❤

[@LearnCompositionOnline]

They imitated well the music models created by males.

[@arienne3000]

You are ignorant. Inform you better.