International Women’s Day has been observed since the beginning of the twentieth century and has been gaining popularity ever since. As a white, middle-class, Scottish university student, it’s sometimes all too easy for me to naïvely view gender inequality as a thing of the past. I forget that, outside my sheltered life, there are women being abused, harassed, dominated, mistreated, penalised and put down every single day based on a stupid prejudice.
International Women’s Day is an effective tool for reminding thoughtless people (like me) that there is still a long way to go before gender equality is a worldwide norm. We have yet to reach the stage where the idea of abusing someone based on their gender is as outdated and bizarre as the thought of abusing someone because of their hair colour. Until that equality is achieved, I believe that International Women’s Day is a valuable and important holiday.
In honour of International Women’s Day, I have decided to take a look at a few prominent females who made interesting contributions towards the development of Western music as it is today.
Enjoy.
International Women’s Day is an effective tool for reminding thoughtless people (like me) that there is still a long way to go before gender equality is a worldwide norm. We have yet to reach the stage where the idea of abusing someone based on their gender is as outdated and bizarre as the thought of abusing someone because of their hair colour. Until that equality is achieved, I believe that International Women’s Day is a valuable and important holiday.
In honour of International Women’s Day, I have decided to take a look at a few prominent females who made interesting contributions towards the development of Western music as it is today.
Enjoy.
Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) Hildegard of Bingen lived in the Rhine region of Germany during the 12th century. She entered the church at the age of eight and joined a Benedictine monastery six years later. During that time, women were excluded from priesthood and forbidden from making a sound inside church walls. In convents, however, women were allowed to hold positions of leadership and participate in singing and composing music; Hildegard became prioress of the convent attached to the monastery in 1136, at the age of thirty-eight. | |
Around 1150, Hildegard, guided by a vision, founded and became abbess of her own convent near Bingen. She became famous for her prophecies and wrote several books on science and healing as well as a wealth of religious music with strikingly individual melodies.
Her greatest contribution to music was probably her Ordo virtutum (The Virtues, ca. 1151), which is the earliest surviving music drama outside the liturgy. The entire work is sung in plainchant with the exception of the Devil, who can only speak: the absence of music demonstrates his separation from God. The final chorus is typical of Hildegard’s expansive and individual melodies.
In a male-dominated church with prescribed music and texts, Hildegard and her compositions were sidelined, yet there are more surviving chants by Hildegard than any other composer from the Middle Ages. When her music was rediscovered in the late twentieth century, she quickly became one of the most recorded and best-known composers of sacred monophony, and one of very few to have written both words and music.
Her greatest contribution to music was probably her Ordo virtutum (The Virtues, ca. 1151), which is the earliest surviving music drama outside the liturgy. The entire work is sung in plainchant with the exception of the Devil, who can only speak: the absence of music demonstrates his separation from God. The final chorus is typical of Hildegard’s expansive and individual melodies.
In a male-dominated church with prescribed music and texts, Hildegard and her compositions were sidelined, yet there are more surviving chants by Hildegard than any other composer from the Middle Ages. When her music was rediscovered in the late twentieth century, she quickly became one of the most recorded and best-known composers of sacred monophony, and one of very few to have written both words and music.
Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre (1665–1729)
During the Baroque period, women began to play a more active role in music. Their contribution ranged from singers and composers to patrons of art and hostesses of salons which cultivated music. Elizabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre, a child prodigy in music, came from a family of musicians and instrument makers. Trained by her father, she sang and played harpsichord at the court of Louis XIV from the age of five. She was highly acclaimed, both at court and amongst critics; one music journalist called her “the marvel of our century.”
After her marriage to the organist Martin de la Guerre, she moved permanently to Paris where she taught harpsichord and gave concerts which made her a prominent celebrity at the time. Her output as a composer was small but spanned a variety of genres. Best known for her two published collections of harpsichord music and three books of cantatas, Jacquet de la Guerre also composed the first ballet (1691, now lost) and the first opera (Céphale et Procris, 1694) to be written by a French woman. She was recognised by her contemporaries as one of the greatest talents of her time.
During the Baroque period, women began to play a more active role in music. Their contribution ranged from singers and composers to patrons of art and hostesses of salons which cultivated music. Elizabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre, a child prodigy in music, came from a family of musicians and instrument makers. Trained by her father, she sang and played harpsichord at the court of Louis XIV from the age of five. She was highly acclaimed, both at court and amongst critics; one music journalist called her “the marvel of our century.”
After her marriage to the organist Martin de la Guerre, she moved permanently to Paris where she taught harpsichord and gave concerts which made her a prominent celebrity at the time. Her output as a composer was small but spanned a variety of genres. Best known for her two published collections of harpsichord music and three books of cantatas, Jacquet de la Guerre also composed the first ballet (1691, now lost) and the first opera (Céphale et Procris, 1694) to be written by a French woman. She was recognised by her contemporaries as one of the greatest talents of her time.
Katherine Hepburn as Clara in A Song Of Love (1947)
Clara Schumann (1819–1896)
Clara Schumann, wife of composer Robert Schumann (1810-1856), was one of the foremost pianists of her day. Recognised as a child prodigy from her first public appearance at age nine, she toured Europe and earned the praise of many well-thought-of artists, including Chopin, Mendelssohn and Goethe. By the age of twenty, she was one of the leading pianists in Europe with many published compositions to her name.
After marrying Robert, the Schumanns performed in concerts throughout Europe with Robert conducting and Clara playing piano. After a suicide attempt, Robert was confined to a mental asylum where he died two years later. Clara was left to raise their eight children alone. She stopped composing, but continued to perform and teach piano lessons. She devoted the rest of her life to promoting and editing her husband’s music. If it weren’t for Clara’s dedication to preserving her husband’s work, many of his great pieces would likely have fallen into obscurity.
Clara Schumann, wife of composer Robert Schumann (1810-1856), was one of the foremost pianists of her day. Recognised as a child prodigy from her first public appearance at age nine, she toured Europe and earned the praise of many well-thought-of artists, including Chopin, Mendelssohn and Goethe. By the age of twenty, she was one of the leading pianists in Europe with many published compositions to her name.
After marrying Robert, the Schumanns performed in concerts throughout Europe with Robert conducting and Clara playing piano. After a suicide attempt, Robert was confined to a mental asylum where he died two years later. Clara was left to raise their eight children alone. She stopped composing, but continued to perform and teach piano lessons. She devoted the rest of her life to promoting and editing her husband’s music. If it weren’t for Clara’s dedication to preserving her husband’s work, many of his great pieces would likely have fallen into obscurity.
Hidegard of Bingen’s use of musical word painting sparked a chain of events which would eventually influence many of the techniques used in modern operas. Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre was truly a Baroque pop star. And Clara Schumann, a single mother, devoted the final forty years of her life to preserving the music of a great composer who, without her intervention, would probably have been lost in the folds of history.
The fact that these women are female is not the reason they are worthy of note. Their contribution to the story of music is impressive in its own right. But it is worth acknowledging that these women accomplished their notoriety in a patriarchal society where the odds were, as they say, stacked against them. And I think that’s pretty cool; kudos to them.
The fact that these women are female is not the reason they are worthy of note. Their contribution to the story of music is impressive in its own right. But it is worth acknowledging that these women accomplished their notoriety in a patriarchal society where the odds were, as they say, stacked against them. And I think that’s pretty cool; kudos to them.
Bibliography
Burkholder, J. Peter, Grout, Donald Jay and Palisca, Claude V. A History of Western Music (New York, 2010)
Kennedy, Michael. and Kennedy, Joyce. Oxford Concise Dictionary of Music (Oxford, 2007)
Stanley, John. Classical Music - The Great Composers and their Masterworks (London, 1994)
Burkholder, J. Peter, Grout, Donald Jay and Palisca, Claude V. A History of Western Music (New York, 2010)
Kennedy, Michael. and Kennedy, Joyce. Oxford Concise Dictionary of Music (Oxford, 2007)
Stanley, John. Classical Music - The Great Composers and their Masterworks (London, 1994)