Women Composers
Women have long been recognized for their contributions to classical music as singers, pianists, teachers, and music patrons. Think only of Barbara Strozzi, Clara Schumann, Nadia Boulanger, or Nadezhda von Meck. Their work as composers, however, has typically been overlooked with few exceptions. On this page, you will find listed many notable women composers, throughout the eras, as well as books, reference entries, and online resources that can help you contextualize their works. Go beyond the familiar names to discover innovative African American women composers like Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, and Julia Perry whose music is gaining new attention at this very moment; pioneering modernists like Kaija Saariaho, Sofia Gubaidulina, Olga Neuwirth, and Rebecca Saunders whose innovations are as radical and influential as any man's; and figures from many centuries ago like Kassia, Maddalena Casulana, and Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre who are finding renewed appreciation in early music circles.
Recommended Books
Five Lives in Music: Women Performers, Composers, and Impresarios from the Baroque to the Present by
Representing a historical cross-section of performance and training in Western music since the seventeenth century, Five Lives in Music brings to light the private and performance lives of five remarkable women musicians and composers. Elegantly guiding readers through the Thirty Years War in central Europe, elite courts in Germany, urban salons in Paris, Nazi control of Germany and Austria, and American musical life today, as well as personal experiences of marriage, motherhood, and widowhood, Cecelia Hopkins Porter provides valuable insights into the culture in which each woman was active. Porter begins with the Duchess Sophie-Elisabeth of Braunschweig-Lueneberg, a harpsichordist who also presided over seventeenth-century North German court music as an impresario. At the forefront of French Baroque composition, composer Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre bridged a widening cultural gap between the Versailles nobility and the urban bourgeoisie of Paris. A century later, Josephine Lang, a prodigiously talented pianist and dedicated composer, participated at various times in the German Romantic world of lieder through her important arts salon. Lastly, the twentieth century brought forth two exceptional women: Baroness Maria Bach, a composer and pianist of twentieth-century Vienna's upper bourgeoisie and its brilliant musical milieu in the era of Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg, and Erich Korngold; and Ann Schein, a brilliant and dauntless American piano prodigy whose career, ongoing today though only partially recognized, led her to study with the legendary virtuosos Arthur Rubinstein and Myra Hess.
Call Number: ML82 .P675 2012Publication Date: 2012
Women in Music: A Research and Information Guide (Print and eBook) by
Women in Music: A Research and Information Guide is an annotated bibliography emerging from more than twenty-five years of feminist scholarship on music. This book testifies to the great variety of subjects and approaches represented in over two decades of published writings on women, their work, and the important roles that feminist outlooks have played in formerly male-oriented academic scholarship or journalistic musings on women and music.
Call Number: ML128.W7 P46 2005 (Music Reference) and Taylor & Francis eBooks CompletePublication Date: 2012
Nadia and Lili Boulanger by
Pioneers in their fields and two of the best-known women in music in the twentieth century, Nadia and Lili Boulanger have previously been considered in isolation from one another. Yet, as Caroline Potter's new book demonstrates, their careers were closely linked during Lili Boulanger's short life (1893-1918) and there are several intriguing connections between their musical works. This biography also provides the first full analysis of the Boulanger sisters' musical styles, placing them within the context of French musical history. Their lives are also a case study in the issues of gender which surround music making even to the present day. Despite an unusually privileged upbringing, Nadia and Lili Boulanger exemplify the struggle women experienced when attempting to enter the professional music world. Lili became the first woman to win the Prix de Rome in 1913, and Nadia gained second place in 1908. Yet in spite of this initial success, Nadia Boulanger was to give up composing in her thirties and devoted the remainder of her long life to teaching. Her pupils included several of the great composers of the century, including Aaron Copland and Elliott Carter. This book, focusing on their musical careers, is essential reading for anyone interested in French music of the twentieth century.
Call Number: ML385 .P75 2006Publication Date: 2006
In Her Own Words: Conversations with Composers in the United States by
This collection of new interviews with twenty-five accomplished female composers substantially advances our knowledge of the work, experiences, compositional approaches, and musical intentions of a diverse group of creative individuals. With personal anecdotes and sometimes surprising intimacy and humor, these wide-ranging conversations represent the diversity of women composing music in the United States from the mid-twentieth century into the twenty-first. The composers work in a variety of genres including classical, jazz, multimedia, or collaborative forms for the stage, film, and video games. Their interviews illuminate questions about the status of women composers in America, the role of women in musical performance and education, the creative process and inspiration, the experiences and qualities that contemporary composers bring to their craft, and balancing creative and personal lives. Candidly sharing their experiences, advice, and views, these vibrant, thoughtful, and creative women open new perspectives on the prospects and possibilities of making music in a changing world.
Call Number: ML390 .K33 2013Publication Date: 2013
Chen Yi by
Chen Yi is the most prominent woman among the renowned group of new wave composers who came to the US from mainland China in the early 1980s. Known for her creative output and a distinctive merging of Chinese and Western influences, Chen built a musical language that references a breathtaking range of sources and crisscrosses geographical and musical borders without eradicating them. Leta E. Miller and J. Michele Edwards provide an accessible guide to the composer's background and her more than 150 works. Extensive interviews with Chen complement in-depth analyses of selected pieces from Chen's solos for Western or Chinese instruments, chamber works, choral and vocal pieces, and compositions scored for wind ensemble, chamber orchestra, or full orchestra. The authors highlight Chen's compositional strategies, her artistic elaborations, and the voice that links her earliest and most recent music. A concluding discussion addresses questions related to Chen's music and issues such as gender, ethnicity and nationality, transnationalism, border crossing, diaspora, exoticism, and identity.
Call Number: ML410.C446 M55 2020Publication Date: 2020
Sofia Gubaidulina: A Biography by
Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina (1931- ) has achieved international acclaim for her unique musical oeuvre which draws on Eastern and Western musical traditions and reflects a deep-rooted belief in the mystical and religious qualities of music. Kurtz's biography of Gubaidulina is the first in any language. Based on her papers and extensive interviews with Gubaidulina, her colleagues, and family, the book places her life and the evolution of her work within the broader cultural and political context of the post-Stalin Soviet Union. For the English edition, the text has been revised and updated and a chronology of Gubaidulina's life and a complete list of her works have been added.
Call Number: ML410.G9463 K8713 2007Publication Date: 2007
The Songs of Fanny Hensel by
Fanny Hensel created some of the most imaginative and original music of her era, making her arguably the most gifted female composer of the nineteenth century. While Hensel has finally stepped out of the shadow of her famous brother, Felix Mendelssohn, as scholars have begun to study her life and writings, her music has remained surprisingly underexamined. This collection places Hensel's music at the center, focusing on the genre that not only made up more than half of her creative output but also, as Hensel herself put it, "suits her best": song. In eleven new essays, leading scholars in the fields of music theory and musicology consider Hensel's songs from a wide range of angles, covering topics such as Hensel's fascination with particular poets and poetic themes; her innovative harmonic, melodic, rhythmic, and textual strategies; and her connection to larger literary and musical trends. The chapters also provide insight into Hensel's efforts to break free from the constraints placed on her as a woman and her place in the larger history of the nineteenth-century Lied. Drawing on diverse biographical, historical, cultural, and musical contexts for their detailed discussions of Hensel's songs, the authors underline Hensel's historical importance and deepen our understanding and appreciation of her compositions. This volume, in short, finally gives Fanny Hensel and her songs the stage that they deserve.
Call Number: ML410.H482 S66 2021Publication Date: 2021
Hildegard von Bingen's Ordo Virtutum: A Musical and Metaphysical Analysis by
The Ordo Virtutum, Hildegard von Bingen's twelfth-century music-drama, is one of the first known examples of a large-scale composition by a named composer in the Western canon. Not only does the Ordo's expansive duration set it apart from its precursors, but also its complex imagery and non-biblical narrative have raised various questions concerning its context and genre. As a poetic meditation on the fall of a soul, the Ordo deploys an array of personified virtues and musical forces over the course of its eighty-seven chants. In this ambitious analysis of the work, Michael C. Gardiner examines how classical Neoplatonic hierarchies are established in the music-drama and considers how they are mediated and subverted through a series of concentric absorptions (absorptions related to medieval Platonism and its various theological developments) which lie at the core of the work's musical design and text. This is achieved primarily through Gardiner's musical network model, which implicates mode into a networked system of nodes, and draws upon parallels with the medieval interpretation of Platonic ontology and Hildegard's correlative realization through sound, song, and voice.
Call Number: ML410.H618 G37 2019Publication Date: 2019
Sounding the Margins: Collected Writings, 1992-2009 by
Sounding the Margins: Collected Writings, 1992-2009 by composer, performer, humanitarian, and Deep Listening founder Pauline Oliveros documents her activity over this period and the many recent advances that have taken place in the fields of electronic and telematic musical performance, improvisation, artificial intelligence, and the role of women in contemporary music. Featuring contributions by John Luther Adams, Monique Buzzarte, and Stuart Dempster.
Call Number: ML410.O5834 A4 2010Publication Date: 2010
The Heart of a Woman: The Life and Music of Florence B. Price by
The Heart of a Woman offers the first-ever biography of Florence B. Price, a composer whose career spanned both the Harlem and Chicago Renaissances, and the first African American woman to gain national recognition for her works. Price's twenty-five years in Chicago formed the core of a working life that saw her create three hundred works in diverse genres, including symphonies and orchestral suites, art songs, vocal and choral music, and arrangements of spirituals. Through interviews and a wealth of material from public and private archives, Rae Linda Brown illuminates Price's major works while exploring the considerable depth of her achievement. Brown also traces the life of the extremely private individual from her childhood in Little Rock through her time at the New England Conservatory, her extensive teaching, and her struggles with racism, poverty, and professional jealousies. In addition, Brown provides musicians and scholars with dozens of musical examples.
Call Number: ML410.P835 B76 2020Publication Date: 2020
Kaija Saariaho: Visions, Narratives, Dialogues by
Kaija Saariaho is internationally recognized as a leading figure in contemporary music, enjoying a well-deserved reputation for works that are both creatively original and of considerable appeal. Her music communicates with a refreshingly broad audience, and this special achievement deserves careful consideration. In the first symposium book in English to be dedicated exclusively to this single figure, scholars from both the UK and Saariaho's native Finland bring a range of perspectives to her richly varied output. Uncovering the compositional, historical, cultural, and sociological issues that have resulted in such critical acclaim lies at the heart of this collection of essays. Saariaho's approach to composition is an interdisciplinary one; it embraces a number of art forms - visual, literary, and musical - in works that explore a creative dialogue between image, continuity, and time. While such diversity is readily accommodated in a multi-authored collection, the consistency of an underlying compositional identity and integrity is also an important trait. The grouping of these essays into three strands - 'visions', 'narratives', and 'dialogues' - reflects the wide range of Saariaho's creative preoccupations while subscribing to a carefully structured succession of commentaries.
Call Number: ML410.S114 K37 2011Publication Date: 2011
Clara Schumann Studies by
Since the 1980s, when she re-emerged from the peripheries into a more central position in music studies, Clara Schumann (1819-1896) has exerted an enduring fascination over the scholarly and popular imagination. Revisionist biographies, the uncovering of primary sources (diaries, letters, memorabilia), and filmic and literary depictions of Schumann have all brought into sharper focus the details and reception of her life, while simultaneously drawing attention to how much there is still to learn about her creativity. This book brings together a team of leading scholars to reappraise Clara Schumann in three particular respects: first, by delving deeper into her social and musical contexts; secondly, by offering fresh analytical perspectives on her songs and instrumental music; and thirdly, by reconsidering her legacy as a pianist and teacher. In doing so, the volume not only contributes to a rounded picture of Schumann's creative vision, but also opens up new pathways in the wider study of women in music.
Call Number: ML417.S4 C74 2022Publication Date: 2022
Score Anthologies
These anthologies each feature the music of several women composers and can be found in the Music Collection. Follow the links below to search their tables of contents online before finding them on library shelves.
New Historical Anthology of Music by Women by
New Historical Anthology of Music by Women updates the extremely popular collection with 55 compositions by 46 women composers from the ancient Greeks to the present. Each work is introduced by an informative essay by a specialist in the field, with recommendations for further reading, listening, and performing. Historical scores have been transcribed into modern notation for ease of use, and the works represent a wide variety of genres, including solo songs, chamber music, piano music, and orchestral scores. Composers include Sappho, Hildegard of Bingen, Barbara Strozzi, Clara Schumann, and Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel. The anthology includes a foreword by Susan McClary, the leading scholar on women's music.
Call Number: M1 .H665 2004Publication Date: 2004
Pian é forte. Music for Piano: Women Composers through the Centuries by
It was the editor's intent to place before the performer pieces enjoyable to play, pieces easy to enjoy, and pieces not terribly difficult to execute. Ordered chronologically, the works are suitable for the intermediate pianist, with a bit of wiggle-room on either side: some are a little easier than intermediate level, some are a little harder. All of the compositions are thoughtfully edited. The compositions shows a wide range of atmosphere and required touch. There are dances (Contre-danse by Szymanowska, Polonaise by Zumsteeg, Marche Russe by Chaminade, and Bush Gin Rag by Olive); mood pieces (Nocturne by Farren and Klavierstück by Hensel); and even one that includes improvisatory passages and a Turkish air.
Call Number: M21 .P53 2011Publication Date: 2011
Flute Music by Female Composers: 13 Pieces for Flute and Piano by
In this collection, Elisabeth Weinzierl-Wächter and Barbara Heller present works for flute and piano by 13 female composers: starting with the 18th century, with sonatas by Anna Amalia von Preußen and Anna Bon di Venezia, via the 19th century with variations by Blahetka and Sérénade aux Étoiles by Cecile Chaminade, and via works by Mélanie Bonis, Lili Boulanger, Germaine Tailleferre to the present time with works by Barbara Heller, Gloria Coates, Dorothee Eberhardt, Caroline Ansink, Annette Schlünz and Christine K. Brückner.
Call Number: M241 .F62 2019Publication Date: 2019
Art Songs and Spirituals by African-American Women Composers by
For solo voice and piano. This is a must-have collection of spirituals and composed works by a variety of African-American composers. Includes songs by Margaret Bonds, Betty Jackson King, Undine Smith Moore, Julia Perry, Zenobia Powell Perry, and Florence B. Price.
Call Number: M1495 .A78 2015Publication Date: 2015
Women Composers: A Heritage of Song (High Voice and Low Voice) by
With 45 songs by 22 composers, this is the most comprehensive single volume of art songs composed by women ever published. It includes biographical information about the composers and historical information about each song, with songs in English, French, German and Italian. Available in High Voice and Low Voice editions.
Call Number: M1619 .W664 2004 and M1619 .W665 2004Publication Date: 2004
Naxos Music Library Playlists
Naxos Music Library has curated these two themed playlists which highlight music by women composers. Discover other playlists centering on diversity in their folder Diversity and Visibility Matter.
Historical Women ComposersIncludes music by Bacewicz, Beach, Boulanger, Farrenc, Hensel, Jacquet de La Guerre, Price, Schumann, Smyth, Tailleferre, and others
Contemporary Women ComposersIncludes music by Abe, Chen Yi, Coates, Garrop, Gubaidulina, Ortiz, Saariaho, Shaw, Snider, Thomas, Tower, Weir, Zwilich, and others
Interlibrary Loan
Users are encouraged to search for items beyond University Libraries' catalog via RILM Abstracts of Music Literature and WorldCat. Materials not available in print or online may be requested through Interlibrary Loan. Please allow up to seven days for electronic delivery and up to fourteen days for delivery of physical items.