MUSIC 220: WOMEN IN MUSIC

T TH 1:45-3 PM, PRESSER 103
CALVERT JOHNSON, OFFICE: PRESSER 101, PHONE X.6259

GERMAN 320L: GERMAN LANGUAGE COMPONENT
WITH INGRID WIESHOFER, OFFICE: BUTTRICK 323, PHONE X.6220


OBJECTIVES

We will study the many roles women have played in the history of music throughout the world from the late Middle Ages to the modern day, with particular emphasis on contemporary music. These roles include composer, performer, conductor, teacher, patron, instrument builder, music engraver, publisher, retailer, and preserver of tradition. We will study the involvement of women in classical art music, popular music, jazz, sacred and secular music, and even music of the film industry.

TEXTBOOKS

Pendle, Karin. Women and Music: A History. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991.
Neuls-Bates, Carol. Women in Music: An Anthology of Source Readings, revised edition. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1996.

ON RESERVE IN THE LIBRARY

Bowers, Jane and Tick, Judith. Women Making Music: The Western Art Tradition, 1150-1950. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987.

GRADING

CLASS DISCUSSION: Participation in class discussions is essential for success in this course: one learns while participating as well as by listening. Weight: equal to one test (1/6 of total grade). Although there are no requirements with regard to ATTENDANCE, poor attendance will affect your grade due to your lack of participation.

TESTS: In addition to a final exam, there will be two mid-term exams (March 5 and April 16) which will last the entire class period, each counting 1/6 of total grade. On the midterms there will be brief identification/discussion questions and short essays on the material covered since the beginning of the semester or since the previous exam. The final exam will stress the material from the most recent exam, but will also have essay questions covering the breadth of the semester. Weight: final equals two tests (2/6 or 1/3 of total grade).

PAPER: Each student will prepare a 5-10 page paper on a topic relevant to the course. Topics should be selected by February 22, and completed papers turned in by April 30. Weight: equal to one test (1/6 of total grade).


GERMAN LANGUAGE COMPONENT


CLASS MEETING TIME

The class will meet for one 50-minute session per week at a time to be agreed upon by the students and instructors.

OBJECTIVES

The German section, to be taught in German, will meet once a week for discussion of texts and a film reflecting the participation of German and Austrian women in music from the late Middle Ages to the present day. Our reading and discussion of these primary sources, virtually none of them available in English, will enhance your understanding of the social roles of women in music, particularly as composers and performers, while enabling you to improve your skills in reading, speaking, hearing, and writing in German.

GRADING

1. NOTEBOOK (40%): For each week's assignment, you will receive a study guide with glossary, reading comprehension questions and exercises, and discussion questions. Responses should be in German if possible, but English is acceptable when absolutely necessary. You may work on these study guides as you do the reading assignment, add to them after class discussions, and you may add additional sheets. All of these worksheets form the notebook.

2. PARTICIPATION (40%): To get the full benefit of this German language component, you should attend every class session, complete the assigned readings and worksheets, and participate in class discussions. If you must miss a class, please contact one of the instructor's, preferably beforehand. Failure to do so could result in a lower grade in participation.

3. REPORT (20%): Each student will give an oral report, in English, about the letter writing exercise. The report will include material found through the student's research and from her correspondance with the German or Austrian woman composer. The purposes of the letter are explained in the letter writing exercise. The letter itself will be graded as part of this aspect of the course grade.

DESCRIPTIONS AND BACKGROUND OF
GERMAN LANGUAGE READING ASSIGNMENTS


1. Warum gibt es so wenig Komponistinnen?

S. Jessel, in the late nineteenth-century, describes the obstacles facing women who have musical talent to explain why there are so few women composers. The situation for men is very different.


2. Hildegard von Bingen

Hildegard's compositions have recently become very popular. No doubt some of the appeal lies in her concepts of "Symphonia" and her unusual mystical and symbolic language. Among her great achievements in music and drama is the first liturgical music drama, Ordo virtutum in which she describes the battle for an allegorical Soul by the various Virtues and the Devil.


3. Minnesingers

The age of chivalry spread into Germany from the troubadours and trouveres of France. There are, however, no women minnesingers. Hence we will focus on how women are depicted in several poems, from the male viewpoint, of course ...


4. Modern Composers: Letter Project


5. Classical Period Germany

To introduce you to early German type, an excerpt from a biographical article on Anna Amalia, Princess of Prussia, is provided. The Prussian court of Anna Amalia's brother (Frederick the Great) was one of the most musical anywhere, and she flourished in it, studying a number of instruments and composition. Juliane Benda Reichardt was one of the leading singers and composers of early lieder. Another important singer was Corona Schröter, who was closely associated with Goethe and Schiller, whose poems she set as lieder.


6. Classical Period Austria

Three women associated with the Austrian imperial capital are presented in these readings. The successful Marianne Martinez of Spanish Neapolitan lesser nobility was taught by Haydn and Metastasio, and produced a large output of music. Schilling's biographical dictionary is an important early source for information, and will give you exercise in German type. Maria Theresia von Paradis was a blind pianist and teacher of the blind. Marie Bigot was like the others in the public eye as a performer. She was promoted by Beethoven, who was patronized by Razumovsky (the Russian ambassador to Vienna), whose librarian her husband was. One reviewer of her Beethoven concert was Reichardt, the husband of Juliane Reichardt.


7. Fanny Hensel

These letters among various members of the Mendelssohn family are quite revealing about the close relationship between Fanny and Felix, the reliance Fanny and Felix had for each other's comments and advice with regard to their compositional efforts, Fanny's self-doubts as a composer, the role Felix assumed was appropriate for Fanny as wife and mother, and the difference of opinion Fanny's mother and husband had concerning Fanny publishing her compositions.


8. Frühlingssinfonie.

This film is an accurate depiction of the early life of Clara Schumann, her relationship with her father and brothers, and her courtship with Robert. The title of the film comes from one of Robert's symphonies.


9. Clara Schumann

In her diary and letters, Clara Schumann writes about the role of concert tours and of composing, and how each in its own way is important to her (and frankly to the economic well-being of her family--she was the bread-winner through her concerts). You will note the various attitudes she and Robert have towards her abilities as a composer, and how they work out a way for her to juggle her responsibilities as wife, mother, concert pianist, and composer.


10. Alma Mahler

In her autobiography, Alma Mahler discusses the importance of music in her life. She was romantically involved with the leading lights in many fields, including Zemlinsky, Mahler, Gropius, Kokoschka, and Werfel. She married Mahler at a young age, and describes what he compelled her to do with his and with her music making and creativity.


11. Women in Orchestral Music

The case of Sabine Meyer and the Berlin Philharmonic: the scandalous schism between von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic arose when the conductor arbitrarily appointed Sabine Meyer as first clarinetist. This orchestra had and has the prerogative to elect all of its new members. The ensuing power struggle is described in these accounts found in music journals and in an interview with the clarinetist herself. Did the orchestra vote against her on the basis of her gender, her musical and technical qualifications, or to resist the dictatorship of von Karajan.


12. Women in Popular Music

Marlene Dietrich and Nina Hagen: two women musical entertainers in the face of world tensions, whether against Nazism or Communism or conservative Western social conventions. These two brief biographies and sung performances characterise these women and their styles.

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