Female Composers??

[Rune Vejby]

Hi all,


Last night I as wondering: Have there ever been any female classical composers around??? I don't recall anyone in any period of time.

Do you guys know something about this???

[rojo]

Hi Rune,

Well, off the top of my head, I come up with the following- <ul type="square"> Cecile Chaminade
Clara Schumann
Fanny Mendelssohn
Nadia Boulanger[/list]Unfortunately I don`t have time at the moment to elaborate on them. But I have played some of their works- good stuff.

[giovannimusica]

Hi Rune,

Here are three female composers: Jeanne Demessieux, Elfrida Andree, Amy Beach

Giovanni

[Gareth]

I have heard of Amy Beach before, but thats about it.

Gareth.

[rojo]

I think Billie Holiday counts also, she co-wrote 'God Bless the Child', I believe.

And there`s also Lady John Scott (aka Alicia Anne Spottiswoode,) who is credited with writing the tune to that old Scottish song, 'Annie Laurie.'

One has to keep in mind that women were not necessarily taken all that seriously in olden times; I think few women had the means to become composers in the past. If you check out this link to wikipedia, you`ll notice that there are considerably more female composers as time has passed...thank goodness!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_composers

That`s quite a list, considering...

Hey, it says Anne Boleyn was a composer- who knew!

[Todd]

Of course there have been and are female composers. They’ve just been less successful than their male counterparts, at least in terms of what gets played and recorded. And they’ve been around for a long time. Looking for names, one can always go all the way back to Hildegard von Bingen in the Middle Ages. I’d say there are more at least reasonably successful women composers now than in prior centuries, and indeed some are very good. I count Sofia Gubaidulina among the elite composers working today, and Augusta Read Thomas, Kaija Saariaho, and Gloria Coates, to name three, all write individual, well-crafted works that get played and recorded. For instance, Ms Thomas has attracted the attention of Pierre Boulez, who has led the premieres of some of her works, and Ms Saariaho works routinely with Esa-Pekka Salonen. Ms Gubaidulina is an A-lister who writes for and collaborates with people like Valery Gergiev, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Yuri Bashmet. Her St John Passion is a masterpiece as far as I’m concerned, as is her Viola Concerto.

[Mr Salek]

Many female composers were forbidden to publish their music. Maria Von Paradis is one of the ones who did.

[corno]

Then there's Cécile Chaminade - http://www.web-helper.net/PDMusic/Bi...le/default.asp and Dame Ethyl Smythe.

Here's also a list of a fair amount:
http://lib.grcc.edu:2082/search/tAnn...of+prussia&1,1,

[acciaccatura]

Hildegard von Bingen, medieval German composer
Thea Musgrave, contemporary British composer

Both of the highest calibre.

[rojo]

Hi Corno- I mentioned Cécile Chaminade earlier, but that`s an interesting link about her. I`ve played her 'Scarf Dance'; very charming...

[Naomi McFadyen]

I'm a female composer, although, brass band.
Judith Bingham is also a brass band composer.

Orchestral/Chamber: Judith Weir

Film Music: Shirley Walker

[catolliver]

Germaine Tailleferre is pretty well known but often forgotten. She was a member of Les Six, along with Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Arthur Honneger, Darius Milhaud and Francis Poulenc. She wrote primarily for piano, but also has four operas and several orchestral works as well.

On a side note, my father says she is a distant relative of mine, she died in 1983, and that the Tailleferre family changed it's name to Tolliver (my last name) when they moved to the states. I haven't been able to confirm that, but that's the story anyway.

-Chris

[Messiaen]

One of todays greatest composers is a woman:

Sofia Gubaidulina

[Brad Stark]

I remember hearing the music of Amy Beach on a radio documentary about a year ago and being very impressed by its quality and imagination. I thought the music deserved to be much better known and I wanted to hear more of it. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find many recordings of her music.... According to some information that I've come across it appears she was extremely productive, often a sign of a good composer.

Anyone know any good Amy Beach Recordings to look out for?

p.s. There are many excellent female composers around in the modern era

Brad

[catolliver]

Amy Beach is great. She often goes quite unnoticed, but is well worth the listen. She doesn't get nearly the ovation as she should. Here are a few CD's I found on a google search:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...9007341?n=5174

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=glance&n=5174

and I can't forget my piano & composition teacher:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=glance&n=5174