WOMEN IN MUSIC

Denison University MUS-220-01-J, MUS 320-01-J, WMST-220-01-J Fall 2002

MWF 11:30-12:20, with Final Exam Monday December 16th 9:00-11:00

Kathleen Pierson piersonk@denison.edu 6392 Office in Doane Dance 303

Office hours Fridays 12:30-1:30 and other times by appointment. (I also serve as Resident Musician in the Dance Department, so my schedule may vary, but my whereabouts are posted in the Doane Dance lobby)

Required course materials:

1) Text: Bowers, Jane and Tick, Judith (ed.), Women Making Music, University of Illinois Press, 1986. (paperback, a collection of scholarly essays on various topics about the history of women in music)

2) 2-CD Recorded Anthology: Briscoe, James (ed.), Historical Anthology of Music by Women, Indiana University Press, 1987. (2 CDs in one case, with 33 recorded examples of representative works in various genres by women composers spanning roughly a millennium) (Note: BriscoeÕs same-title book of accompanying scores is on reserve in the library for those of you who read music)

3) CD: The WomenÕs Philharmonic Koch International Classics 3-7169-2HI, 1992 (woman-conducted performances of woman-composed orchestral works spanning roughly a century)

4) Course Packet specifically assembled for this course (includes notes/ summary pages that you WILL want to have!).

Twenty additional books and twenty additional CDs are on reserve for you in the library, for your assignments and projects. You will find these listed, with brief annotations, at the end of this syllabus.

Course objectives:

~ to discover and consider women's various roles and positions in music, currently and historically.

~ to hear and remember a variety of recorded examples of music composed or performed by women.

~ to integrate "musical" and "feminist" approaches into an articulate overview of this field.

~ to examine individual and cultural attitudes regarding creativity and the arts, regarding music as both art and consumer product, and regarding gendered roles in the production and consumption of music.

Course rationale:

In the standard canon of western art music, women are marginal at best. There are textbooks covering a thousand years of music history with hardly a whisper of any woman's name. Why? Are there no "great" women in music, no "female Mozarts," as it were? Are women essentially incapable of the act of composing (authoring) great music? What is "great" music? If women are capable of excellence in music, then what could be some of the other reasons we would not know about their work? Who cares if women's compositions are seldom programmed or recorded? Who cares if women are not included in the canon? Even as performers (as opposed to composers) of music, are women somehow inferior to men? To this day, the internationally-influential all-male Vienna Philharmonic openly states that being forced to admit women would be the ruin of their orchestra. Is there any way for women who are successful in music to be seen as more than mere anomalies? So many successful women easily spring to mind in popular music, but in our culture at this time the rift between popular music and art music is so enormous that music historians generally dismiss the entire category of popular music as inconsequential. Are women in music somehow being dismissed as a class? What are the feminist positions regarding these issues? In the introduction to your (1986) text, Bowers and Tick write about "women's crippling internalization of their culturally determined marginality." Is this real? Is this something that might also be experienced in other (race, class, lifestyle) struggles?

In this course, students will gain new knowledge and employ new approaches to intensify the clarity and satisfaction of grappling with such questions.

GRADING:

Attendance and participation 10%, Assignments 10%, Quiz Average 25%, Final Exam 25%, Paper 15%, and Project Presentation 15%.

Being present, being on time, and being actively engaged in class are all expected. You are responsible for finding out what you missed if you are ever absent.

Assignments: There will be a succession of simple assignments, all due on Mondays, never accepted late (due your first day back if you are absent on a Monday), not graded but just checked off as Òcompleted.Ó

The purpose of the assignments is to highlight available print, Internet, and audio resources, to help shape your approach to the paper and the project, and to set the tone for the week's classes.

Quizzes: There will be three little quizzes, on straightforward facts and on recognition of the recorded musical examples. All three quizzes will be graded, but your worst quiz grade will be dropped and only the best two out of the three will be averaged to yield your "Quiz Average." There will be no make-ups, so if you miss a quiz it will become your "dropped" quiz. The purpose of the quizzes is to help focus your grasp of the wave of factual information we will be accumulating, to accustom you to the "listening questions" where the recorded examples are played and must be recognized (not something you are likely to have encountered in other classes), and to help prepare you for the final.

The Final Exam is Monday December 16th at 9 a.m. It will be comprehensive, with a mix of multiple choice, short answer, and brief essay questions, covering all the material from Day 1 including recognition of the recorded musical examples.

The Paper will be brief but challenging, requiring you to articulate some comparison, analysis, or personal conclusion rather than just gathering and reporting straight facts. Your Course Packet includes more detailed information about this, and we will go over everything about it in class.

For the Project Presentations, you have the option of either working individually or as part of a group. The Course Packet includes pages of ideas and suggestions about Projects, and a small portion of class time will also be devoted to getting Projects off to a strong start during the first few weeks.

(You know, of course, that plagiarism or any academic dishonesty could lead to suspension or expulsion. It is grounds for a final grade of F in this course. Let us embody the concept of academic honesty)

CALENDAR:

Sept 2-6 and 9-13

Weeks 1 and 2: Concepts, confabulations, conniptions: Introducing concepts of canon, compensatory history, feminist theory, inclusion vs. separatism, "anxiety of authorship," "crippling internalization," the unapologetic stance of the Vienna Philharmonic, the Abbie Conant story, some memorable Copland quotes, pondering "WhatÕs in a name?" and the Linda Worsley story. Skills for listening to and remembering recorded music. READ the Introduction (pp 3-14) in Bowers and Tick, more than once.

QUIZ #1 tentatively planned for Wednesday Sept 25 (4th week)

Sept 16-20, 23-27, 30-Oct 4, and 7-9 (final proposals for both paper and project due Oct 9)

Weeks 3 through 6: Beginning a chronological scan: Hildegard, Countess of Dia, Casulana, Concerto Delle Donne Caccini, Strozzi, Vizzana, Leonarda, de la Guerre, the Concert Spirituel, the Italian orphanages. BOWERS & TICK pp 15-223, with corresponding BRISCOE CD examples.

QUIZZES #2 and #3 tentatively planned for Wednesdays Oct 16 (7th week) and Nov 6 (10th week)

Oct 14-18, 21-25, 28-Nov 1, and 4-8

Weeks 7 through 10: Continuing through Classical and Romantic to Turn of the Century: von Martinez, von Paradis, Szymanowska, the Mendelssohns and the Schumanns, LeBeau, Farrenc, Viardot-Garcia, Beach, the Boulangers, Tailleferre, Smyth, Clark, Crawford-Seeger. BOWERS & TICK pp 224-384, with corresponding examples from both BRISCOE and WOMENÕS PHILHARMONIC CDs.

PAPER DUE BY END OF CLASS FRIDAY NOV 22 (just BEFORE Thanksgiving Break Week) Any late papers turned in the Monday after Break will be penalized an entire letter grade: Papers not received by the end of class Monday Dec 2 receive a zero.

Nov 11-15, 18-22 (papers due, as mentioned above, Nov 22nd) (off for break 25-29), Dec 2-6, 9-13

Weeks 11 through 14: A mix of Project Presentations and study of 20th century topics and characters, including composers like Ran and Saariaho; multimedia artists like Laurie Anderson and Meredith Monk; women as marketed virtuoso performers; in roles of conducting, promoting, recording, etc; women in blues; women in current marketed music. Closing with a revisiting of the courseÕs opening questions.

FINAL EXAM DEC 16th 9 a.m.

This calendar is, of course, subject to possible changes.

The Questionnaire on the next page will be collected during the first class.

The list of books and CDs on reserve for you in the library follows.

Visit me in my office in the Dance Building (the next building west of our classroom), Doane Dance 303

Kathleen Pierson 6392 piersonk@denison.edu

FIRST-DAY QUESTIONNAIRE

Name as listed by registrar:___________________________________

Name as you would like to be known in class, if different from above:____________________________

YES OR NO:

Yes No 1) I am a WomenÕs Studies MAJOR. (If yes, skip to 4)

Yes No 2) Even though I am not a WomenÕs Studies major, I have strong personal interest and background in feminist theory.

Yes No 3) I am a Music MAJOR (If yes, skip to 5)

Yes No 4) Even though I am not a Music major, I have a strong background in music HISTORY.

Yes No 5) If you gave me fairly simple printed music I could read it and perform it _____ on piano

______ singing

other instrument, please specify_____________________

Yes No 6) I AM (or have recently been) a publicly-performing musician in_____a Denison ensemble

_____ a gigging band or as a solo artist

______ church choir, community orchestra, etc

Yes No 7) I am really good at INSTANTLY RECOGNIZING songs on the radio.

Yes No 8) I happen to know a lot about music in some NON-AMERICAN culture

please specify region____________________

Yes No 9) I have experience in persuasive fields (public speaking, theatre, teaching, sales, etc.)

Yes No 10) I have experience in creative arts (creative writing, visual arts, film, choreography, etc.)

From your answers on these questionnaires, I will try to construct discussion groups that include at least one person with a strong musical background, at least one with a strong women's studies background, at least one gifted at hearing and remembering recorded music, at least one with a non-western musical perspective, at least one accustomed to something like public speaking, and at least one accustomed to creating original works. (Later on, for your PROJECTS, you will be welcome to either work individually or else create YOUR OWN GROUPINGS, but just this first week, for discussion groups, I would like to artificially "seed all groups with all perspectives" this way). I'll post my "Designer Discussion Groups Seating Chart" on the back door, for the next two classes. Look to see where to sit, just for this Wednesday and Friday. Next week, it's back to "sit wherever you want"

Doane Library Materials on Reserve for the MUS 220 Women in Music course

PRINT MATERIALS:

SCORES:
These first books listed are collections of SCORES (actual printed music), but they also include valuable commentary on the composers and the pieces, which may prove useful for your papers and projects.

M2.H68 Historical Anthology of Music by Women, James Briscoe (ed), 1986. THESE ARE THE SCORES THAT MATCH YOUR 2-CD SET OF RECORDINGS.

M2.C6 Contemporary Anthology of Music by Women, James Briscoe (ed), 1997. BriscoeÕs collection of more recent works, including some musical theatre, pop, etc.

M2.W88 Women Composers: Music Through the Ages, Schleifer&Glickman (eds), 1996. Six VOLUMES of women-composed works, up to about 1900.

M21.B55 Black Women Composers: A Century of Piano Music, Helen Walker-Hill (ed), 1992.

M1.S44 Scores: An Anthology of New Music, Roger Johnson (ed), 1981. Not a ÒwomenÕs musicÓ item per se, but happens to include living female composers.

SOURCE MATERIALS:
Actual documents (diaries, newsletters, etc.) related to women in music, your opportunity to draw your own conclusions from the SOURCE MATERIALS themselves.

ML82.W65 Women in Music: an anthology of source readings from the Middle Ages to the present, Carol Neuls-Bates (ed), 1982. Wonderful excerpts from materials related to many women in music, a great book, sometimes used as a text for Women in Music courses.

(on order as of this typing, will be ML82.G76) Evening the Score: Women in Music and the Legacy of Frederique Petrides,, Jan Bell Groh (ed), 1991. Groh has collected for us the little Newsletters published by conductor Petrides in New York in the thirties and forties, in handsome reproductions with photos and excellent annotations.

ML417.S4L72 Clara Schumann: An ArtistÕs Life, based on materials found in diaries and letters, Berthold Litzmann (ed), a 1972 reprint of a 1913 edition.

COLLECTIONS OF SCHOLARLY ESSAYS:
Some of these are arranged to create a more or less chronological historical scan (such as Bowers&Tick), some have a more feminist-theory focus (Moisala&Diamond), some gather writings on far-ranging Òwomen in musicÓ topics (Zaimont).

ML82.W67 Women Making Music: The Western Art Tradition 1150-1950, Bowers&Tick (eds), 1986. (THIS IS A COPY OF YOUR OWN TEXTBOOK, not to be used for your "other print materials" assignment, by the way).

ML82.M74 Music and Gender, Moisala&Diamond (eds), 2000.

ML82.C42 Cecilia Reclaimed: Feminist Perspectives on Gender and Music, Cook&Tsau (eds), 1994.

ML82.M8 The Musical Woman: An International Perspective, Vol III, Judith Zaimont (ed), 1991.

HISTORY BOOKS:

ML82. D7 Music and Women: The Story of Women in Their Relation to Music, Sophie Drinker, 1948. This is an historic, mid-century personal take on women in (especially very early) music history.

ML82.W6 Women & Music: A History, Karin Pendle, 1st ed 1991, this ed 2001. Often used as a text for Women in Music courses, assumes extensive prior knowledge of music.

ML82.A45 Unsung: A History of Women in American Music, Christine Ammer, first ed 1980, this ed 2001. The definitive book on the relatively brief history of women in music just in America.

ML82.W63 Women and Music in Cross-Cultural Perspective, Ellen Koskoff, 1987. The definitive book so far on women in music outside of the western tradition.

ML394.T76 Trouble Girls: The Rolling Stone Book of Women in Rock, Barbara OÕDair, 1997. One of the more useful books about women in rock, up to about seven years ago.

PARTICULARLY PERSONAL FEMINIST BOOKS, AND FEMINIST WRITING ON MUSIC EDUCATION AND ON WOMENÕS POSITION AS AUTHOR (COMPOSER) IN MUSIC:

ML82.M38 Feminine Endings: Music, Gender, and Sexuality, Susan McClary, 1991. A classic: musicologists are still dealing with McClaryÕs ideas.

ML3890.C58 Gender and the Musical Canon, Marcia Citron, 1993. Another of the writings most responsible for opening musicologyÕs current gender discussions.

BH301.C84B37 Gender and Genius: Towards a Feminist Aesthetic, Christine Battersby, 1989. Not actually a music book, but in some ways helped pave the way for McClary and Citron.

ML82.G74 Music, Gender, and Education, Lucy Green, 1997.

(on order as of this typing, will be ML82.H35) The Woman Composer: Creativity and the Gendered Politics of Musical Composition, Jill Halstead, 1997.

IN ADDITION, standard reference volumes such as "New Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians" often include excellent articles on specific women composers. Look around the ML100Õs in Reference

Understand that, as your topics for paper and project develop, you will probably need to search Internet resources as well, for the most current ideas and information Ð even if your topic is something "old" such as "The Influence of Elizabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre in Paris in the Baroque"

The WAY in which Women in Music topics are covered is still in flux. Remember that someone as "canonic" as Hildegard was nowhere to be found in the print materials available just a generation ago.

AUDIO MATERIALS (Compact Discs, catalogued as CO), often with excellent liner notes:

Excerpts from these may sometimes be played as examples in class, so if you should ever miss a class be sure to find out whether you missed hearing anything from any of these.

(being processed as of this typing) Historical Anthology of Music by Women (YOUR 2-CD SET). (a 1997 re-release of his 1991 3-cassette anthology material Ð remember to ask me WHY the cassettes have a von Paradis example and the CD's do NOT)

CO 04453 The Women's Philharmonic (YOUR CD OF WOMENÕS ORCHESTRAL WORKS). Koch International Classics 7169, 1992

CO 04450 Women of Note, Koch International Classics 7603, 1997 (sort of a "sampler" with many different women composers' works)

CO 03015 Hildegard: O Jerusalem, 1998

(on order as of this typing) Monk and the Abbess, BMG/Catalyst 68329, 1996. (an unusual juxtaposition of medieval Hildegard and living American Meredith Monk!)

(on order as of this typing) Componimenti musicali: Lucrezia Vizzana, Songs of ecstasy and devotion from a 17th century Italian convent, Linn Records 71, 1998

(on order as of this typing) Concerto Delle Donne, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 77154-2-RC, 1998

(on order as of this typing) To the Unknown Goddess: A Portrait of Barbara Strozzi, IMP Classics UK 6600412, 1996

CO 00130 Lieder by Women Composers, 1989 (includes nice Schroter, von Paradis, Szymanowska, Reichardt, and an especially lovely Fanny song on tr 16 Ð but no translationsÉ)

CO 02833 catalogued as Felix Mendelssohn Concertos but also includes works by Fanny (and Robert and Clara), 1996

CO 03574 catalogued as Felix Mendelssohn Trios but also includes Fanny especially nice tr 8, 1992

CO 00080 Clara, Robert, and Johannes (especially compare tr 3 Robert's theme, tr 8 Clara's variation, and tr 9 Johanne's variation a year later), 1998

CO 03543 catalogued as Samuel Barber Orchestral Works but has Amy Beach Symphony #1, 1991

O 04451 Lili Boulanger, vocal music (and Nadia as conductor), BBC Legends re-release 4026, 1999

CO 04448 Great Recordings of the Century: Dinu Lipatti (joined by Nadia as performer on Brahms four-hand piano pieces), Angel Classics re-release 67567, 2001

(on order as of this typing) Shulamit Ran and Nadia Boulanger (unusual juxtaposition!) pieces, including "Three Fantasy Movements," Koch International Classics 7269, 1995

CO 00430 Journeys: Orchestral Works by American Women, Leonarda Records, 1987 (ask me about Marnie Hall) (maybe not such great performances, sad to say, but listen to Kay Gardner's Rainforest)

CO 01749 Better Boot That Thing: Great Women Blues Singers of the 1920's, 1992. (especially tr 1 and 2, Alberta Hunter from 1927)

CO 03450 Joan Tower Fanfares, 1999 (especially tr 5, dedicated to Jo Ann Falletta, with Marin Alsop conducting, and with funding from Ð of all places Ð the Copland Fund)

CO 03545 Joan Tower Concertos, 1997 (especially the clarinet concerto, tr 4)

CO 03635 Conspirare: Chamber Music for Solo Flute, 2000 (tr 5 Saariaho's NoaNoa)

CO 04449 Kaija Saariaho: Private Gardens, Ondine 906, 1997

CO 02892 Chen Yi: Sparkle, CRI Composers Recordings Inc 804, 1999

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