Something that has consistently been overlooked in history and has amazed me has been the lack of female representation within the music world. Whether it be in 1890 or 2018, there has always been something missing historically when it comes to women receiving the accolades that they deserve. The role of women in the music world has most definitely changed over time in both positive and negative ways, but is ever changing. This lack of accreditation can easily be proven by the history that exists, or rather the history that doesn’t exist, in regard to female composition and representation. The impact that these women have had has been extremely important and changed the course of history. Both the music that immediately followed and the music that exists today would not be what it is if not for these extremely talented women creators and composers. In many female creator and composer’ case, achievements were often downplayed – and in many cases, forgotten after their deaths. In summary, the overall question I am trying to answer is why are female composers not taken as seriously as their male counterparts and why is their legacy often forgotten?
Something that spiked immense curiosity were the google results when I searched “famous female composers.” The first few results were all women composers who were famously associated with a male counterpart. For example, Clara Schumann was the first google result. Of course, her association is with her husband, Robert Schumann, who was also an extremely famous German composer who is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era known for his concertos, symphonies, chamber works, lieder, and piano music. When you search his name thousands of results come up proclaiming how famous Robert Schumann is and his claim to fame and his works but when you type in Clara Schumann, one of her first results talks about her relation to her husband, not even about her works or accomplishments. This immediately downsizes her success and paints her to be nothing more than a wife to Robert, rather than the talented woman that she was. She lived during an era when women, apart from singers, almost never performed in public or composed, but she, Clara Schumann, did both, which is what made her so distinguished and accomplished for her time. She was an extremely talented pianist and composer and is considered to be one of the most distinguished composer–pianists of the Romantic era.
Clara Schumann started her musical journey extremely young and was considered a great child prodigy of her time. Her father, Friedrich Wieck, was a very famous German piano teacher. Her father, Friedrich, made her practice for two hours a day alongside her daily piano, violin, singing, theory, harmony, composition and counterpoint lessons. Due to this, she quickly developed skills far more advanced than that of others of her age. At age 13, Clara was one of the first pianists to perform from memory. This act of memory changed history, as this has now become standard practice for most professional pianists to perform from memory. Something extremely noteworthy was that she earned most of the money in the Schumann household, which was extremely unusual for the time. Clara’s work has often been marginalized through claims that her husband composed the works that were published under her name. The pair worked together on some songs, but her pieces were in fact more popular than his at the time. Upon further research, I was confused to find out that Clara stopped composing at the young age of 36. This made me wonder if she stopped because she wanted to or if she stopped composing for other unknown reasons, possibly connected to her being a female composer and not receiving proper recognition. A quote that possibly proved this theory was that in her later life she said: “I once believed that I possessed creative talent, but I have given up this idea; a woman must not desire to compose—there has never yet been one able to do it. Should I expect to be the one?” This statement is extremely revealing in the idea that she felt she should not compose simply because she was a woman. During her marriage with husband Robert Schumann, “Clara was pregnant ten times and bore eight children: Marie, Elise, Julie, Emil, Ludwig, Ferdinand, Eugenie, and Felix. Even with such a large family, Clara continued to perform, compose, and teach piano, while at the same time she supported Robert and his career. Schumann encouraged Clara’s composing and contacted publishers for her, but made it clear that his creative work took priority over hers.” (Clara Schumann (1819-1896).” Music Academy Online) This quote, although showing that Robert loved and supported his wife’s passion and talent, showed that his career was deemed more important. This seemed so contradictory because she was the more successful of the two but had to end her career because his was deemed “more important.” This just goes to show that famous and successful woman of history have been consistently been overlooked and deemed inferior to their male counterparts.
Another historical example of this is Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel who was a German pianist and composer. She too experienced the same overshadowing by her younger brother Felix Mendelssohn. Something that truly took me by surprise was when I was doing research on her, I selected an article titled “Six of the best: works by Fanny Mendelssohn.” Upon going to read the very first word of the article, I was somewhat shocked, (although at this point, I am not) to be prompted with information about her brother Felix, in what is supposed to be an article about her. (http://www.classical-music.com/article/six-best-works-fanny-mendelssohn, Six of the Best: Works by Fanny Mendelssohn.) This just goes to show how in an article that was meant to highlight her works and prove what her rise to fame was, her brother is the first one being mentioned. Being the eldest child in the family, Fanny Mendelssohn was a highly competent musician and composer; and yet her output of over 500 pieces of music is rarely performed, let alone discussed or researched at great length. A quote that truly encapsulates this idea of unrecognition was found on the official BBC Music Magazine website and stated “Being ‘somebody’s sister’ usually belittles the person. Even though Fanny Mendelssohn was four years older than Felix (if she is mentioned in music history books at all), it is almost always as an appendage to him; and there is little appreciation of her ardent compositions and virtuoso piano playing. Fanny and Felix were very close and their correspondence is now more famous than her music. Ironically, he referred to her as ‘The Boss’, ‘The Cantor’, and he deferred to her opinion on his compositions to such a degree that she could have been described as his mentor, or chief consultant. This begs the question – as he valued her musical ideas so highly, why do we value it so little?” (Fanny Mendlssohn, BBC Music Magazine) This idea completely encapsulates the purpose of this paper and is set to answer the question I am asking; why does Fanny Mendelssohn not receive the praise that her younger brother did and why does her gender have anything to do with her talent? Having been the daughter of a bourgeois German, Mendelssohn displayed great musical talent from a young age. Although she was encouraged to write and to play, her family did not believe music was a respectable career for a young woman and so, while Felix travelled Europe with his compositions, Fanny stayed at home. “Often, when listening to her music, one is left wondering what she could have been capable of, had she not been constrained by societal expectation. She wrote two cantatas – but what would a full-scale oratorio have sounded like? She wrote an orchestral overture – could she have developed it into an opera? Certainly the small amount of her recorded work displays a flair for structure and melody.” (http://www.classical-music.com/article/six-best-works-fanny-mendelssohn, Six of the Best: Works by Fanny Mendelssohn.) Reading this article quite literally proved that women were constrained by a societal expectation, as clearly shown by Fanny Mendelssohn and her experiences, to stray away from music. She struggled with this heavily as her father Abraham wrote her a letter forbidding her to have a life as a composer, which has become one of the most famous put-downs in musical history. This idea of male power is shown and proven by the support her brother Felix received and the lack-of that she received. In the letter her father wrote, he said that “Perhaps music will be Felix’s profession, whereas for you it can and must be but an ornament, and never the fundamental of your existence and activity.” (Fanny Mendlssohn, BBC Music Magazine) It truly is heart breaking to read that a parent could be so discouraging of a child when pursuing something that they love, simply based upon a gender. Felix readily admitted that his sister played the piano better than he did but she was forced to quit early on in due to her fathers hopes of her living a more “family centered” life that focused on her being a housewife and mother. Felix obviously trusted her not only as a sister but also as a musician as he asked her to be his musical advisor. It is said that Clara memorized J.S. Bach’s complete Well-Tempered Clavier by the age of 13 which is extremely challenging and is a wildly impressive achievement. “Fanny wrote about 500 musical compositions in all, including about 120 pieces for piano, many lieder (art songs), and chamber music, cantatas, and oratorios. Six of her songs were published under Felix’s name in his two sets of Twelve Songs (Opuses 8 and 9), while the few works published under her own name include several collections of short piano pieces, some lieder, and a piano trio. Most of her remaining works exist only in manuscript.” (Britannica, “Fanny Mendelssohn”). It is not clear why she allowed her brother to publish some of her works under his name, but perhaps it was because she would not have been able to publish them otherwise or have been taken seriously.
Another extremely impactful woman of history who is never talked about is Amy Beach. She was found to be an extraordinary musician almost immediately from birth. By the age of one years old it is said that she was able to sing 40 different songs and when she was two she could harmonize with the lullabies that her mother sang to send her to sleep. She quickly began a life of composing soon after. The following summer she composed three waltzes while staying over at a family members home all in her head. She did not have a piano to assist her or anything to write the music down on, resulting in her mentally writing the pieces in her head and memorizing them, only finally being able to perform them once she returned home months later. By the time she was seven, she was studying Beethoven and by 16 she made her first concert hall debut in Boston’s Music Hall. “Because of views about what was appropriate for a woman in the 19th century, Amy wasn’t sent to Europe to study – which is what would have almost certainly happened for a male pianist and composer at the time. Instead, she took lessons with local tutors and read all the books she could find about composition techniques and music history and it paid off. In 1896 her 'Gaelic' Symphony became the first symphony by an American woman to be published. And it was premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.” (We Need to Tell You about Amy Beach, the First American Woman to Publish a Symphony, Classic FM) This wild success at such a young age goes to prove how talented she was only at the age of 29. Many people question what happened to her piano playing but when she married her husband Dr. Henry Harris Aubrey Beach one of the marriage conditions was that she restrict her public performances to twice a year with profits being donated to charity and that she stop working as a piano teacher; Amy agreed to these conditions. The most interesting part of all of this was that her husband claimed to encourage her work as a musician and composer yet he set strict guidelines and provided her with marriage conditions which seem completely contradictory. Amy saw wild success with her Mass in E flat and her Piano Concerto of 1900. She sought most of her fame from music written for voice and piano and various chamber works. A few years later, her husband died. She went to Europe to rest and recover and quickly began performing once again, this time across the continent. She went to America and started giving music lessons once again. This makes me wonder had it not been for her husband’s death, would she have gotten back into music and continuing the pursuit of what she loves? Although he claimed to have supported her career, he placed restrictions on basically everything that she did which definitely raises an eye and causes you to wonder, how much did he really support her? Following this major life redirection, she used her position as one of the country’s best known female composers to encourage other women to go against the grain and pursue a life of music. “She called her work “pioneer work” and said ‘music is the superlative expression of life experience, and woman by the very nature of her position is denied many of the experiences that color the life of man’” (We Need to Tell You about Amy Beach, the First American Woman to Publish a Symphony, Classic FM). Although women are no longer forced to sign marriage contracts or change professions due to the wants and needs of their significant other, many women composers and performers are looked down upon simply because of their gender. Amy tried her best to encourage other women to pursue a life of music and it is still something that as a society is not 100% balanced, but is definitely a work in progress.
As of late, a concept that has been gaining more and more attention and is becoming more and more popular are concert series that feature Female only composers. Although this is not a way to fix the past by excluding famous male composers, it is definitely a step forward in terms of highlighting female composers that might not have otherwise gotten attention. Because of this, musicians and critics today are rediscovering some great female composers of the past, like that of Clara Schumann, Fanny Mendelssohn, and Amy Beach, whose music has been neglected as a result of prejudices that absolutely deserve to be left behind. A great example of this concert series is the “Future is Female” Concert which celebrates female composers. This concert series focuses on more recent works, but still is focusing on female composers none-the-less. Concert Producer Letzler told Variety that “‘I started the ‘Future Is Female’ concert series because I felt passionate about creating a platform to showcase all the talented female composers I know who often go unrecognized. In order to create change and start a dialogue, visibility is key.’” (Future Is Female, Variety) This is an example of current female composed music that is being highlighted and performed but there are concerts that feature female composers of the past. An example of this is was posted by The Irish Times in article that spoke about a concert series they put on titled “Composing the Feminists” and “Sounding the Feminists.” “The article said that Last Wednesday the NCH presented the first concert of its Female Composer Series at the Kevin Barry Recital Room. The Fidelio Trio played piano trios by Clara Schumann (1819-96), Joan Trimble (1915-2000) and Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979) and a work for violin and piano by Lili Boulanger (1893-1918)” (“Female Composer Series at NCH: a Small Step for Women in Music.” The Irish Times). All composers that were featured were female, and the concert even featured female written program notes. Although this does not solve the problems of the past, it is definitely a step towards a greater future that includes more and more female composers.
The role of women in the music world has most definitely changed over time in both positive and negative ways, but it is clear that progress is being made. Something that has consistently been overlooked in history has been the lack of female representation within the music world. This lack of accreditation can easily be proven by the history that exists in regard to female composition and representation. Clara Schumann, Fanny Mendelssohn, and Amy Beach are a few female composers who are only now receiving the recognition that they deserve. The impact that these women have had has been extremely important and has changed the course of history. Both the music that immediately followed and the music that exists today would not be what it is if not for these extremely talented women creators and composers. They were extremely impactful in terms of revolutionizing the way people view female composers and creators and they paved the way for female musicians like myself.