Department of Music
Course
Description
Requirements
and Grading
Texts
Course
Schedule
Image: Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) and her
amanuensis
from the Riesenkodex (late 12th century)
Course Description:
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This course will explore the music of women in the Western art tradition. In doing so, it will take a wide view of women's contribution to musical history: as composers, poets, performers, patrons, and as the subject of musical expression. The goal of this will be to come to an understanding of the role of women in musical culture, as well as to explore those areas in which women have created a distinct culture outside of the mainstream.
A secondary goal will be to explore the historiography of women in music. The readings and discussions will allow the student to see where that history parallels that of the dominant culture of male musicians and where, how, and why it departs. Specific readings will explore the reasons for these dynamics from the point of view of history, sociology, psychology, and feminist theory. As part of this, the course will focus on the concept of the musical canon that is used in the study of music, looking at the forces that went into the formation of that canon as well as the values that guide it and are embodied in it.
Finally, the course will use the study of women in music as a point
of reference for the study of the Western art tradition. In confronting
the style or practice of a woman musician, it must be placed in counterpoint
with prevailing trends and practices. In this way, the course will
reinforce the student’s knowledge of the general trends in Western music,
all the while building a history that is richer and more inclusive.
Course Requirements and Grading
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This course is centered around the traditional triad of readings, lectures, and discussions. Your final grade will be based on preparation and class participation (10%) and examinations (2 hour exams and a final=70%). As part of your class participation, you will be required to discuss specific readings. To help you, I have provided a list of questions to think about as you read. You will be repsonsible for these in class (see syllabus for details). In addition to your reading, you will be responsible for listening examples (which you will identify and discuss for your exams). Electronic listening guides for some, if not all, will be available in the Music Resource Center. Finally, you will gather materials for a web-page for a composer or performer of your choice. (20%). You will choose in consultation with the instructor, and specific guidelines will be provided.
Highlighted readings are available on line using an Acrobat reader. If you do not have one, just click on the icon below to add the necessary plug-in. If you already have Acrobat, simply click on the highlighted reading.
Course Schedule
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8/28: Class Introduction
8/30: Women and Music History I: To 1750
Readings: P: 3-18 (Questions); B&T: 3-149/4: Women and Music History II: 1750 to the Present Day
9/6: Women and the Canon
Readings: C: 1-43 (Questions)9/11: Women as Subjects and as Objects: Medieval Secular Music
Readings: P: 21-40, Monter (Questions) B&T: 39-619/13: Women and Faith Communities
Listening: Comtessa de Dia, A chantar
Kassia, "The Fallen Woman"
Readings: P: 40-53; B&T: 15-38 (Questions)9/18: Women's Roles I: Theories of Creativity
Listening: Hildegard von Bingen, O virga ac diadema
Anonymous, Mater patris et filia from the Las Huelgas Codex
Readings: C: 44-79 (Questions)9/20: Women and The Renaissance
Readings: P: 57-77; Kelly-Gadol (Questions)9/25: Women's Roles II: The "Muse" of Patronage
Listening: Gilles Binchois, Dueil angoisseux
Antoine Busnois, A que ville
Anne Boleyn (?), O death, rock me asleepe
Readings: P: 481-494; B&T: 62-89; Prizer (Questions)9/27: The Madrigal
Listening: Marco Cara, Bona dies, bona sera
Readings: B&T: 77-91, Macy (Questions)10/2: Women's Roles III: The Question of Professionalism
Listening: Jacob Arcacelt, Il bianco e dolce cigno
Maddalena Casaluna, Morir non puo il mio cuore
Readings: C: 80-119 (Questions)10/4: Exam 1
Listening: Luca Marenzio, Cantate ninfe
10/9: Women in a "Man's World"
Readings: P: 359-367; B&T: 349-369
Guests:10/11: Ravishing Voices: Women and Secular Music in the Baroque
Jennifer Barker, Composer, Assistant Professor of Music
Cynthia Carr, Hornist, Associate Professor of Music
Readings: P: 97-107; B&T: 168-190 (Questions)10/16: Disembodied Voices: Women and Sacred Music in the Baroque
Listening: Barbara Strozzi, Canto di bella bocca
Readings: B&T: 116-167, Kendrick (Questions)10/18: Instrumental Music and Opera in the Baroque
Listening: Francesca Caccini, Maria dolce Maria
Isabella Leonarda, Beatus vir, op. 19, no. 4
Lucrezia Vizzana, Protector Noster
Readings: P: 115-123; B&T: 191-223 (Questions)10/23: Women in the Classical Era
Listening: Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre, Suite in D
Isabella Leonarda, Sonata Terza, Op. 16
Francesca Caccini, Aria of the Shepherd
Readings: P: 123-137; B&T: 224-248 (Questions)10/25: Women and the Lied: The Romantic Era
Listening: Marianne von Martinez, Sonata
Maria Theresia von Paradis, Morgenlied eines armen Mannes
Readings: P: 147-159, Readings: B&T: 249-281 Citron, “Lieder” (Questions)10/30: Women in the Romantic Era: Instrumental Music
Listening: Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Schwanenlied, songs published under Felix's name ("Italien," "Die Nonne")
Josephine Lang, Früzeitiger Frühling
Clara Schumann, Songs from the Rückert Lieder, Op. 12 ("Er ist gekommen," "Liebst du um Schönheit," "Warum willst")
Readings: P: 159-172, Kalberg (Questions)11/1: Amy Beach and the American Experience
Listening: Clara Schumann, Trio, op. 17, 1st mvt.
Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Trio in D minor, op. 11, 2nd. mvt.
Readings: P: 193-222; B&T: 325-348, Block (Questions)11/6: The Turn of the Twentieth Century
Listening: Amy Marcy Cheney Beach, A Hermit Thrush at Morn
Amy Marcy Cheney Beach, Symphony #1 ("Gaelic"), 1st mvt.
Readings: P: 175-19111/8: New Directions
Listing: Lili Boulanger, Demain fera un an
Lili Boulanger, Je garde une médaille d’elle
Alma Mahler, Der Erkennende
Cécile Chaminade, Sonata in C minor, 1st mvt.
Readings: P: 314-32311/13: "Women's Music" at the End of the Twentieth Century
Listening: Rebecca Clarke, Piano Trio, 1st mvt.
Ruth Crawford Seeger, Rat Riddles
Readings: P 323-35911/15: Exam 2
Listening: Ethel Smyth, The Wreckers
Ellen Taafe Zwillich, Symphony #1, 1st mvt.
Libby Larsen: Symphony: Symphony, Water Music, 1st mvt.
Pauline Oliveros, Zina’s Circle
11/20: Optional video viewing
11/27: Hildegard of Bingen: Separating Myth and Reality
Reading: Maddocks, pp. 3-5, 187-209 and 251-274 (Questions)11/29: Amy Beach: As Good as any Man?
Reading: Cowen; Block (1998) (Questions), pp.86-10312/4: Ruth Crawford Seeger: The Musical Language of Gender
Reading: Smith (Questions) Tick, pp. 201-222
Primary Texts:
Citron, Marcia J. Gender and the Musical Canon. Cambridge: Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2000. (C)
Bowers, Jane and Judith Tick, ed. Women Making Music: The Western Art Tradition, 1150-1950. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1987. (B&T)
Murray, Russell and Kristine Forney: The
Norton Enjoyment of Music WebBOOK.
______. Amy Beach, Passionate Victorian: an American Composer's Life and Work (New York, 1998)
Citron, Marcia. "The Lieder of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel,"Musical Quarterly 69 (1983): 570-594.
Cowen, G. ‘Mrs H.H.A. Beach, the Celebrated Composer’, Musical Courier (8 June 1910).
Hallmark, Rufus. "The Rückert Lieder of Robert and Clara Schumann." 19th Century Music 14 (1990): 3-30.
Kalberg, Jeffrey. "The Harmony of the Tea Table:
Gender and Ideology in the Piano Nocturne." Representations 39 (1992):
102-133.
Available on line via JSTOR (http://www2.lib.udel.edu/database/jstor.html)
--Enter and go to "Browse The Journals" to find
the journal Representations, then go to volume 39 to get text.
Kelly-Gadol, Joan. "Did Women have a Renaissance?" in Becoming Visible: Women in European History, ed. Renate Bridenthal and Claudia Koonz. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 137-164.
Kendrick, Robert. "The Traditions of Milanese Convent Music and the Sacred Dialogues of Chiara Margarita Cozzolani," The Crannied Wall: Women, Religion and the Arts in Early Modern Europe, ed. Craig Monson. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1992, 211-233.
Macdonald, Claudia. "Critical perception and the woman composer: the early reception of piano concertos by Clara Wieck Schumann and Amy Beach." Current Musicology 55 (1993): 24-56.
Maddocks, Fiona. Hildegard of Bingen : The Woman of Her Age (New York: Doubleday, 2001)
Macy, Laura W. "The Italian Madrigal and Renaissance Games," Paper Delivered at the National Meeting of the American Musicological Society, 1995.
Monter, E. William, "The Pedestal and the Stake: Courtly Love and Witchcraft," in Becoming Visible: Women in European History, ed. Renate Bridenthal and Claudia Koonz. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1977, 118-136.
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ONLINE EDITION.
Newman, Barbara: ‘Hildegard and her Hagiographers: the Remaking of Female Sainthood,’Gendered Voices: Medieval Saints and their Interpreters, ed. C.M. Mooney (Philadelphia, 1999), 16–34.
The Norton/Grove dictionary of women composers. edited by Julie Anne Sadie & Rhian Samuel. New York: W.W. Norton. 1994.
Prizer, William. "Renaissance Women as Patrons of Music: The North Italian Courts," Rediscovering the Muses: Women’s Musical Traditions, ed. Kimberly Marshall. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1993.
Smith, Catherine Parsons. "‘A Distinguishing Virility’: Feminism and Modernism in American Art Music," in Cecilia Reclaimed, Feminist Perspectives on Gender and Music, ed. Susan C. Cook and Judy S. Tsou. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1994, 90-106.
Tick, Judith. Ruth Crawford Seeger, a Composer’s Search for American Music (New York, 1997)
