by Betty Beath as published in the ILWC Journal, July 1991, pp. 1-2.
editor's note: This article first appeared in Sounds Australian, and is reprinted here by permission.
Are women composers beginning to take their place in the world of music? Reports from members of the International League of Women Composers certainly indicate that it might be so.
In 1983 composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich of the U.S.A. became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for music and in Europe, a number of women composers such as Teresa Procaccini, Violeta Dinescu, Tera de Marez Oyens and Jacqueline Fontaine, among others, have won major awards. Well known names among American composers, all ILWC members, are: Emma Lou Diemer, Ruth Schonthal, Elizabeth Hayden Pizer and Nancy Van de Vate. All of these women have won critical acclaim for their music. Zwilich is a composer who makes her living entirely from commissions, performance fees and royalties and because she is a woman working in a field that has historically been dominated by men she may be regarded as something of a pioneer.
Zwilich (1939), a member of the ILWC, was quoted in an article in The New York Times May 4, 1983, by critic John Rockwell, as saying: "I feel that I'm attempting - and there are a lot of others doing the same thing - to create a PROFESSION of being a composer. The idea that you're doing something you most want to do in the world has sometimes been accompanied in our society by the idea that you don't therefore have to be paid for it. There's a lot of hope out here now, especially for younger composers. For one thing, we're trying to get commissions higher, and this new program of orchestral residencies for composers is a good sign. I really don't want to spend my life explaining what I do - in other words, teaching - or having to deal with the music of very young composers. I want my life to be spent either writing music or being engaged in a performance situation of that music getting feedback from performers in different settings." It is significant that Zwilich recognized and accepted that she had a part to play in working for more recognition of the basic needs of composers.
Nancy Van de Vate (1930), a native American who now lives in Vienna, has had outstanding success with major orchestral works. Her highly individual music is now establishing her as one of the world's leading composers. In 1988 Conifer Records, London (Britain's largest distributor) released internationally, on CD and cassette, a Penderecki - Van de Vate recording of orchestra works - Penderecki's avant-garde classic, Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (1961) and Concerto for Viola and Orchestra (1983), and Van de Vate's Chernobyl (1987) and her Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1986). In December, 1988, the American Public Radio network broadcast throughout the United States a one-hour program created by independent radio producer Ev Grimes about Van de Vate and her music. She has a formidable list of achievements and would seem to be a model for twentieth-century women who choose to combine a career with family responsibilities.
It was Van de Vate who founded the International League of Women Composers. That was in 1975. It was her response to needs made apparent by the impact of the International Women's Year, a time when opportunity was never greater for dispelling the old and unfair tradition of neglect of the women composers. The League's primary goal was to redress the imbalance between men and women composers in the areas of orchestral performance, commissions and recordings. It developed out of the need for women to act as advocates in their own behalf. Australian composers may recognize the names of some of the members of the original Executive Board which included Nancy Van de Vate (Chairperson), Radie Britain, Clair Polin, Marga Richter, Donna Robertson and Pauline Oliveros. These composers believed the future of women in composition depended upon effective collective action. The League of Women Composers was renamed the International League of Women Composers in 1978. It is a non-profit, tax-exempt corporation whose activities are entirely realized through the voluntary efforts of its members, all established professional musicians. In the membership directory for 1987-88 the ILWC listed 219 composer members representing twenty-two countries and a large number of institutional memberships. Australia's membership, so far, is small.
Some women do not wish to be categorized as "women" composers and that is understandable. But membership of such a society does not mean that the woman composer is sealed off from the world at large. When it comes to presenting work to an audience there is just one market.
In terms of overseas performance and contacts with performers and other composers, my membership in the ILWC has been a very important part of my career. By responding to opportunities listed in the ILWC Newsletter or through ILWC contacts (not necessarily women) my works have been performed in programs at venues such as Carnegie Recital Hall, Symphony Space, Piccolo Spoleto, Contemporary Music Festival, Charleston and with performances spreading across the U.S.A. and also in Dublin. Most reviews I have received were written by men.
The League is devoted to expanding opportunities for women composers. In its short history it has proven its energy and worth as a communications network, bringing about a sense of community support among its members, and effecting an increasingly strong liaison with the rest of the composing and musical world. Each year the League receives innumerable requests for information about women composers from scholars doing research at all levels and an even larger number of requests from performers who wish to program music by women but cannot easily find it. Partly in response to this, ILWC members, Judith Lang Zaimont and Karen Famera compiled and edited a pioneer volume, Contemporary Concert Music by Women, a Directory of the Composers and Their Works, published in 1981 by Greenwood Press. This volume (and its soon to be released update) makes a vital contribution to the reference literature available on the subject of women composers.
Disseminating information about women composers is only one small part of the League's activity. The ILWC regularly sponsors concerts of members' and non-members' music; for the past ten years it has supported and encouraged student composers through an annual Search for New Music competition. The League also sponsors a program of lectures and lecture-demonstrations designed for schools and colleges and an ongoing radio series of one-hour programs makes League music available through the broadcast media. The ILWC Newsletter serves as the vital link that binds and nurtures members. It is an excellent publication highlighting many different areas of musical activity and research with articles and papers contributed by prominent musical identities.
Elizabeth Hayden Pizer, Chairperson of the ILWC, made this point in the Spring 1987 issue of the Newsletter. "I would like to address the notion that the presentation of a singular type of music - i.e., programs of all-women's and all-contemporary music - serves to "ghettoize" that music. Many support the theory that such music should be heard in relation to the works of the composers of different eras, experiences and persuasions; and that by not doing this, we are creating an unwanted exclusivity, segregating our music from the performance mainstream. Perhaps, ideally, this is to an extent true, but realistically, the tables are, in fact, turned 180-degrees: our music is "ghettoized" and excluded from the mainstream by virtue of it not being programmed, performed, and heard! . . . Without the many programs and festivals devoted to contemporary and women's (and other so-called minorities') music, thousands - perhaps tens of thousands of fine compositions may have never nor may ever reach the concert stage. To "ghettoize" is to limit, to keep within certain and oftentimes prescribed bounds. By exploring and developing performance avenues for our music(s), we are helping to balance the repertoire scales and remove the performances boundaries which have been set, historically, by bias and prejudice."
In the preface to the first volume in a set of three titled: Women Composers, Conductors, and Musicians of the Twentieth Century, Selected Biographies (published by The Scarecrow Press, Inc.), Jane Weiner Le Page sums of the problems of women composers and the ideals of societies such as the International League of Women Composers. She writes: "Ideally, there should be no need to separate the sexes; merit should be based solely on artistic ability. Unfortunately, this has not happened, even though recorded history shows that women have been composing since the third century . . . The talents of many women have never been preserved or shared with the world. Society has been the loser because of its failure to recognize these talented and creative women . . . The important issue is to swiftly eliminate the inequities.
Due to such pioneers as Le Page, Van de Vate and Elizabeth Hayden Pizer, the position of women composers is improving - gradually, but improving none the less.
Betty Beath is an Australian composer who coordinates a monthly broadcast series from 4MBS-FM Brisbane and 3MBS-FM Melbourne. Beath is a member of the ILWC Board and a regular correspondent for music events in Australia. Her report on the Australian Broadcast Series appear on page 21