by Rosemary Evans as published in the IAWM Journal, Fall 1997, pp. 42-43.
The "Whose Music" Conference, a conference on music, gender and education, took place in May of this year and was supported by the Manchester City Music Service, Manchester Metropolitan University and MGEN, the Music, Gender and Education Network. Initiatives in Europe have mirrored those in the United States among concerned individuals who are seeking to "put women back" into music history and to make sure that women are represented in today's musical canon. In 1991 two conferences took place in Europe on the subject of musicology and gender difference, one in Utrecht (The Netherlands) and the other in London under the guidance of composer/professor Nicola LeFanu. As information was passed from theoreticians to practitioners, decision makers in England tried to implement changes.
At the "Whose Music" Conference, composers, lecturers, teachers, arts administrators and musicians were invited to consider the questions that were raised and to demonstrate what changes they were bringing about in their own work. I chaired the proceedings and began by examining the questions that had formed the core of the conference publicity: "Is there such a thing as women's music?" and if so, "Should it be equally represented alongside men's music?" To provide answers, I drew on a large-scale study that I had completed at Manchester University on contemporary British women composers.
A question was raised concerning the fact that at the present time the majority of applicants for major symphony orchestra positions are female. The conclusion drawn was that, in spite of the overwhelming proportion of women, very few are chosen to be section leaders. I pointed to the work of Jill Halstead, author of the book The Woman Composer: A Study of Factors Affecting Creativity and the Gendered Politics of Musical Composition (Oxford University Press, 1997), who makes reference to women orchestral players. I also drew on my own interviews with orchestral leaders and conductors, interviews that I had carried out in conjunction with my own research and for the MGEN Newsletter. Representatives from the two major symphony orchestras which we have in Manchester, the Halle Orchestra and the BBC Philharmonic, were unable to attend the conference, but expressed the opinion that such statistics were not available, although academic investigation would seem to contradict this. The work of feminist musicologists in the late 1980s and early 1990s gave rise to a flurry of scholarship which considered the role of women musicians in orchestras plus other related topics such as the social position of women musicians, teachers and patronesses.
The cry from one composer (Enid Luff) among the delegates, "But how do you get your music performed?" is often heard from practicing composers. I suggested that part of the question, and only part, is the availability of the actual music because reference booklets have been produced giving details of published music and its availability.
Other questions were posed: "Is it true that women cannot compose masterpieces?" and, for that matter, "Who are the gate keepers?" or "Who holds the keys in deciding when and if music is declared great?" Margaret-Lucy Wilkins, composer, senior lecturer and indefatigable campaigner for women composers in England, replied by giving an in-depth analysis of works that have now become a part of the "canon" and that Wilkins uses in her work. The examples she selected as illustrations were "Giga" from the Trio Sonata in E minor by Isabella Leonarda, the "Gloria" from Mass in D by Ethel Smyth, Wilkins' own Hymn to Creation and the Offertorium by Sofia Gubaidulina.
Rosie Bruce from Oxfordshire, one of the progenitors of sex-stereotyping of instruments in Britain, quoted from her own research and demonstrated how theory is being put into practice in schools in her county. A five-year survey has revealed that where parents are keen for their daughters to play instruments, boys, although they are as eager to play initially, are not given parental encouragement. Music is not viewed as a suitable choice for a boy. Bruce felt that more research needs to be done on this subject.
The first session of the afternoon was led by Sarah Maidlow from Oxford Brookes University who returned to the question, "Is there a female voice?" She drew on the work of the French feminists in the 1980s who, considering linguistics and semiotics, suggested that all language was assumed to be male from the earliest pre-vocalization. She referred to the "male gaze," where we watch Romantic opera from a male perspective and expect girls and women to sing male songs without question. Is there an argument, she asked, in a scrutiny of the text? "Is women's music different from men's?"
Katherine Howard, a vocal facilitator from Yorkshire who attracts up to 160 women to her workshops, affirmed that there definitely is such a thing as women's music. In the field of ethnomusicology, female traditions can easily be identified, although the distinction can be somewhat tautological if they are understood as "natural" fact. Howard, who has a vast collection of songs that are complex rhythmically, harmonically and melodically, used Eastern-European folk music and many other indigenous traditions to illustrate her points. (We say farewell to Katherine Howard in January when she takes a position in Vermont.)
The final speaker was Aelwyn Pugh, a graduate of Magdelene College Oxford, a writer and musicologist who wrote one of the first texts of its type to appear in Britain, Women in Music (Cambridge University Press, 1992). He made a plea for girls' choirs in churches and cathedrals, which has been the subject of acrimonious debate in ecclesiastical circles in this country. Women have been excluded from the liturgy since the time of the edicts of the Council of Trent in the 16th century, although many nuns were undoubtedly among the first composers of polyphony. It is time for a change, and he asked, "What is wrong with difference and diversity?"
The "Whose Music" Conference was an unashamedly regional event and was aimed at raising awareness in the North West. As editor of the Music, Gender and Education Newsletter, I would like to hear about initiatives that take place globally, and I will certainly publicize them to the network. Please write to Rosemary Evans, Editor; MGEN; P.O. Box 14; Manchester M23 ORY England. E-mail Rosemary Evans is a violinist, teacher/lecturer and researcher working for the Manchester Music Service, and she is editor of MGEN, the Music, Gender & Education Newsletter. In addition to undergraduate and graduate degrees in music and music education, she has a master's degree in applied psychology on the subject of contemporary British women composers. Her main research centers on the personality and background of musicians.