compiled by Stephen Fry
as published in the The Journal of the International Congress on Women in Music, June 1985, pp. 26-30
Ammer, Christine. Unsung: a history of women in American music. Greenwood Press, 1980. (Contributions in Women's Studies,T4). A well-documented survey of women composers and performers in this country. Ammer cites the personnel in hundreds of performing groups and traces the careers of scores of musicians.
Barnes, Edwin N. American women in creative music. Washington, D. .: Music Education Publications, 1936. Sympathetic biographical information with lists of works for almost 200 women composers writing music in the first three decades of this century.
Block, Adrienne Fried, and Carol Neuls-Bates. Women in American music: a bibliography of music and literature. Westport, T: Greenwood Press, 1979. A bibliographic tour-de-force, this is the most comprehensive listing of primary and secondary sources available.
Calame, Claude. Les choeurs de jeunes filles en Grece archaique. Rome: Edizione dell Ateneo & Bizzarri, 1977. (Filologia e critica, 20-21). Catalog of contemporary American women composers. West Babylon, NY: Harold Branch Pub., 1977. A publisher's catalog which describes the careers and works of 13 women composers.
Cody, Judith, and Laura M. Gilliards Resource guide on women in music. San Francisco: Bay Area Congress on Women in Music, 1981.
Cohen, Aaron. International encyclopedia of women composers. New York: Bowker, 1981. An enormous listing of women and their works, with biographical sketches and brief bibliographies.
Cohen, Judith Rita. The role of women musicians in Medieval Spain, in the Christian, Jewish and Moslem communities. Ann Arbor, MI, University Microfilms, International, 1983 (MA. Thesis, University of Montreal, 1980).
Dahl, Linda. Stormy weather, the music and lives of a century of jazz women. New York: Pantheon Books, 1984. A chronicle of women as jazz performers, including profiles of ten representative and remarkable women musicians.
Drinker, Sophie. Music and women: the study of women in their relation to music. Washington, D. . : Zenger Pub. Co., 1977. reprint of the 1948 ed. A pioneering but uneven study.
Ebel, Otto. Women composers: a bibliographic handbook of woman's work in music. Brooklyn, NY: Chandler-Ebel Music Co., 1~3. Brief biographies for several hundred American and European women composers active at the turn of the century.
Elson, Arthur, and Everett Ellsworth Truette. Woman's work in music. Boston: L.. Page, 1931. An updating of Elson's 1903 book with the same title.
Elson, Arthur. Woman's work in music. Portland, ME: Longwood Press, 1976. Reprint of the 1904 ed. A rather biased view of the roles of women in music from the troubadours to the composers of the late 19th century.
Frasier, Jane. Women composers a discography. Detroit: Information Coordinators, 1983. (Detroit studies in music bibliography, 50). A major listing which complements the Cohen discography.
Green, Mildred Denby. A study of the lives and works of five black women composers in America. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms International, 1976. (Ph.D. dissertation. University of Oklahoma. 1975).
Green, Mildred Denby. Black women composers: a genesis. Boston: Twayen, 1983.
Handy, D. Antoinette. Black women in American bands and orchestras. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1981. Profiles of about 130 black women conductors and performers of this century, with historical background.
Handy, D. Antoinette. The international sweethearts of rhythm. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 19~ The "Historical Overview" chapter and the appendices are valuable sources for the participation of black women in music in this century.
Hixon, Donald L., and Don Hennessee. Women in music: a bibliography. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1975. Entries for about 7,000 women musicians are cited from 50 standard music dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other sources.
International Congress on Women in Music Newsletter. Los Angeles, ICWM, 1983--. The official communication medium for the Congress includes timely articles on research activities, archives, and other source material
Jones, Judie. Succeeding as a woman in music leadership. Soquel, CA: Creative Arts Development, 1983.
Krille, Annemarie. Beitrage zur Geschichte der Musikersiehung und Musikhubung der deutschen Frau (von 1750-1820). Berlin: Tritsch U. Huther, 1938.
Laurence, Anya. Women of notes: 1,000 women composers born before 1900. New York: R. Rosen Press, 1978.
LePage, Jane Weiner. Women composers, conductors, and musicians of the twentieth century: selected biographies. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow press, 1980-83.2 vol. Biographical and critical surveys of new and older generation women composers. Includes quotes from the composers and reviews.
Meggett, Joan M. Keyboard music ~ women composers: a catalog and bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1981.
Mitchell, Charles. Discography of works ~ women composers. Paterson, NJ: Paterson Free Public Library, 1975.
The musical woman an international perspective. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1984- . Ed. by Judith Lang Zaimont. Annual. The first annual issue for 1983 includes lists of performances, festivals, prizes, published music and recordings relating to women musicians, plus fifteen essays dealing with women as composers and performers.
Nagy, Karen. Women as composers: a selective bibliography. Evanston, Ill: Northwestern University Music Library, 1973. A 10-page annotated bibliography citing books and articles about women composers and also specific composers.
Neuls-Bates, Carol, ed. The status of women in college music: preliminary studies. Iowa City, IA: College Music Society, 1976. (College Music Society Reports, 1). Papers read at the College Music Society Conference held in Iowa City in 1975 during the "Women in Music Profession" session.
Neuls-Bates, Carol, ed. Women in music: an anthology of source readings from the middle ages to the present. New York: Harper & Row, 1982. A selection of interesting and often important writings by and about women composers and performers.
Parker, Linda Faye. Women in music in St. Paul from to 1957 with emphasis on the St. Paul public schools (Minnesota). Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms International, 1984. (Ph.D. dissertation. University of Minnesota, 1983).
Placksin, Sally. American women in jazz, 1900 to the present: the words, lives and music. New York: Seaview Books, 1982.
Pool, Jeannie G. Women in music history, a research guide. Ansonia Station, NY: the author, 1977. A listing of books, articles, organizations, publishers, periodicals, and record companies dealing with women musicians. Includes a list of composers and recordings.
Renton, Barbara Hampton, ed. The status of women in college music, 1976-77. Iowa City, IA: College Music Society, 1980. (College Music Society Reports, 2).
Rogal, Samuel J. Sisters of song: a selected listing of women hymnalists in Great Britain and America. New York: Garland Pub., 1980. (Garland Reference Library of the Humanities, 223).
Schliessman, Hans. Konzertierende Frauen in wiener Musiksalen. Lady performers in Vienna 5 concert halls. Musiciennes dans les sal les de concert a Vienne. Wien: Waldheim-Eberle, 1930. A wonderful little book of silhouettes and drawings of great women musicians in performance, including Teresa Carreno, Lilli Lehmann, Wanda Wandowska, etc.
Skowronski, JoAnn. Women in American music: a bibliography. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1978. An annotated list arranged by chronological period. It includes separate sections of reference books and histories.
Smith, Julia, ed. Directory of American woman composers. Chicago: National Federation of Music Clubs, 1970. An alphabetical listing of composers with works, types of compositions and publishers given.
Stern, Susan. Women composers: a handbook. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1978. An index to about 280 books and articles. Similar to Hixon's Women in Music but covering different sources.
Tick, Judith. American women composers before 1870. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1983. A revised republication of her dissertation.
Tick, Judith. Towards a history of American women composers before 1870. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms International, 1979. (Ph.D. dissertation, City University of New York, 1979).
Towers, John. Woman in Music. Winchester, VA: the author, 1897. An early attempt to refute the idea that women lack serious musical potentiality, Tower lists over 1,000 women composers and musicians.
Unterbrink, Mary. Jazz women of the keyboard. Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland, 1983. Interviews and biographies of 40 women jazz pianists from all over the U.S.A.
Upton, George Putnam. Women in music. 6th ed. Chicago: McClury, 1899. Discusses the roles of wives of famous male composers and the hopelessness of women as composers. Includes a very incomplete list of l7th-l9th century European composers.
Weissweiller, Eva. Komponistinnen aus 500 Jahren: eme Kultur-und Wirkungs geschichte in Biographien und Werbeispielen. Frankfurt-am-Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Ver lag, 1981.
Women and music. New York, Heresies Collective, Inc., 1980.(Hersies1 no. 10). A brief anthology of timely articles.
Women in music and art. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Library, 1981. (Women's resources series) A 16-page pamphlet listing general and focused sources for the study of women in art and music.
Women's culture, the women's renaissance of the seventies. Ed. by Gayle Kimball. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1981.
Zaimont, Judith Lang, and Karen Famera. Contemporary concert music ~ women: a directory of the composers and their works. A project of the international League of Women Composers. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1981.
Zelenka, Karl . Komponierende Frauen: Leben, ihre Werke. Koln: El lenberg, 1980.