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A Century of Composition by Women

Music Against the Odds

  • Book
  • © 2022

Overview

Editors:
  1. Linda Kouvaras

    1. Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, University of Melbourne, Southbank, VIC, Australia

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  2. Maria Grenfell

    1. School of Creative Arts and Media, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia

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  3. Natalie Williams

    1. School of Music, Art, and Theatre, North Park University, Chicago, IL, USA

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  • Highlighting the contexts in which music by women is written & performed
  • Offers a plethora of distinct and highly invested perspectives on women.
  • Explains the range of topics within current feminist thinking

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Table of contents (22 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxxi
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Composing Women’s (Very) Long 100-Year Fight: Evolutions, Illuminations, Solutions

    • Linda Kouvaras
    Pages 1-23

  3. Creative Work: Then and Now

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 25-25
      Download chapter PDF

    2. Synaesthetic Associations and Gendered Nature Imagery: Female Agency in the Piano Music of Amy Beach

      • Sabrina Clarke
      Pages 27-51

    3. Australian Bush Songs as Multimodal Discourse: The Remarkable Collaboration of Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, Annie Rentoul, and Georgette Peterson

      • Johanna Selleck
      Pages 53-77

    4. The 1940s Australian Ballet That “Far Outstripped … ‘Swan Lake’ in Popular Appeal”: Esther Rofe’s Ground-Breaking Ballet, Sea Legend

      • Emma Townsend
      Pages 79-95

    5. Italians, Indians and the Indigenous: Innovative Themes and Material Used in Operas Written by Early-Twentieth-Century Australian Women Composers

      • Jeanell Carrigan
      Pages 97-114

    6. “Conjuring Up the Magic”: Helen Gifford’s Compositional Passage to the Creation of Fable for Solo Harp

      • Jacinta Dennett
      Pages 115-141

    7. Of Broken Trees and Elephant Ivories: The Revivification of the Colonial Piano Manifested Through a New Work by Catherine Milliken

      • Gabriella Smart
      Pages 143-156

    8. Beyond Exploitation: Feminist Satire in Jennifer Walshe’s XXX_LIVE_NUDE_GIRLS!!!

      • Jaslyn Robertson
      Pages 157-170

    9. Hildegard’s Daughters: Women Composers “Overcoming Their Astonishment”

      • Natalie Williams
      Pages 171-190

    10. Is the Category of the “Woman Artist” Still Helpful?

      • Susan Best
      Pages 191-205

  4. The State of the Industry in the Present Day

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 207-207
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    2. “Dear Women Composers in Australia (and Beyond)”: (A Letter from a Music Critic)

      • Rosalind Appleby
      Pages 209-223

    3. Programming Orchestral Repertoire by Women Composers: Challenges and Opportunity

      • Joanna Drimatis
      Pages 225-246

    4. Troubleshooting Gender in the Australian Screen Music Industry: An Insider Perspective

      • Felicity Wilcox
      Pages 247-262

    5. Programming with Gender Parity in Call-Based New Music Festivals

      • Alice Bennett
      Pages 263-276

    6. Mentoring Emerging Women Composers

      • Maria Grenfell
      Pages 277-289

    7. Content Targets Work: A Practical Example of Changing Behaviours and Processes in Programming Women Composers

      • Naomi Johnson, Matthew Dewey
      Pages 291-306

    8. Working Towards Gender Equality and Empowerment in Australian Music Culture

      • Cat Hope
      Pages 307-323
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Keywords

About this book

This book presents accounts of creative processes and contextual issues of current-day and early-twentieth century women composers. This collection of essays balances narratives of struggle, artistic prowess, and of "breaking through" the obstacles in the profession.

Part I: Creative Work – Then and Now illuminates historical and present-day women’s composition and various iterations and conceptions of the “feminine voice”; Part II: The State of the Industry in the Present Day provides solutions from the frontline to sector inequities; and Part III: Creating; Collaborating: Composer and Performer Reflections offers personal stories of current creation in music.

A Century of Composition by Women: Music Against the Odds draws together topical issues in feminist musicology over the past century. This volume provides insight into the professional and compositional procedures of creative women in music and stands to be relevant for composers, performers, industry professionals, students, and feminist and musicological scholars for many years to come.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, University of Melbourne, Southbank, VIC, Australia

    Linda Kouvaras

  • School of Creative Arts and Media, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia

    Maria Grenfell

  • School of Music, Art, and Theatre, North Park University, Chicago, IL, USA

    Natalie Williams

About the editors

Dr Linda Kouvaras, musicologist, composer and pianist, is Professor of Music at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, University of Melbourne, with full artist APRA-AMCOS representation. Her research interests centre on gender issues in music and musical post/modernism (particularly Australian composition), and she is a piano examiner for the Australian Music Examinations Board.



Dr Maria Grenfell is a composer and academic living in Hobart, Tasmania. An Associate Professor at the University of Tasmania, she is widely commissioned by orchestras and chamber ensembles in Australia, New Zealand, and internationally, and has served on the Board of Directors of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. 



Dr Natalie Williams is a composer, academic and artistic manager. Her music has been commissioned and performed in Australia, the United States and Europe. A performing arts leader, she has worked as an academicdean and also held faculty positions in music theory and composition at the University of Georgia and the Australian National University.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: A Century of Composition by Women

  • Book Subtitle: Music Against the Odds

  • Editors: Linda Kouvaras, Maria Grenfell, Natalie Williams

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95557-1

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-95556-4Published: 02 August 2022

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-95559-5Published: 03 August 2023

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-95557-1Published: 01 August 2022

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXXI, 437

  • Number of Illustrations: 2 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Music, Cultural Studies, Social Philosophy

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