Of Patriarchs... and Matriarchs, Too.

Susan McClary Assesses the Challenges and Contributions

of Feminist Musicology
Author(s): Susan McClary
Source: The Musical Times, Vol. 135, No. 1816, 150th Anniversary Issue (Jun., 1994), pp. 364-
369
Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd.
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Musicology today
I
O F PATRIARCHS...
AND
MATRIARCHS,
TO O
What is feminrist
musicology,
aid
why
do we need it?
Susan McClary considers its contributions and challenges.
Roll, MO DEL 1:
CHARITY, by
Lucas Cranach the Elder
Reproduced by courtesy
of the Trustees, The National
Gallery,
London
unison choir of female voices enters over a drone,subdued
..
at
first,
with a line that coils around the drone in close
intervals.
Initially,
the
melody's phrygian
second
degree (i.e.only
a half
step
above the
drone) suggests
that it
might
not be able to
rise
freely
from that
base,that it
may
be confined
permanently
to
this low
register.
But then the line
begins
to ascend
- not in the
standard
stepwise
motion of
monophonic liturgical chant,
but in
ever-larger
intervals that vault over the
ceiling imposed by
the
phrygian degree.Beginning
with cautious moves
by thirds,the
line
gains
confidence and
surges upwards through rapid
succes-
sions of
open
fifths and fourths until it rises a full octave and a
sixth above its lowest
pitch. There,
in that rarefied
space,
the
melody
revels in ecstatic melismas,occasionally cascading
down
to
regain
contact with its
point
of
origin only
to scale the
heights
again
with
ever-greater
exuberance.
Nothing
in standard studies of medieval music
prepares
one for
the shock of
hearing Hildegard
von
Bingen's
'De Patriarchis et
prophetis'
for the first time. Not
only
is her name absent from
most textbooks
(even
those
specialising
in
chant),
but her music
flagrantly
violates
many
of the
stylistic
norms
routinely
enumerat-
ed
by
medievalists -
especially
the
commonplace
that musicians in
the Middle
Ages
did not concern themselves with
responding
to
their verbal texts in their musical
settings.
Yet
Hildegard's
'O f
Patriarchs and
prophets' clearly presents
a musical
analogue
to her
equally astonishing poem,
in which she
encapsulates
within a mere
12 lines the divine
trajectory
from the O ld Testament fathers to
John the
Baptist
to Christ.
O vos,
felices radices,
cum
quibus opus miraculorum,
et non
opus criminum,
per
torrens iter
perspicuae
umbrae
plantatum
est.
Et o
tu,
ruminans
ignea vox,
praecurrens
limantem
lapidem,
subvertentem
abyssum,
The Musical Times 364 June 1994
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gaudete
in
capite
vestro.
Gaudete in
illo,
quem
non viderunt in terris multi
qui ipsum
ardenter vocaverunt.
Gaudete in
capite
vestro.
[O you,happy roots,with whom the
crop
of miracles and not of crimes
was
planted
on the
burning path,
in lucid
foreshadowing
- and
you,
contemplative
and
fiery
voice
heralding
the
whetstone,demolishing
the
abyss,rejoice
in him who is
your
summit!
Rejoice
in
him,
whom
many
did not see on earth,though they
called for him
ardently.
Rejoice
in him who is
your summit!]1
To find a similar
effect,we would have to
project
forward five
centuries to the
beginning
of Milton's Paradise lost
('O f
Man's
F irst Disobedience...
Sing,Heav'nly
Muse...
').
Yet as
breathtaking
as Milton's
opening gambit is,
we
expect
that kind of
dynamic
energy
in cultural artefacts from the 17th
century
-
the
period
that
also
gave
us
goal-oriented tonality
and the calculus. But in the
works of an obscure
12th-century
Rhineland abbess?
Moreover,
Hildegard
wrote not
only
her
lyrics,
but also the
searing
music that
takes us from what she
presents
as the
clairvoyant
faith of the
patri-
archs,through
the audacious
anticipations
of the
prophets,
to the tri-
umphant certainty
of the Christian
mystic.
When I
began graduate training
in
musicology
26
years ago,
no
women
appeared
in the curriculum.It never even occurred to some
of us to wonder
why
there were no women in the histories of music
we
studied;
if we
asked,we were told that there had not been
any
-
at least none worth
remembering.
But with the rise of the Women's
Movement in the
early 1970s,
some
courageous musicologists
-
including
male as well as female scholars
-
began
the arduous task
of
recovering
the women who had
participated throughout
the west-
ern art-music tradition.This work has
brought
to
light
an ever-
growing
number of remarkable musicians who had fallen into
vary-
ing degrees
of
obscurity:
Ruth Crawford
Seeger,
Lili
Boulanger,
Germaine
Tailleferre,Ethel
Smyth,
Cecile
Chaminade,Amy Beach,
Clara Wieck
Schumann,F anny
Mendelssohn
Hensel,
Elizabeth-
Claude
Jacquet
de la
Guerre,
Isabella
Leonarda, Barbara
Strozzi, F rancesca
Caccini,
the Countess of Dia.2
At the head of this illustrious
group,
however, stands
Hildegard,
the
long-
forgotten
matriarch and
prophet
of women's
music.
Musicologists
were not the first to
lay
claim to
Hildegard:
medieval
literary
historian Peter Dronke
judges
her
poetry
to
be
comparable only
to that of
Abelard;
her
idiosyncratic theological writings (which
not
only glory
in female
figures
such as the
Blessed
Virgin
and
Sophia,
the
allegorical
symbol
of
Wisdom,but also in the earth and
the
fecundity
of
nature)
are
being adopted
and circulated once
again by priests
such as
Matthew
F ox;
the vivid illuminations
executed under her
supervision
add
unexpected
new dimensions to medieval
iconography;
and her medical studies offer
RO LE MO DEL 2: AYO UNG WO MAN STANDING ATA
VIRGINAL,by Johannes Vermeer
Reproduced by courtesy
of the Trustees, The National
Gallery,
London
startlingly
modern accounts of
many
ailments and also reveal
knowledge
of female
anatomy
and
midwifery
that far
surpasses
in
accuracy
- not to mention
empathy
- the standard treatises of her
day.
As a musician,
she
composed
an extensive collection of
highly
individualistic
responsories
and
sequences,
and also the
O rdo virtutem,
the earliest
liturgical
drama
designed
to be
sung
throughout.
The
story
of
Hildegard's
career is
quite literally
miraculous: the
result not
only
of aristocratic
privilege,
but also of
papal
and even
divine interventions. As a member of noble
family,Hildegard
had
opportunities
At a time when academic
analysis
threatens to make
music
appear
inaccessible
to all but the most
highly
trained
specialists,
feminist-oriented criticism
opens
it to
people
in other
fields,
thus
adding
music to
the
interdisciplinary study
of cultural
history.
denied most
women,including
the coveted
option
of life in a convent,
where -
exempted
from the duties of
childbearing
- she could receive a liberal education and
rise within the
hierarchy
of her monastic
order.Yet even nuns were constrained
by
St Paul's
injunction
that women remain
silent in the church: their
sphere
of influ-
ence
stopped
at the convent walls.Unlike
most of her sister nuns, however,
Hildegard
was
subject
to visions. The
pope
ordered a
thorough investigation
of
Hildegard's mystical experiences
and
eventually granted
her official clearance
to
speak
and write about whatever she
per-
ceived. Her
remarkably prolific output
reveals the extent to which she exercised
that licence. As her fame
spread through
Europe,
she
engaged
in
correspondences
with
theologians
such as Bernard de
Clairvaux and
political
leaders such as
The Musical Times June 1994 365
This content downloaded from 46.120.36.162 on Mon, 6 May 2013 19:06:24 PM
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F riedrich Barbarossa.Her
music,plays,theological writings,
illu-
minations,
medical handbooks,memoirs,and letters were
copied
and
carefully preserved
in her
convent,
where
they may
be studied
today.
How could this woman
-
an
extraordinary figure by any
standard
-
have vanished from cultural
memory?
Without
dwelling
too
long
on ancient
iniquities,
suffice it to
say
that the historical record has
been
composed
almost
exclusively by men,
and it has tended to
trace a
genealogy
of deeds
by
men.3 Recall that in
Hildegard's day
women
wishing
to write
required express permission
from the
pope,
responding
to what he
regarded
as God's commands.Not too sur-
prisingly,
few women have received such direct
ordination;
their
stories remained untold.And
despite
miracles and
papal decrees,
even
Hildegard
herself was soon
forgotten.
Later
periods
saw the
spectacular appearance
at the court of
F errara of the concerto di donne,
a virtuoso women's ensemble cred-
ited with
having inspired
a whole
range
of Renaissance avant-
gardes;4
or the cantata
publications
of Barbara Strozzi,a
17th-century
Venetian whose
expressive range
ranks with that of her best-known
contemporaries;5
or the
harpsichord
suites of Elizabeth
Jacquet
de la
Guerre,
a woman at the court of Louis XIV whose Italianate suites
sound like sudden infusions of technicolor into the staid world of
F rench dance.6 F or each of these women there were
special
condi-
tions
(less
dramatic than
Hildegard's
divine
intervention,
but
only
slightly so)
that
permitted
her to
participate professionally
in music-
making;
for
each,
there are also reasons for
subsequent neglect
- rea-
sons that
hinge
not so much on the
quality
of the work as on cultural
biases that have excluded women from consideration.
eminist-oriented
musicology necessarily poses
these some-
times
unpleasant questions.
Yet the
goal
is not to instill
guilt,
but rather to make this
extraordinary
music available.Until
recently,
the commercial
recording industry
hesitated to collabo-
rate in this
recovery project;
but with the
increasing
market
demand for music
by
female
composers
it has become
possible
to
find
many
first-rate
performances
of
compositions by
women.If
this new branch of
musicology
had
accomplished nothing
more
than
bringing
the music of
Hildegard,
Strozzi or
Jacquet
de la
Guerre to a
listening public,
it would have
justified
its existence.
But
just
as feminist
scholarship
in other
disciplines
has
gone
beyond locating
women in
history
to raise more fundamental
ques-
tions,
so feminist-based
musicology
has
brought
new
perspectives
to the
study
of the standard
repertory.
F or the addition of women
(or any
other
formerly marginalised group)
to a canon
immediately
calls attention to the fact of the canon's
constructedness,
its
depen-
dence on
changing
social values.
Moreover,dealing seriously
with
newly
discovered
repertories
often entails
having
to reconsider
standard criteria for
assigning
value. F or
instance,
traditional
musicologists
have tended to
downplay
or even
deny
the 'content'
of music in favour of formal
description.
Yet women
composers
(Hildegard,
for
instance)
sometimes choose to write music with
imagery
that
deliberately engages
with cultural concerns such as
gender.
Is their music alone in
foregrounding representational
ele-
ments? O r
might
music in
general
be understood as a cultural
practice
-
a
practice
that bears traces of
many aspects
of social
experience,including gender ideologies?
If we look at societies outside those of
Europe
and North
America the answer is an
unequivocal 'yes': ethnomusicologists
routinely acknowledge
and
analyse
the
ways
in which the musical
practices
of most cultures
simultaneously
reflect and reinforce
gendered
divisions of labour and codes of behaviour.7 But it has
been more difficult to broach these
topics
within the
prestigious
realm of western art
music,
for advocates of this
repertory
have
long
held that it transcends
representation,especially
the
repre-
sentation of such mundane matters as
gender
or the
body.
Yet
feminist-oriented
musicologists
have
begun
to assess the
many
ways
in which social constructions of
gender
have
organised
these
musical
practices
as well: not
just
the music
by women,but the
music of the standard canon itself.
Afew scholars have
perceived
these new lines of
inquiry
as hos-
tile - for reasons
easy
to
explain,given
the
emphasis
on
autonomy
in western music aesthetics since
early
romanticism.But if such
questions
refuse to honour the canon's claims to radical
autonomy
or
'pure' musicality,they
offer in
exchange
a view of music as a
central
participant
in
history
and culture. If music no
longer
appears
to exist in a
separate sphere,
free from the contamination of
everyday life,
it becomes a site where we learn about and inter-
nalise our culture's ideals
concerning
a vast
array
of vital concerns
including gender,feelings
and the
body.
The
genre
most
obviously engaged
with
gender is,
of
course,
opera,
and
many
recent studies of
opera
focus on the
politics
of
gender representation.
Yet the
insights
of feminist-oriented criti-
cism are far from monolithic: conclusions
vary widely depending
on the
opera
in
question
and the critic. Thus while Lawrence
Kramer examines Strauss's Salome as one of a cluster of
fin-de-
siecle artefacts that articulate fears of women's
sexuality,Carolyn
Abbate views Salome as a
figure
of female
empowerment.8
Likewise, Carmen
may
be
interpreted
as a femme fatale,
but
Bizet's character also turns out to have been embraced as an icon
of sexual freedom
by
lesbian
singers
and listeners at the turn of
the
century.
9
The
principal
issue is not to decide on one verdict or
another,
but rather to
develop
a
greater
sense of how music
participates
in
central cultural debates and to
gain
a better
understanding
of the
impact
of music on the lives of those
engaged
with it.At a time
when academic
analysis
threatens to make music
appear
inacces-
sible to all but the most
highly
trained
specialists,
feminist-ori-
ented criticism
opens
it to
people
in other fields,
thus
adding
music to the
interdisciplinary study
of cultural
history.
These
new forms of
scholarship
even address the
opera fan,
for
they
often seek to validate the
(formerly unmentionable) practice
of
listening
for
pleasure.10 Admittedly,
feminism's
overriding
con-
cern for
making
connections between culture and life does sub-
ject
favourite works to
political debate;
but at the same time it
takes music out of the seminar room and invites music-lovers of
all varieties to
participate
in the kinds of discussions that will
generate
the cultural
meanings
of the future.
If
opera
is the
genre
most
explicitly
involved with
gendered
issues,
other kinds of music have attracted the attention of femi-
nist-based
musicologists
as well. Instrumental music of the 18th
and 19th centuries would seem to be
impervious
to
inquiries
con-
cerning gender,yet many
of us remember a time when the
princi-
pal
themes of sonata movements were still called 'masculine' and
The 6Musical Times June 1994 366
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'feminine'. Reference books
(e.g.
The Harvard
dictionary of
music or Musik in Geschichte und
Gegenwart)
often offer ratio-
nales for these labels: 'masculine' themes are active and
assertive,
'feminine' ones
passive
and
lyrical. Moreover,
these same
sources inform us that the theme identified as 'masculine' turns
out to determine the
key
and thus the form of the movement,
while the other
qualifies
as an encounter
along
the
way.'1
Some have
argued
that such terms are but remnants of a now-dis-
credited
attempt
at
describing
music in
words; they
concede that the
vocabulary may
be
unfortunate,
but contend that the 'music itself'
remains innocent.Yet these
words,their
music-dictionary
defini-
tions,
and the structures
they
articulate sound
oddly
familiar: as
feminist critics of film and literature have
demonstrated,such char-
acterisations and their attendant narrative schemata have
long
organised
much of western culture.
Indeed,
such constructions
already appear
in their
paradigmatic
form in the
18th-century sym-
phonies
of Johann
Stamitz,
which are famous for their
opening
hammerstrokes,
rockets and Mannheim
steamrollers,
contrasted
with
sensitive, sighing, appoggiatura-laden
second themes.
Although
no one wrote
explicitly
about these structures in
gendered
terms until
19th-century theorist,
AB
Marx,they
had
already
been
flourishing quite intelligibly
for decades.
But
again,
as in
opera,
the actual
meanings
of such structures are
far from obvious.F or much of the
18th-century repertory,gender-
coded contrasts seem to exist
largely
for the sake of eventual recon-
ciliation: movements
typically
conclude
by resolving
differences in
a kind of
marriage.Moreover,despite
the
availability
of such
schemata,
not all
composers
of the time found
gendered polarities
useful to their
compositional strategies.Haydn,
for
instance,
fre-
quently
has his
opening
theme
stamp
its
identity
at the
beginning
of
the second
key
area as
well,creating
movements that trace the
development
of a multi-faceted but
ultimately
unified self. And
although
Mozart often trafficks in
active/passive contrasts,
his con-
trasts do not
necessarily signal
a man/woman
dichotomy:
more fre-
quently
his
lyrical passages
seem to
open
on to some inner
quality
of
sensitivity
that was an
especially
valued
component
of males at
his moment in
history.
In other
words,
like the
contemporaneous
novel,
Mozart's instrumental music can be heard as
contributing
to
the
project
of
producing
the ideal self.
12
As romantic
ideologies increasingly emphasised
the
split
between the
aggressive public
self and
private subjectivity,
the
codes
traditionally
associated with
'masculinity'
and
'femininity'
both
got appropriated
unto the male
subject.
The definition of
'genius'
in the 19th
century
celebrated
precisely
this lamination of
'masculine'
strength
and
rationality
with 'feminine'
depth
of feel-
ing.13
O ver the course of the
1800s,as tensions and anxieties over
gender erupted,
some
pieces
- instrumental as well as the
many
operas featuring
the
femme fatale
-
presented
these
polarities
as
antagonistic,
with the 'feminine' side made
increasingly
monstrous.
Yet here
too,
there is no
single explanation:
critics who
agree
that
gendered coding appears
in such
pieces
often differ
radically
in
their
interpretations
of what
they signify.
Even more than in
opera,
the introduction of these kind of
ques-
tions into the realm of instrumental
genres opens up
the
repertory
to
cultural debate and the
exchange
of a wide
range
of
readings.
Nor
is
gender
itself the
only
focus:
musicologists working
from feminist
perspectives may
also address musical constructions of
pleasure
or
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The Musical Times June 1994 367
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RO LE MO DEL 3: AYO UNG WO MAN SEATED ATAVIRGINAL,by Jan Vermeer
Reproduced by courtesy
of the
Trustees, The National
Gallery,
London
desire,the narrative dimensions of instrumental
music,and
images
of exoticism or arcadian
serenity.
F or too
long,
music studies have
privileged
the formal
aspects
of music. F eminist-oriented critics
strive to
bridge
the
gap
between austere structural
descriptions
and
private
affective
responses by positing
an
interpersonal
terrain in
which music
operates
as a cultural
practice.
F ar from
proceeding
from a
position
of cultural
nihilism,however,these new
inquiries
seek to reveal and even celebrate the
power
of music as it influ-
ences our most inward
perceptions
of ourselves.
uch
inquiries,however,require data concerning ranges of
perceptions,
and thus
reception
histories (studies of critical
responses,past
and
present)
have become
extremely important.
F or not even the
greatest symphony
can determine how it will be
assessed or the kind of
impact
it will have on the world: its
post-
compositional
life and (in some crucial
sense)
its
meanings
depend
on the kinds of
responses
circulated about it in
publicity
blurbs,newspaper reviews,programme guides
and textbooks.As
we
explore
this
public yet
little-researched
terrain,
we are
begin-
ning
to uncover,
for
instance,
the
ways
in
which 19th-century audiences were
encouraged
to exalt
[German]
instrumen-
tal music above the 'effeminate' Italian
and F rench genres that still involved
words;'4 or the degree to which critics
(including Schumann,Hanslick,George
Grove and
others)
were obsessed about
the relative virility of various
composers;'5
or the extent to which
gen-
dered considerations have influenced
many of the major turning points
in
musical style.'6
Because such work emerges from the
intersections of
many disciplines,
femi-
nist-based musicology tends to incorpo-
rate questions
and even
repertories
usual-
ly
absent from more standard
scholarship.
F or instance,references to world musics
abound,
since researchers
frequently
find
it useful to
compare
beliefs about music
across cultures.
Similarly,
books devoted
to feminist
essays
often include studies of
contemporary popular music,
in which
women's contributions
prove
more diffi-
cult to
ignore.
The mere fact of
taking
gender
as a
starting point opens
all these
repertories
to the same
questions
and
causes artificial
categories
such as
'high
art' and
'popular
culture' to seem less
tenable.17
Yet the various
repertories
studied also
retain their
specificity
of
time,place
and
aesthetic
priorities
- elements that often
disappear
with the
universalising agendas
of autonomous criticism. Thus scholars
such as
Daphne
Duval Harrison or Hazel
y who
study
the blues
queens
of the 1920s
(Ma Rainey,
Bessie
i,etc.) pay
attention both to the
particular songs composed by
women and to the conditions within which these women
hed the
genre
that later
gave
rise to Delta blues,
urban
rhythm
les and rock 'n' roll.18
Similarly,
Suzanne Cusick's
study
of
17th-century opera composer
F rancesca Caccini
presents
her
as
inextricably
bound
up
with the court
society
of its time,
though
she also
argues
that Caccini
manipulated
the conven-
of music-theatre
substantially
in
keeping
with the tastes of her
e
patron
and her own
preferences.19
And I
regularly apply
ame method of
addressing
both social contexts and
composi-
choices to works
by
Bach or Brahms - not so as to reduce
somehow to the same level as these other
musicians,
but in
to reveal the
ways
in which
they
too
(no
less than,say,
Bessie
i or F rancesca
Caccini)
articulate in their music some of the
fundamental ideals of their historical moments.20
in other
disciplines
that have learned to accommodate femi-
iewpoints
in the last
twenty years,musicology
is
finding
that
ireat posed by
such
approaches
is rather short-lived,that the
lening
of
perspectives
offered
by
these methods more than
The Musical Times 368 June 1994
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compensates
for their
destabilising
effects.
And,
of
course,
the
music
by
women
brought
to
light by
feminist-oriented musicolo-
gists
has
already begun
to enhance the cultural
experiences
of us
all,
male and female alike.
et it is not
only
for the sake of the
past
-
for
adding long-
forgotten
matriarchs to our roster of canonic
patriarchs
-
that feminist-based
musicology
now seeks to tell new histories. To
be
sure,
the erasure of women such as
Hildegard
from our cultural
memories has
long deprived
us of the richness of their music. But
even more
regrettable
is the fact that the absence of women from
concert
programming
and curricula has sent a
strong signal
to
many
talented
young
women that
they
need not
apply
for the
position
of
'composer'.
As a
result,
countless numbers of
potential
artists have
been
discouraged
over the centuries from
venturing
into
professional music-making.
The same
generation responsible
for
bringing
feminist methods to
musicology,however,
has also
produced
dozens of
prominent
women
composers.
If the
purpose
of
history
is not
simply
'to set the record
straight',
but also to
provide
narratives of the
past
that enable both
pre-
sent moment and future,
then feminist
musicology
has contributed far
more than the addition of some unknown
figures
to a timeless canon.
Recall that
Hildegard
did not dwell on ancient
glories
in her 'O f
Patriarchs and
prophets',
but rather traced a
trajectory
towards future
events,
even more
glorious
in her estimation.
By telling
stories that
resemble the one sketched so
vividly
in 'O f Patriarchs and
prophets',
feminist-oriented
musicologists
are
pointing
forward to a summit in
which women
may participate
as
actively
as men in the entire
spec-
trum of musical activities.And that is indeed cause for
rejoicing.
Notes
1.F rom the
Symphonia
harmoniae caelestum revelationum
('Symphony
of the
harmony
of
heavenly revelations').
Score in
Hildegard
von
Bingen: Lieder,ed.Prudentia Barth,
M.Immaculata Ritscher and
Joseph
Schmidt-G6rg (Salzburg,1969),pp.64-66;
translation
by
Peter Dronke,
liner notes to
recording by Sequentia,Symphoniae.
F or an
extraordinary
analysis
of
Hildegard's
musical
imagery,
see Bruce
Holsinger:
'The flesh
of the voice: embodiment and the homoerotics of devotion in the music of
Hildegard
von
Bingen'
in
Signs
no.19
(1993),pp.92-125.
2. F or a few
of the landmark studies in the
history
of women in
music,
see Jane
Bowers and Judith Tick,ed.: Women
making
music: the western art tradi-
tion, 1150-1950
(Urbana
and
Chicago, 1986);
James R.Briscoe:
Historical
anthology of
music
by
women
(Bloomington,1987);
Aaron
Cohen,ed.: International
encyclopedia of
women
composers,
second edi-
tion
(New York,1987);
Karen Pendle,ed.: Women and music: a
history
(Bloomington,1991);
Ruth Solie,ed.:
Musicology
and
difference: gen-
der and
sexuality
in music
scholarship (Berkeley
and Los
Angeles,
1993); Kimberly Marshall,ed.:
Rediscovering
the muses: women's musi-
cal traditions
(Boston,1993);
Susan C.Cook and
Judy
S.Tsou,edd.:
Reclaiming
Cecilia:
feminist perspectives
on
gender
and music
(Urbana
and
Chicago,1994).
3.F or a
thoughtful investigation
of these issues,see
Marcia J.Citron: Gender and the musical canon
(Cambridge,1993).
4.
See Anthony
Newcomb: 'Courtesans,muses,or musicians? Professional
women musicians in
sixteenth-century Italy'
in Bowers and Tick,edd.:
Women
making music,pp.90-115.
5.See Ellen Rosand: 'The voice of
Barbara Strozzi' in Bowers and Tick, ed.: Women
making music,
pp.168-90.
6.See Julie Anne Sadie: 'Musiciennes of the Ancien
Regime'
in Bowers and Tick,edd.: Women
making music,pp.191-223.
7. F or instance,see Ellen Koskoff,ed.: Women and music in cross-cul-
tural
perspective (Urbana,1987).
8.Lawrence Kramer: 'Culture and
musical hermeneutics: the Salome
complex'
in
Cambridge O pera
Journal,no.2
(1990),pp.269-94; Carolyn
Abbate:
'O pera; or,the envoic-
ing
of women' in Ruth Solie,ed.:
Musicology
and
difference: gender
and
sexuality
in music
scholarship (Berkeley
and Los
Angeles, 1993),
pp.225-58.
9.See Susan
McClary: Georges Bizet: Carmen
(Cambridge,
1992).
F or more on
empowering readings
of standard
opera by
lesbian
literary figures,
Elizabeth
Wood,'Sapphonics',
in
Philip Brett,Elizabeth
Wood and
Gary
C.Thomas,edd.:
Queering
the
pitch:
the new
gay
and
lesbian
musicology (New
York and London,1994),pp.27-66.
10. See,
for instance,Catherine Clement:
O pera,
or the
undoing of women,trans.
Betsy Wing (Minneapolis, 1988); Wayne
Koestenbaum: The
queen's
throat:
opera,homosexuality,
and the
mystery of
desire
(New
York and
London,1993);
and Mitchell Morris:
'Reading
as an
opera queen',
in
Ruth Solie,ed.:
Musicology
and
difference:gender
and
sexuality
in music
scholarship,pp.184-200.
11. See a discussion of these issues in Susan
McClary:
F eminine
endings: music,gender,
and
sexuality (Minneapolis,
1991),especially chapter
I. 12. See
McClary:
'Narratives of
bourgeois
subjectivity
in Mozart's
"Prague" Symphony'
in
Understanding
narrative,
edd Peter Rabinowitz and James Phelan
(Columbus,
forthcom-
ing).
13.See Christine
Battersby,
Gender and
genius:
toward a
feminist
aesthetics
(London,1989);
Anne K.Mellor: Romanticism and
feminism
(Bloomington, 1988);
and
Jean-Jacques
Nattiez:
Wagner androgyne,
trans.Stewart
Spencer (Princeton,1993).
14. See Sanna Pedersen:
Enlightened
and romantic German music criticism,1800-1850
(PhD.
dis-
sertation,University
of
Pennsylvania,1994).
15.See
Jeffrey Kallberg,
'The
harmony
of the tea table:
gender
and
ideology
in the
piano
nocturne'
in
Representations,
no.39
(1992): pp.102-33;
David Gramit,
'Constructing
a Victorian Schubert: music,biography,
and cultural val-
ues', in
19th-Century Music,no.17
(1993), pp.65-78:
and
McClary
'Constructions of
subjectivity
in Schubert's music' in
Philip Brett,
Elizabeth Wood and
Gary
C.Thomas,edd.:
Queering
the
pitch:
the new
gay
and lesbian
musicology,pp.205-33.
16.F or instance,see Suzanne
Cusick:
'Gendering
modern music:
thoughts
on the Monteverdi-Artusi
controversy'
in Journal
of
the American
Musicological Society,
no.46
(1993),pp.1-25.
17.See,for instance,
the
following
collections: Pendle,
ed.: Women and music; Cook and Tsou,edd.:
Reclaiming
Cecilia; and
Brett et al.edd.:
Queering
the
pitch.
See also Gillian Gaar: She's a rebel:
the
history of
women in rock & roll
(Seattle,1992).
18.
Daphne
Duval
Harrison: Black
pearls:
blues
queens of
the 1920s
(New
Brunswick and
London,1988);
Hazel
Carby:
'
"It
jus
be's dat
way
sometime": the sexual
politics
of women's blues' in
Unequal
sisters: a multicultural reader in
United States women's
history,
Ellen Dubois and Vicki Ruiz,edd.
(New
York and London,1990),pp.238-49.
19. Suzanne Cusick: 'O f women,
music,
and
power:
a model from seicento F lorence', in Solie, ed.:
Musicology
and
difference,pp.281-304.
20.See,for instance,'The blas-
phemy
of
talking politics during
Bach
year'
in Richard
Leppert
and Susan
McClary,
edd.: Music and
society:
the
politics of composition,perfor-
mance and
reception (Cambridge,1987),pp.13-63;
and 'Narrative
agen-
das in "absolute" music:
identity
and difference in Brahms's Third
Symphony'
in Ruth Solie,ed.,Musicology
and difference,pp.326-44.
The Mvusical Times 369
June 1994
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