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Women composers are still invisible, their music rarely played. A book dissects the power issues that keep women in silence. Interview with two researchers from the University of Fribourg.
The book The Silences of Music: Writing the History of Women Composers evokes in particular the strength of character of Sofia Goubaïdoulina, a Russian composer who never ceased to defend a demanding, non-conformist line, despite the constraints and material difficulties under the yoke. authoritarian regime of the Soviet regime. © Keystone
Published on 04/26/2024
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Cathy Berberian, who we only associate with her husband or her skills as a performer; Anna Maria Mozart, who would certainly have been as talented as her brother if she had not been prevented from composing; Fanny Mendelssohn, who remains “the sister of”; Kaija Saariaho, who was the subject, until her death in 2023, of sexist and derogatory comments in the press: female composers do not play on equal terms in the world of classical music. And yet, in every era, women have composed music. They are many. This is forcefully proven by the work co-edited by Delphine Vincent, professor of teaching and research in musicology, and Pauline Milani, reader in contemporary history, both at the University of Fribourg.
In 2022, the musicologist and the historian organized an interdisciplinary conference, the first on a Swiss scale to take a feminist look at the place of women in the musical canon. The work resulting from the contributions of the conference is entitled The silences of music: write the history of female composers. It shows, with supporting examples, how the productions of female composers have been made invisible and why even today their music is not considered worthy of interest.
The figure is striking: in Switzerland, only 2.3% of the works performed during the 2018-2019 season in the programs of concerts, orchestras, operas or classical festivals were written by female composers. Internationally, it is barely better (7%). Decryption.
Given the great inertia of the classical repertoire, this figure shows a very large margin for progress…
Delphine Vincent (DV): From time to time, over a season, we exceed 7%, then the proportion goes back down. At the OCL for example, conductor Joshua Weilerstein was very engaged on the issue of female composers. But in the season which has just been unveiled, out of around fifty works, there are only two by female composers. Even today, it is a profession that remains very male-dominated, but these figures do not reflect the proportion of women in this profession, even if only in relation to those who graduate from conservatory classes. There is a factor of discrimination at work in programming choices.
Pauline Milani (PM): Throughout history, women encounter three big barriers in their access to composition. This begins with access to training: entering a conservatory was forbidden until the middle of the 19th century.e century. Those who accessed the training themselves came from a family of musicians. Another barrier is societal: support is needed to be played. Without forgetting the obstacles due to marriage and norms: a woman was not legitimate in this environment. The third barrier is related to the canon: how is a work integrated into the history of music? Even the women who passed the first two barriers, who were able to train, to be played, have not been considered by music historians, they have been erased from the canon, they must therefore be rediscovered. We show that those who are known today, who are established, who have succeeded, have still gone through pitfalls linked to their gender.
“Even today, “genius” is associated with the masculine. It’s a word that I ban”
Delphine Vincent
What should we do with this canon, if we sincerely appreciate it?
DV: We can keep the love of music. For us, it is not a question of blowing up the whole canon, but of putting the works back into their context of production and reception.
And to challenge, for example, this stereotype that only symphonies and concertos are “great” works…
PM: There is a lot to be said about musical genres and their appreciation. Who decided that certain genres were more important than others? Genres considered most important are dominated by men, while genres dominated by women are considered minor. For what?
DV: In the 19th centurye century, women’s production was confined to the salons, they wrote music for piano that they could play, they sometimes sang lieder. It didn’t bother too much, the living room was a private space. The public space par excellence was the symphony concert.
PM: From there to say that they were not capable of it? We must return to material conditions and dissect power relations.
DV: Opera has also long been inaccessible to women. Nowadays women write operas, but we are far from parity in traditional institutions. And if we dig deeper, there are female composers especially in operas intended for children, the stereotypes go that far.
How did these power relationships develop?
PM: We are still dependent on the patterns of thought that flourished in the 19th century.e century, but which go back further. To woman is assigned a role of reproduction, to man of creation. A woman could be the performer of the music, but the man was the composer. These cultural representations persist today.
DV: Particularly in the romantic notion of “genius”. Even today “genius” is associated with the masculine, it cannot be applied to a woman. Personally it’s a word that I ban.
The challenge of maintaining the work of Caroline Charrière in the repertoire
A Friborg composer was able, in part, to make a living from composition: Caroline Charrière. The musicologist Delphine Vincent recalls that it “was played, that it established itself beyond its region, that it succeeded despite the pitfalls”. Which does not yet mean that it will remain included in the directory. After the period of tributes, will it still be defended by the leaders, the programmers? Musicologist Irène Minder-Jeanneret is currently working on her biography, while an international conference will be held in Friborg in October: “This will be the first musicological conference dedicated to a female composer in Switzerland!” according to Delphine Vincent. Even in the field of university research, the glass ceiling persists: female composers are little studied. And to analyze their works and situate them in the general history of music, the scores must still be published and recordings exist.
>Delphine Vincent, Pauline Milani (dir.), The Silences of Music: writing the history of female composers, Ed. Slatkine, 142 pp.
