Women will be women: Female Composers - Part I (1100-1800)

Over the centuries there are known less female composers than male composers. How could that be? Podcastcreator Botte Jellema made a topic about it in the Dutch podcast "Sound Cast/Hole" [Klankcast] (ep. 86, Vrouwelijke Componisten). In this podcast episode, Musicologist Kees Wisse has been invited to talk about the obstacles & victories of female composers. He has been searching through music history to find 14 female composers over the centuries (18 total). I have translated this episode into two articles, where I devide 6 female composers in part I and 8 female composers in Part II. Let's meet them!

First of all, to answer the question:
Why are there less female music composers?
According to Kees Wisse, there are two main reasons:
1. Society has been build were women had a submissive rol in history. Women were not allowed to have a prominent position in society - with only exception of the nobility; for example the succession to the throne. And thus, also in the music field.
2. In the time of 1960-70's, a very small amount of women were granted of taking professional education. So that means that a lot of organisations were male-based; and so in music as well. There were more female solists - Harpists, violists and pianists - than female players in the orchestra.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Two orchestras were disresputable for their hiring selection where female players were not favoured and thus deselected for the orchestra. These were the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Wiener Philharmoniker. Their management - male-based - could only make decisions for the artistic policy of the orchestra. For a long time they chose a male-based orchestra. This led to a lot of demonstrations. At that time, Herbert von Karajan [Chief conductor] insisted having Sabine Meyer as a female clarinet player [wind player] in the orchestra. The orchestra management, who make decisions for the artistic policy of the orchestra, refused the offer. Herbert von Karajan mentioned that if the only reason was that they refused because she was a female player, he would leave the orchestra. That lead the orchestra to let her be part of the orchestra. This happened more or less 25-30 years ago.
Sabine mentioned it has been an emotional struggle as a female player to conquer a seat surrounded in the male-dominated orchestra. The orchestra management mentioned: "Gambling with the emotional unity that this organism currently has" - with the acceptation of a female player.
It was very unfamiliar at first so the male-dominated orchestras had to get used to it. [Little reference to podcast session 13. Where Annette Zhan, female contrabasplayer was talking about the refusals based on genderunequality which is playing a role in classical music].

Kees Wisse mentioned in the podcast that nowadays the female players in the orchestra go up to about 20, according to his 15-minute challenge to count all female players in the orchestra concerts.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo Attribution: Micheile Henders / Unsplash

Based on 18 female figures over the centuries of history, let´s see how it led to the position of the woman in the music field and the position of the woman in society with focus on music. In this post, there will be shown the first 6 female music composers. Followed up by the next post (Part II) with the other 8 female music composers.

1. Hildegard von Bingen
Time: Middle-Ages, around 1100. Composers worked anonymous at that time and many names were barely known; The music was meant for religional reasons: the church and the Lord. There has been found surviving chants by Hildegard. She was an abbess, studied fx. mystical theology and she was one of the first music composers that wrote down (a version of Gregorian) music and words based on her interests. In that time the Troubadours and trouveres also existed. They have composed songs for the nobility. The troubadours and trouveres were known to travel a lot; Likely they included a few female composers, although it was very extraordinary.

2. Maddalena Casulana
Time: End of 16th Century. In this time a woman can only play music professionally under provided financial and social protection. Women were not allowed to work independently, although if women can be of significance for society, they will have a chance for success.
Madaleina Casulana is a perfect example. Madaleina was under the protection of Isabella de' Medici. Isabella was a rich woman who came from a very rich nobility family. With that fact Isabella took Maddalena under her wing. They had no financial limitations and they could decide freely what they wanted to do; and so Maddalena had all freedom to compose music. Maddalena's musical works have been printed and published as a music book. In that time it was very complicated and very expensive to print and publish books. Publishers had to take risks - Probably they got a lot of money from Isabella to make this happen. The benefit is, that a published book can provide multiple copies that spread out over the world - instead of handwritten notes that got lost. So, after the publication of Maddalena's music book (filled with madrigal compositions), Maddalena got more artistic freedom. She became wellknown after the publication and traveled to other cities to show her music. She got a lot of comments from other (male) composers and she started to become aware of her role as a female composer. She wanted to be active in the profession of music composer and she noted in her book:

"[I] want to show the world, as much as I can in this profession of music, the vain error of men that they alone posseses the gifts of intellect and artistry, and that such gifts are never given to women."

3. Barbara Strozzi
Time: 17th Century. Barbara had a lot of luck in her music journey, because she had build up a musical character. She was a child born out of wedlock. Her father was an artistic and very rich poet while her mother was probably a servant. Her father accepted Barbara as his child and supported her from the start when he discovered her musical gift.In Italy, there were little associations created by dukes and counts, where scholars and artists from noble class families came together to discuss deep topics and organise events. These were called the Accademias. Her father was a member of 'Accademia degli Incogniti' (The Academy for unkowns). He was not a member of the nobility, although he had the money for Barbara to create his own Accademia in his ownenvironment. And by that,Barbara had the chance to meet a lot of influencial (male) artists, filosophers, scholars and so on to create a wide cultural education. This was effective in her musical gift. In this time she became one of the most wellknown female music composers - even as famous as composer Francesco Cavalli. The Renaissance music has more melody than previous music; One person sings and got accompanied by music with chords. One of the songs from Barbara is called "La Sol Fa Mi Re Do". It is a playful poetic song due to that the lyricist has created a meaning of reach syllable. It even got close to the next timeframe of Barok.
Barbara was a bit like her father; she has never been married but she was a mistress of a nobleman. She had 3 kids who went into the monastery. Because her father supported her so much as a great music composer, she could publish her music. Most of her compositions were published in print, which was unique at that time. As a result, she was seen in her own environment as a good and great music composer.

Female Performers:
17-18th Century. The opera offered women a more promintent role.The idea was that the women's voices should be sang by women (At the time the music has been tuned down a half step so that a male soprano could sing the lines). Finally women got a real profession. Thereby, to perform on stage makes women more visable and create more publicy. The opportunities arose for women to present themselves vocally [Aria].

Händel, music composer, showed his operas in London. The male castratos sang the male part of the songs. The women who sang the womenroles were even as famous: Diva's! (Prima donne). Faustina Bordini & Francesca Cuzzoni became statual figures, they were famous. Händel had to put effort in and has payed a lot of money to let them sing the women's part. And so, these women were not protected by nobility but were financial independent. These two women were like rival queens. Händel had two soprano roles in the opera, although the women were fighting for the best role in the opera. They didn't liked eachother and it was so bad, that during the show they were exchanging insults, pulling at one another's headdresses and cursing till they had to leave the stage.

Anyways, there are operas written by women. Unfortunately they were not known, maybe 1 or 2 on stage but there are no recordings found. As Kees Wisse mentioned:
"[These recordings were] Perished in the oblivion of history".

Photo Attribution: Micheile Henders / Unsplash

4. Madaleina Laura Lombardini Semen
Time: 18th Century. Madaleina has been raised in a chique orphanage. These were meant for children of the noble class who had made a slip-up and with some money they get rid of the children. - Vivaldi has been a teacher for these girls of one of these chique orphanages -.
Madaleina was a daughter of a noble class family. Her noble class family had gotten impoverished, and they were so poor that they could not raise the child. Besides that, she got an amazing musical education in the chique orphanage.
Madaleina, a young women at a certain age, became fit for marriage, to get married. Most women didn't continue their career from that age. And by that women in music would dissapear in publicy.
Madaleina wanted to continue her profession in music, but she was not allowed by the chique orphanage. When she left the chique orphanage at the age of 21, she finally got the permission: 'well, try for yourself'.
That didn't worked out at first. She married a violist who supported her here and there to eventually become financial and artistically independent. Madaleina was a violist, singer, clavinist and pianist. The marriage was not succesful in the end. They lived seperately and much later they divorced. Even so, Madaleina had a lot of success in London and Händel was very impressed by her. She had organised and managed her own concerts and earned a lot of money. She also performed regurlarly in some concerts of Händel. Later on she became friends with a priest, who accompanied her in her music travels, and they decided to live together. She didn't wrote much, only a music collection of string quartets. Her music was not only made for chamber music, it was possible to change the tuning so it can be used as a symphony as well. Expansion! Thereby she was an exception, she was popular and she had the opportunity to identify as female music composer.

5. Maria Anna Mozart
Time: 18th Century. She got a bit of recognision as the sister of the famous Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Both Maria and Wolfgang had the same musical education. Their father took them both on music tour in Europe and they became famous as wonderkids. When they hit puberty or early adulthood, Wolfgang continued with a music career and Maria couldn't continue due to the marriageable age - getting prepared for marriage. Finding a good partner was the goal. Maria did what was requested of her, she found a good partner, married, dedicated for her family and never performed after. Maybe she played in her domestic circle, although she should have been composing music, like Wolfgang. From Wolfgang we have found music compositions. Maria's compositions have been lost in history; Simply said:It was not important.Unfortunately, a girl who is very talented next to her brother who got the succes in publicity; it was not created for her.

6. Fanny Mendelssohn
Time: 18th Century. Same happened to Fanny as to Maria. Fanny was known as the sister of Felix Mendelssohn. They were both wonderkids and could both identify as musical talents. They came from a super rich banking family. Their father was very rich so he could provide both his kids professional musical education including a music teacher. Their family  had an enormous villa where concerts have been held on a high professional level. Like, a big salon for fx 100 people. They both played early compositions. Felix went through with his music career while Fanny couldn't due to the marriageable age.
Fanny did not wanted to do what was requested of her. She was extremely angry about it and made a fight with Felix about that rule. When their father passed away, Felix became 'the head of the family'. Felix did not allowed Fanny to compose music for publicy, only for herself. They must have had a huge battle of discussion about that; cause a woman was not supposed to do that - It would be a shame to the family.
Fanny was not able to change this. Only a few of her compositions have been published - under Felix's name. Only then it would be accepted by the family. These compositions have been found with the original handwriting of Fanny. One time Felix was on tour in London. The Queen praised one of the songs and asked Felix about it. Felix admitted that it was his sister's composition ('Italien').
Later on, Fanny married a painter who supported her music career. He said: 'Listen, you have your own artistic gift, do something with it! I think it's amazing that you persue this career!' The painter went to different publishers to bring her music sheets in the hope it would be published. That didn't worked out. Eventually, 1 collection of songs had been published. Thanks to the painter, cause he had a different, more positive mindset. It was just 10-15 songs, but she has made more than 450 compositions; Compositions, piano music and chamber music. Her collection of songs has been made public nowadays. You can find her music in the digital music service called Spotify. Although in her time only 1 compilation had been published.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This has been part I of the two articles, translated from the episode about the search for female composers during the centuries of history. Continue to Part II (the last part) to meet the other 8 female music composers!