Exam 2 Flashcards
• Amy Beach was a member of Les Six.
T/F
F
It was Germaine Tailleferre
• Ellen Taaffe Zwilich was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Composition.
T/F
T
• Amy Beach’s marriage to Dr. H. H. A. Beach allowed her to have the financial security to tour extensively as a piano soloist.
T/F
F
• Synesthesia is a rare disorder that causes an individual to connect colors with musical notes.
T/F
T
• Cecile Chaminade enrolled in the Paris Conservatory at a young age.
T/F
F
• Cecile Chaminade’s GREATEST achievement as a woman composer of her era was:
o Making a living as a composer and publishing her own works.
• Nadia Boulanger was the greatest composition teacher of the 20th century.
T/F
T
• Which woman composer focused on experimentation with the piano?
o Ruth Crawford Seeger
• When an instrumental work depicts a non-musical idea or scene, the work is said to be ___________.
o Programmatic
• Which woman composer’s music focused on experimentation with the human voice?
o Meredith Monk
• 20th-century art music composers sometimes incorporated popular music styles into their compositions.
T/F
T
• Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s compositional style frequently includes vernacular music as sources in her work?
T/F
F
• Cecile Chaminade assisted ornithologists by transcribing bird calls.
T/F
F
It was Amy Beach
• Did Florence Price have access to music education as a youth, thus leaning on vernacular sources.
T/F
T
• The explosion of compositional activity among women in the 20th century was primarily due to:
o Greater access to formal music education in conservatories.
• _________________ music is composed utilizing random procedures to determine its outcome.
o chance
• __________________ is a compositional method in which two or more dissonant melodic lines are simultaneously combined.
o dissonant counterpoint
• ______________ refers to a five-tone melodic system.
o pentatonic
• __________________ is a style that emerged in the early decades of the 20th century, and bowed to Classical-style characteristics such as form-driven structure, transparent texture, tonality, and lack of extra-musical program.
o Neoclassicism
• __________________ music utilizes more than one key at a time.
o polytonal
• _____________ is an atonal compositional method that systematically orders musical elements according to a fixed series.
o serialism
• Joan Tower composed 5 “Fanfares for the Uncommon Woman.”
T/F
T
• This woman has not won a prize for her compositions
o Elisabeth Luytens
• How many movements did Thea Musgraves’ composition, “The Shipwreck” contain?
o It contained 3 movements
• ____________ is a texture in which a melody is performed by two or more parts simultaneously, but with variation.
o heterophonic
• A musical selection lacking a tonal center, or “key” is called __________
o atonal
• A ______________ is a short rhythmic or melodic idea that recurs in a work.
o motif
• Works in which new music is used for each section, as opposed to forms in which segments recur, is called _____________
o through-composed
• __________ means “of the people”; as opposed to work of the educated elite.
o vernacular
• An instrumental work that tells a story or suggests a non-musical idea and sometimes includes a suggestive title is known as _________________
o program music
• ____________ is a term based on the Italian “to sing”; a sacred or secular vocal work with performance forces ranging from soloist to chorus and orchestra
o cantata
• A ____________ is a play or motion picture in which the story line is interspersed with or developed by songs and dances.
o musical
• An ______________ is an elaborate melody sung solo with accompaniment, as in an opera.
o aria
• The use of everyday life and actions in artistic works, known as ____________, was introduced into opera in the early 1900s in reaction to contemporary conventions, which were seen as artificial and untruthful.
o verismo
• An ______________ is an extended dramatic composition, in which all parts are sung to instrumental accompaniment, that usually includes arias, choruses, and recitatives.
o opera
• A principal female singer of an opera company is called a _________________.
o prima donna
• A __________________ is a male singer, especially in the 18th century, who is emasculated before puberty to prevent his soprano or contralto voice range from changing.
o castrato
• ____________ is a high-pitched vocal sound with rapid movement of the uvula and tongue, performed by women to express emotion.
o ululation
• A ______________ is an extended work for orchestra, usually with multiple movements
o large-scale work
• A music education methodology based on movement and dance is called ______________________.
o Dalcroze eurhythmics
• ___________________ is a short musical pattern that persistently repeats.
o ostinato
• ____________ is an artistic movement that used small elements of repeated material that evolved slowly over time.
o minimalism
• The __________________ is the text or words to an opera.
o libretto
• Opera is a genre that was developed during the _________ period of music history.
o baroque
• _______________ is a term that refers to those who lead the way to the artistic future, even if risk is involved.
o avant-garde
• __________________ is the name of a street in New York City, which is the center of the theater district and musical productions.
o Broadway
• 19th-century opera allowed women in the audience to live vicariously through characters on stage by voicing stories that society silenced.
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T
• Broadway musical audiences are primarily comprised of women.
T/F
T
• Unlike opera, musicals tended to reflect culturally-defined gender roles.
T/F
F
• The strength of the prima donna’s voice on stage was representative of female empowerment.
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T
• The Broadway musical. ______________, featured two strong female leads.
o Wicked
• In Puccini’s famous opera, _____________, the female lead character commits suicide to the tune of the most famous aria in the opera.
o madama butterfly
• In Baroque period opera, the view was that castrati were a ________________, able to project any sexual role.
o blank canvas
• Baroque opera was inspired by the academies of poets, musicians, and philosophers that rose in prominence during the early seventeenth century.
T/F
T
• Baroque opera was very similar to the citizen choruses of the Greeks.
T/F
o False-Baroque opera moved away from the Greek citizen chorus model and became a genre for music specialists.
• The megamusicals of the 1980s were based on sexist stories from the 18th century.
T/F
F
• Phantom of the Opera, Miss Saigon, and Les Misérables are called __________________.
o Megamusicals
• Only the wealthy were invited to attend 18th-century operatic performances.
T/F
F
Nadia Boulanger was the first woman to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
T/F
F
• Social networking is important in gaining entrance into professional instrumental ensembles.
T/F
T
• Who believed that it was necessary to dress like a man to succeed in professional orchestral conducting?
o Ethel Leginska
• Screened auditions resulted in a rise in women’s membership in professional orchestras in the 1970s and 1980s
T/F
T
• By 2000, the balance of men and women in professional orchestras was approximately 50:50.
T/F
F
• In instrumental music, gender roles vary from culture to culture.
T/F
T
o Females had the freedom to say things they would not express in everyday life, but males were not allowed to freely express themselves emotionally.
T/F
F
• Sexual symbolism in instrumental music is universally present.
T/F
T
• Who was known as the “first lady of American opera?
o Sarah Caldwell
• The ________________ model that was prevalent during the early Baroque period posited that there was essentially one sex, and that women were inferior versions of men.
o Galenic
• The French Revolution was partially responsible for the transition to using females to play leading roles in opera, rather than castrati.
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T
o Men possessing a powerful low vocal range were considered to be artistically superior to female
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F
• Some of the most sexist operas and musical theater productions attract the largest audiences, including highly educated women.
T/F
T
• In 17th and 18th century opera, the low male voice was associated with heroism, military might, and valor.
T/F
F
• Who was the first person (male or female) to graduate from the Master School of Conducting at the Berlin Academy of Music?
o Antonia Brico
Who:
o Conducted male orchestras in performances of her compositions.
o Wrote the anthem for the women’s suffrage movement in England.
o While serving time in jail for her leadership in the women’s suffrage movement, she conducted women’s performance of the suffragette anthem through the bars of her cell window, using her toothbrush as a baton.
Dame Ethel Smyth
• Conductor Margaret Hillis was a civilian flight instructor flight instructor during WW2.
T/F
T
• Which woman gained access to orchestras in a variety of countries due to her mixed racial heritage?
o Tania Leon
• Which woman composer received an award in memoriam for her distinctive contribution to the field of music?
o Vita Kaprolova
Sarah Caldwell was the first woman to conduct the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
T/F
F
She was the second woman to mount the podium at the New York Philharmonic (Nadia Boulanger was the first, in 1939)
• The woman known for training more professional musicians than any other female conductor of her time was:
o Carolyn Nichols
• Marin Alsop’s appointment to director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra was supported by 90% of the ensemble.
T/F
F
• __________________________ refers to tracing lineage through the maternal line.
o matrilineal
• Music created and transmitted “by the people” is known as ___________________.
o folk music
• _________________________ is a language in which pitch changes the meaning of a word.
o tonal language
Abbie Conant was moved to second chair and received less pay because she failed to demonstrate that she had the physical stamina to be the trombone section leader.
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F
• Blind auditions, in which musicians played behind a screen to avoid gender bias, was instituted in the 1970s, and by 2000, orchestral membership was equally divided between male and female musicians.
T/F
F
• When Marin Alsop was appointed as conductor of the Baltimore Symphony in 2005, she received strong support from the musicians in the orchestra.
T/F
F
• ____________________ describes music that features the simultaneous use of two or more distinct rhythms.
o polyrhythmic
• _____________________ is a Classical style revived from a previous artistic period.
o neoclassical
• Women in the Middle East and some African cultures express emotion by creating a high-pitched vocal sound with rapid movement of the uvula and tongue, which is known as ______________.
o ululation
• Arabic melodic modes are called _____________.
o maqamat
• A ___________ is an ecstatic, trance-like achieved with music performance and associated with the Arabic culture.
o tarab
• A ______________________ is an artifact that provides firsthand accounts of historical events or subjects.
o primary source
• The _____________ is the traditional culture of the Arctic tundra.
o Inuit
• A ________________ is an Indonesian percussion-dominated ensemble.
o gamelan
• ___________________ is the style of singing in which a singer creates more than one pitch at a time by manipulating the vocal resonance of the mouth and the throat.
o throat singing
• The field of ________________ uses sociological and musicological research methods to invite the word’s music.
o ethnomusicology
• When conducting _______________a researcher immerses himself/herself in a culture through participation and observation.
o fieldwork
• The blending and merging of two or more cultures into a distinctive new culture is called _________________.
o syncretism
• A scattered population with a common geographic region is called a ________________.
o Diaspora
• A female who serves as a medium between the spirit world and the living is called a ___________________.
• fetish priestess
• A _______________ is a highly celebrated female singer.
o diva
• ____________________ are community events that celebrate important rites of passage such a birth, puberty, marriage, and death.
o lifecycle rituals
• ____________ is Arabic praise poetry with a fixed, formal structure.
o Qasida
• Women’s instrumental ensembles in Ghana are only a modern innovation created for tourism.
o True - Traditional ensembles for women have existed for a very long time.
o Women’s ensembles that perform for tourists lack authenticity.
T/F
T
According to Kwesi Brown
• According to Kwesi Brown, what is the main reason women serve as master drummers in Ghana?
o a government that wished to attract tourists
• Which is true regarding the term “Akan?”
o It references an ethnic group.
• Beninese music features highly complex _________________, and only people within the country are able to perform them.
o rhythms
• “Qongqothwane” is a traditional song of the Xhosa, who speak in a __________________ language .
o tonal
• An artifact that provides first-hand accounts of historical events or subjects, such as letters, diaries and original music manuscripts is called a _________________________.
o primary source
• The puberty festival held for Eastern Ghanaian girls is called ___________.
o dipo
• ______________ is the field of study that uses sociological and musicological research methods to study the world’s musics.
o ethnomusicology
• __________________ refers to tracing ancestral descent through the maternal line.
o matrilineal
• _________________ is a percussion-dominated ensemble prevalent on several island regions in Indonesia.
o gamelan
• _____________________ is a Latin American ensemble originally from Mexico, which traditionally features a variety of guitars as well as two or more of each of the following: violins, vihuela, guitarron, trumpets.
o mariachi
• _________________ is a belief in Orthodox Judaism that women must not sing in the presence of men due to the potential to distract men in prayer.
o kolisha
• Which of the following genres has a male gender association?
• rural blues
• Which decade saw the peak popularity of commercial gospel in America?
o 1950s
• Which of the following is NOT true about Marian
Anderson?
o She was an outspoken advocate for civil rights.
o While Marian Anderson’s experiences greatly influenced civil rights, she did not like to speak publicly about racial discrimination.
• Gospel artists were sometimes condemned for sexualizing their performances.
T/F
T
• Field cries and hollers were typically accompanied by banjos.
T/F
F
Who:
o Their music focuses on the welfare of the people.
o They often perform on instruments other than drums.
o Men are usually not allowed to participate.
women’s traditional instrumental ensembles in Ghana?
• The Blues often addressed social concerns.
o True
• Call and response exists in numerous black genres.
o False
• The terms okomfo and akomfu refer a to priest or priestess in Ghana.
o False
• ________________________ is a research situation in which a participant-observer is immersed into the culture being studied.
o fieldwork
• Researchers who study world music try to avoid studying spiritual rituals that involve music.
o False
• Case-study methodology attempts to cover a broad spectrum of world music activities.
o False
• Gospel and Blues shared many musical characteristics. Which of the following was NOT among them?
o frequent use of chorus voices
• Which of the following is NOT a true statement about Memphis Minnie?
o She managed to negotiate the male-dominate urban blues tradition.
• Memphis Minnie was one of the first people, male or female, to play the ____________________.
o electric guitar
• ___________________ was an important link between the rural and classic blues styles.
• ma rainey
• Was Sister Rosetta Tharpe known for her conservative dress?
T/F
F
• _______________________, the most accomplished gospel singer of the 20th century, had a unique sound that impacted jazz to blues and rock to soul.
o marion williams
• Black women used gospel music as a pulpit to spread their message about women’s issues.
• True
• The majority of black preachers in the early 20th century were female.
o False
• ________________ used hymns and secular songs to address equality and freedom.
o sojourner truth
• “Black Swan” refers to which of the following?
o a company that produced race records
• __________________, a blues, gospel, and jazz artist and dramatic actress, was the first black entertainer to move to the “white time.”
o Ethel Waters
• _____________________ composed ragtime music and recorded her compositions on Aeolian piano rolls.
o pauline alpert
• Which of the following is NOT true about ragtime music?
o peak of popularity was 1920 -1940
• Boogie Me is a rag composition?
T/F
F
• A repeated pattern that unifies and sectionalizes a jazz composition is called a ____________.
o riff
• Who among the following was NOT a composer of rags?
o Lil Hardin Armstrong
• Which of the following is INCORRECT regarding the “swing” style?
o There was no improvisation allowed
• “Canary roles” was a term that described physically attractive female jazz soloists.
T/F
T
• Mary Lou Williams, a piano superstar of jazz, typically performed as a soloist.
T/F
F
• Which of the following best describes the “juba?”
o a dance-game that included rhythmic patting
• A person who performed sheet music for prospective purchasers was called __________.
o a song demonstrator
• Who among the following most defied traditional female jazz roles in terms of her primary performance area?
o Melba Liston
• Black women were the primary composers of Tin Pan Alley ragtime pieces.
T/F
F
• Big Mama Thornton originally performed ____________________, which was later popularized by Elvis Presley.
o hound dog
• _________________, created with formulating the rock and roll sound, was a champion for performers’ rights.
???
Which genre became popular due to:
o manufacture of the upright piano.
o piano rolls and records that increased appreciation for the style
o millions of women were sufficiently skilled as pianists to play the music
• Ragtime piano music
• Popular music provides a unique view of socially-defined gender beliefs.
T/F
T
• Which of the following represents strophic form?
o AAAA
• In general, women were able to access professional musical roles as singers more easily than roles as instrumentalists.
T/F
T
• Sheet music became more readily available to women at the turn of the century due to its publication in women’s journals and magazines
T/F
T
• May Aufderheide’s was a prolific composer, but the reason so many of her piano rags were published was the financial support of her husband.
T/F
F
• During the early 20th century, females preferred the term “all-girl band” because they were fearful they would be labeled as lesbians and lose bookings.
T/F
T
• Clora Bryant rose to great fame as a trumpet player due to all of the reasons below EXCEPT:
o She had a male friend who invited her to jam sessions.
• The physical beauty and smooth vocal style of __________________ resulted in her being described as “smoldering,” “sophisticated,” and “dripping with sensuality.”
o Billie Holiday
• _______________, a string bass player in a gender segregated jazz group, was required to wear high heeled shoes, revealing clothing, and lipstick and had to adjust the way she held her instrument to ensure her body was on display when she performed.
o Vivien Garry
• Many female composers of rags masked their gender by using initials or a pseudonym.
T/F
T
• The ____________________ Rag was used in the presidential campaign for Warren Jennings Bryan.
o pickles and peppers
• Which of the following included the fewest number of women among its ranks?
o The Sousa Band
• Which of the following statements is NOT true about Vern and Irene Castle?
o Vern and Irene Castle solely focused on ballroom dancing.
o The Castle Walk was a signature dance developed by the couple.
o Women emulated Irene Castle’s slender figure and shoulder-baring dresses.
o They taught dance lessons in their rooftop studio in New York City.
???
• Who was the highest paid chorus girl in vaudeville in the early 1900s?
o Josephine Baker
• Josephine Baker, the “Creole Goddess,” had a highly successful career in Paris, France.
T/F
T
• Which of the following is NOT true regarding Carrie Jacobs Bond?
o She did the art work for the covers of her compositions.
o She began her music business in the corner of her small apartment.
o She did not have any formal musical training.
o She took an active role in the marketing of her compositions.
???
• The cover of the sheet music for the song, “Why Adam Sinned,” featured a statue of Eve entwined with a snake and the picture of the singer, ___________________ (full name).
o Aida Overton Walker
Tin Pan Alley works were marketed on the streets by song demonstrators who banged on tin pans to get potential customers’ attention.
T/F
F
• Tin Pan Alley was a major distributor of popular music from 1880 to 1950.
T/F
T
• Mamie Smith’s band was known as the Horn Hounds
T/F
F
• At the turn of the century, women performed in gender-segregated ensembles, most of which were professional groups.
T/F
F
• By the turn of the 20th century, large numbers of women were studying violin and other instruments because positions in professional orchestras were becoming available to them.
T/F
F
• In the late 19th century, women were expected to provide the entertainment in the home, leading to the popularity of keyboard instruments such as the piano and the
o parlor organ
• Tin Pan Alley was an American publishing business that focused primarily on art songs.
T/F
T
• The “Bond House” was __________.
o a music publishing company
• Who among the following is most associated with the hit “I Love You Truly”?
o Carrie Jacobs Bond
What type of performers does this apply to:
- The Black women adapted their look to appeal to upper-class white women.
- The members were easily interchangeable
- Their photographs depicted identical dresses, hairstyles, and poses.
Girl groups
• Hard-core rap videos that displayed male domination through the use of pain and violence toward women were banned due to their misogynistic content.
T/F
F
• Women-produced videos avoid focusing on women’s sexuality.
T/F
F
• ____________________ succumbed to the pressures of notoriety by having a nervous breakdown, and her subsequent head-shaving incident provided her with even more widespread attention.
o Britney Spears
• Katy Perry’s recording of the controversial song, “I Kissed a Girl,” caused a sharp decline in her popularity.
T/F
F
• In popular music, singing ability is what the consumer values the most among women performers, with visual image being secondary.
T/F
F
• Watching music videos has been documented to cause lowered self-esteem among young girls.
T/F
T
• “He Hit Me (and it Felt Like a Kiss)” is an example of the message of dependence and vulnerability portrayed by girl groups.
T/F
T
• Debra Voight, one of the world’s greatest opera stars, was fired by the London Royal Opera because of her ___________.
o weight
• Lara St. John posed nude on an album cover, with her hair flowing over her shoulders and holding a __________ over her bare chest.
o violin
• Classical music is one genre that does not require women to use sexualized imagery.
T/F
F
• Beyoncé addressed the pressure of body image faced by women in her song, ________________________.
o Pretty Hurts
• ______________, a pop singer and songwriter, hid her face during performances to avoid fame, and as a result, has focused discussion on her music, rather than her appearance.
o Sia
• _______________________ was known for blending music with performance art through her use of outlandish costumes and extreme staging.
o Lady Gaga
• The Ronette’s lack of vocal power was enhanced by recording engineers using a technique known as the _________________________ In the production of “Be My Baby.”
o wall of sound
• During the 21st century, the music industry began to use __________________ to gain media attention. Miley Cyrus’s “Wrecking Ball” is a good example of this marketing strategy.
o shock value
• Pat Benetar’s “Sex as a Weapon” addressed women’s power over men.
T/F
F
• Martina McBride focused on the women’s issue of ___________________.
o domestic violence
• Madonna’s music video, _______________, was compared to soft porn by her critics.
o like a virgin
• Among girl groups, black artists were encouraged to present themselves as tough girls, including leather pants and boots.
T/F
F
- An American conductor and violinist
- In September 2007, appointed 12th music director of the Baltimore Symphony
- First woman to hold this position with a major American orchestra
- Controversy surrounding her choice stemmed from significant resistance from the orchestra’s players, who insisted they had not had enough voice in the search process
Marin Alsop
o Throw Down Your Heart: Ruth Akello-Thumb Piano player with Bela Fleck
Ruth Akello
- Background and Training
- Facing Prejudice
- Easter Concert – 1939 – Washington DC
Marian Anderson
- Studied piano as child – played classics and marches
- Cousin introduced her to jazz
- Worked as song demonstrator – employer encouraged her to go to New Orleans
- Hired as jazz pianist – one year later Louis Armstrong joined ensemble – married
- Performed, composed, arranged, and managed ensemble
Lil Hardin Armstrong
- One of the most prolific rag composers
- Middle class – father violinist and banker
- Father opened publishing company in 1908 and promoted May’s compositions
- The Thriller was her best-known work
May Aufderheide
- American-born French dancer, singer, and actress
- Nicknames - “Bronze Venus”, the “Black Pearl”, and the “Créole Goddess”.
- First African-American female to star in a major motion picture, to perform in an American concert hall, and to become a world-famous entertainer
- Highest-paid chorus girl in vaudeville
- Moved to Paris, where she became an instant success for her erotic dancing and for appearing practically nude on stage
- Most successful song, “J’ai deux amours” (1931)
Josephine Baker
- Conducted concerts using her own compositions
- First woman to conduct London Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, and New York Philharmonic Orchestra
- She influenced generations of young composers, especially those from America and other English-speaking countries.
- Among her students were those who became leading soloists, composers, and conductors, including Aaron Copland and Philip Glass
Nadia Boulanger
- Carrie Jacobs Bond was the most prolific women composers and publishers of Tin Pan Alley. A single mother she began her business in the corner of a small apartment.
- Bond did everything herself, including composition, marketing, and artwork for the sheet music covers
- Like many women in the popular music industry, Bond had significant classical training. This song is indicative of her education.
- Bond’s popular “I Love You Truly” featured a simpler accompaniment and a modest vocal range that stayed within an octave
Carrie Jacobs Bond
- Pioneer orchestral conductor in the 1930s.
- In 1927 she entered the Berlin State Academy of Music and in 1929 graduated from its master class in conducting, the first American to do so.
- Became first woman conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in February 1930.
- In 1934 she was appointed conductor of the newly founded Women’s Symphony Orchestra which, in January 1939 (following the admission of men), became the Brico Symphony Orchestra.
- some male performers refused to work with her. She spent the majority of her conducting career working with amateur groups and gender-segregated ensembles.
Antonia Brico
- Picture appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 1975
- Hailed as success as an opera conductor in Boston
- Second woman to mount the podium at the New York Philharmonic (Nadia Boulanger was the first, in 1939)
- First woman ever to conduct at New York’s Metropolitan Opera
Sarah Caldwell
- Greek-American soprano
- One of the most renowned and influential
- opera singers of the 20th century
- Many critics praised her bel canto technique,
- wide-ranging voice and dramatic interpretations.
- Repertoire ranged from classical opera seria to the bel canto operas of Donizetti, Bellini and Rossini and further, to the works of Verdi and Puccini
- Born in New York City and raised by an overbearing mother.
- Received her musical education in Greece and established her career in Italy.
- Struggles - wartime poverty and with myopia that left her nearly blind onstage
- She turned herself from a heavy woman into a svelte and glamorous one after a mid-career weight loss, which might have contributed to her vocal decline and the premature end of her career.
- The press publicized her temperamental behavior, her supposed rivalry with Renata Tebaldi and her love affair with Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis.
- Leonard Bernstein called her “the Bible of opera”
- In 2006, Opera News wrote of her: “Nearly thirty years after her death, she’s still the definition of the diva as artist—and still one of classical music’s best-selling vocalists.“
Maria Calas
• taught dance lessons from their rooftop studio in New York City
• her slender figure and shoulder-baring dresses were widely admired and emulated.
• adapted many black dance forms that became widely popular with white Americans, and the trend continued
William Gottlieb Collection
• Jitterbug Dancers in 1938
Irene Castle (and Vern)
• Popular solo artist
o Unafraid to challenge males for equal access to performance venues
o Maintained societal expectations of modest dress
o Sang lyrics depicting woman as weaker sex
o “I Fall to Pieces”
Patsy Cline
- Before fame songs played on radio age 14
- Returned to stage after twenty year absence
- 1988 was awarded the Israel Prize
- Death eulogies by Prime minister & President
Shoshana Damari
- American opera singer and lyric soprano
- One of the most beloved and celebrated
- singers of our time
- Recipient of National Medal of Arts - 2013
- Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Solo – 2013
- Opera roles - Dvořák’s Rusalka, Verdi’s Otello, Handel’s Rodelinda, Massenet’s Thaïs, Strauss’s Arabella and Ariadne auf Naxos, Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia, and Verdi’s Traviata
Renee Fleming
- Known as the “Queen Of Soul”
- In 1987 became the first woman inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.
- Talented piano player - played on her 1967 hit “Respect”
- In 2008, she was voted Greatest Singer Of All Time by the musicians and journalists selected by Rolling Stone magazine
- “Respect” by Aretha Franklin
- “What you want, baby, you got it; what you need, baby, you got it; all I’m asking for is a little respect when I come home.”
Aretha Franklin
• Women in gender-segregated groups usually had to maintain a glamorous stage presence. High-heeled shoes, revealing clothing, and lipstick were required, often creating practical performance complications. Shown here is Vivien Garry.
Vivien Garry
o There were over 400 women rag composers, but their identity was often masked with pseudonyms and initials. In this ad, composer Louise Gustin is addressed as L. V. Gustin, and was probably assumed to be male.
Louise Gustin
- Civilian flight instructor during WWII
- Founded New York Concert Choir & Orchestra
- Choral conductor of New York City Opera & American Opera Society
- 1957 – First woman to conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
- Guest conductor for National Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, the Oregon Symphony, and the Minnesota Orchestra
Margaret Hillis
- Described as “smoldering,” “sophisticated,” and “dripping with sensuality.”
- Focus of the “male gaze” – “canary role”
- “The Billie Holiday Story”
- Subject of plays, documentaries, books, and movies
- “Lady Sings the Blues” – movie about Holliday’s life starring Diana Ross
- The connection between women, piano, and jazz continued as new jazz forms emerged. Mary Lou Williams (1910-1981) became the piano “superstar” of jazz historiography, often listed as the lone woman instrumentalist among groups of men.
Billie Holiday
• Who was generally regarded as a devout carrier of the gospel message
Mahalia Jackson
• Most outstanding Arab singer of the 20th century
• Cultural icon to Egyptians
• Power to captivate audience – unusual role for woman in Muslim society
• Tarab
o Audience completely caught up in sound and meaning of music
Responds with compliments
Asks for repeated lines and varying vocal delivery
o Performances could last two hours and no two were alike
• Virtuosic performances promoted Arab and Egyptian collective identity during political unrest and change
• Learned Quranic recitation (traditional religious music) from father and brother, transferred vocalized interpretation to qasida (1,000-year-old form of Arabic poetry)
• Many of Egyptian/Arabic poems focused on religious or historical events
• Masterful interpretation by repeating poetic lines and “burning them” in memory of listeners
• Muslim respectability – modest, elegant dress and limited movement on stage
Umm Kulthum
- Served as guest conductor of major orchestras in Munich, Paris, London and Berlin
- Virtuoso Pianist - became female conductor in early 1920s
- In 1925, became first female conduct a major American symphony- New York Symphony
- In 1926, formed Boston Philharmonic Orchestra- consisted of 90 men!
- Ethel Leginska was convinced that to survive “the system,” women had to emulate men in conduct and dress. She abandoned bare-shouldered dresses in favor of masculine attire in an effort to project the “expected” image.
Ethel Leginska
-Taught by brother Tunde Jegede
-Learned through her father and brother musical techniques
-First Female in her family to learn Kora
-Very skillful women vocally with melodies
-First African women to play this 21 stringed instrument
Her grandfather Amadu Bansang Jobarteh was an icon in Gambia
-2010-Composed first film score “The Motherland”
invented new instrument “Nkora”
-Movie soundtrack vocalist “The First Grader”
won “Discovery of the Year” prize
-Movie soundtrack vocalist “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”
-Movie soundtrack vocalist “Roots”
-Taught Kora and Manding music history to college students in UK
-Lectured music history in U.S. colleges
live demonstrations of her instruments
-Goal: found Gambia’s first cultural academy
founded Junior Department
Sona Jobarteh
- Father was an instrument maker
- Practiced with Oud
- Since age 4 she has been singing
- In 2013, she was featured as a guest artist on Calle 13’
- Since 2002, collaborated with a range of European musicians.
- From 1982-2002, she was the lead singer of Sabreen.
- Plays the oud and qanun, among other instruments.
Kamilya Jubran
She penned some of the most long-lasting songs in popular music history in the girl-group genre
Carole King
- American opera singer and dramatic soprano
- Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
- National Medal of Arts
- Member of the British Royal Academy of Music
- Opera roles - Wagner’s Tannhäuser & Tristan und Isolde, Handel’s Deborah, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas
Jessye Norman
• Ma Rainey was a vital link between the rural and classic blues style
Ma Rainey
• Women such as trombonist Melba Liston reported on-the-job prejudice, especially until they “proved themselves”
Melba Liston
- British composer known to conduct male orchestra in performances of her own compositions
- Family disliked that she wanted to study music, but after a number of tries, she was finally allowed to go to Leipzig to study
- Was a key musician in the Women’s Suffrage movement where she wrote an anthem for the women in England
- She was jailed for civil disobedience, and conducted women from her jail cell!
Dame Ethyl Smith
- played dalouka, a traditional Sudanese Drum
- Played el Gaara’s gourd with sticks
- Attended primary school at age 8
- Began singing at age 9
- She prides herself on being Sudanese
- Faced opposition for not assimilating to Egyptian music
- Possibly grew up in a wealthy family
- Had resources to leave Sudan and tour globally
- Regarded worldwide as a strong, independent woman
- She created and leads her own percussive band
- She participated in the Nile Project
- Performs a healing ritual, known as Zar
- Participates in refugee services and volunteers
- Only allowed to sing about Sudanese politics
- In her country, birthdays are not celebrated
- Performs with Afriqairo
Asia Madani
• Australian dramatic coloratura soprano
• One of the most remarkable female singers of 20th century
• Renaissance of bel canto repertoire from 1950s to 1980s
o Bel canto - matching register and tonal quality of the voice to the emotional content of words
o Style used in 18th and early 19th centuries
o Handel, Mozart, and Rossini
Dame Joan Sutherland
- country singer more known for her groundbreaking business endeavors
- her mother taught her to sing harmony in the back seat of a car as they drove between rodeo sites
- discovered singing the national anthem at a rodeo
- she has established her own publishing firm, booking agency, and a management company
Reba McIntyre
- In her youth, she participated in local choirs and talent shows.
- Her mother, Praskovya Prokofievna was known as the best singer in the area.
- Influenced by traditional Russian Folk music, an important part of village life.
- Her songs were widely sold, collected, written about, and played on the radio.
- Won many awards, including the title “People’s Artist of the USSR” for her influence on music.
- After her death, her home was turned into a museum dedicated to her life.
- As a child, she performed for audiences until morning.
- Her first job was a milkmaid.
- Married accordionist, Ivan Rudenko, who accompanies the background of most of her music.
- She wrote over 300 of her own songs.
- After she stopped performing, her mental health began to decline
Maria Mordasova
o Harriet Tubman (b. 1820) used songs to instruct slaves moving on the Underground Railroad. Texts often had double meaning, providing practical instructions as well as encouragement.
Harriet Tubman
Who sang, acted, and danced as part of the Williams and Walker Act?
Aida Overton
- Blues, jazz, and gospel
- vocalist
- Dramatic actress
- First black entertainer to move
- from vaudeville and nightclubs
- to “the white time”
- Critics said she had an “innate theatrical flair that enabled her to project the character and situation of every song she performed”
- “His Eye Is on the Sparrow”
Ethel Waters
- Teen church choir in Lagos
- Age 10 - wrote 1st song
- Gospel → mainstream
- # 5 Billboard World Music Chart
- Producer
- Member of “Outstanding Music Group”
- Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Communications
- She enjoys blogging and broadcasting
- Won 12 awards for her music
- Married to singer Adekunle Gold
- Parents separated when she was 9
- Claims she grew up as a tomboy
Simisola “Simi” Ogunleye
- one of twelve children
- wrote/sang sometimes controversial songs addressing social concerns
- worth approximately $200M
Dolly Parton
-Graduated from the Music Academy in Ljubljana under Pavel Mihelčič, continued postgrad studies in composition in Dresden, and received her master’s in 2008 from the University of Music and Performing arts in Munich and Performing Arts in Munich,
Her music has won many awards such as
-Best Composition in 2004 for her Violin Concerto
1st Prize at Weimar Spring Festival of Contemporary Music in 2008 for Movimento Fluido
-In 2017, awarded the Preseren Fund Prize for her creative work
-Performed many different places– people inspired by her breaking the glass ceiling
-First Slovene composer performed at the BBC Proms
Slovenia is home to the oldest world oldest flute, which is over 60 thousand years old
-The Slovenian Philharmonic is one of the world’s oldest institutions of its kind, dating back to 1701
-The composers included Josef Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, etc.
Nina Senk
- composed the famous/prolific “pickles and peppers” rag
- William Jennings Bryan used it as part of his presidential campaign
Adaline Shepherd
- promotes diet coke and wonderstruck perfume
- named Billboard woman of the year
- 2013 tour made $150M
Taylor Swift
-American pioneering female country music singer.
Kitty Wells
- American country music singer-songwriter and one of country music’s best-known artists and biggest-selling female singers.
Tammy Wynette
-Chinese culture; family name used as the “first name”
-She goes by, “Du Yun”, never just “Du”
-Personal/Professional preference
-Composer, multi-instrumentalist, performance artist, activist
-Social Media Campaign #HearAllComposers has helped to fire up the classical music community
-Father = capitalist; Mother = peasant
-Had to work as factory workers ($6-7)
-Du Yun received the Pulitzer Prize in 2017 for Angel Bones
-Named the Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts, US and Canada in 2018
-In 2019, nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Classical Composition category
In 2017 and 2018, albums Angel’s Bones and Dinosaur Scar were named in the New Yorker’s list of Top 10 Albums.
Du Yun
Who was the first woman to conduct the New York Philharmonic Orchestra?
Nadia Boulanger
