Society for Music TheorySociety for Music TheoryWOMEN IN MUSIC -- HONORS 260
Bowling Green State University
Fall, 2002
Dr. Mary Natvig
372-7351
1052 Moore Musical Arts Building
mnatvig@bgnet.bgsu.edu
Course Description
This course will explore numerous issues concerning women in music. These may include, but are not limited to: 1) the contributions and roles of women as composers, patrons and performers in Western art music, non-Western art music and popular music, 2) the portrayal of women in opera and musical theater, and/or 3) feminist perspectives in musical criticism. Student will be expected to participate in class discussions and projects. There will be reading, listening, written assignments and two major projects (one group, one individual).
Assignments, projects, and exams
Weekly reading assignments are listed on the syllabus and are due on the day they are listed under. You will often be asked to provide brief outlines of the salient points to be distributed in class (not everyone will read the same articles). There may also be some listening assignments. There are two major projects, one a group documentary project and the other an individual final project (either a class presentation with written supporting material or a term paper) and two small papers. Assignments and projects will be discussed in more detail later. Watch MY BGSU for details. There will be an in-class essay midterm. You may use your notes for this exam.
Concert Requirement
There is no concert requirement but it is strongly suggested that students go to at least five concerts of their choice. I will suggest those pertinent to the class as they occur and will give extra credit for going to these concerts.
Grading
Class participation and preparation 25%
Musical Autobiography I 10%
Musical Autobiography II 10%
Documentary Project participation 20%
and contribution
Midterm 10%
Final Project 25%
SCHEDULE
In cases where there are multiple reading assignments, groups of students will be assigned different readings and will be responsible for reporting on their particular assignment to the entire class.
Week 1
Aug. 27 Introduction/discussion
Aug. 29 Setting the stage
What is gender? Sexuality? Feminism? Representation? What is an "other?"
Readings: TBA
Week 2
Sept. 3 Music and Power
Readings "Difference in Power in Music" by John Sheperd, in
.Musicology and Difference, ed. Ruth Solie (Berkeley: U of CA
Press) 1994.
"Gender, Professionalism and the Musical Canon," by Marcia
Citron in Journal of Musicology 8 (1990).
"Gender and Power and Music," by Ellen Koskoff in The Musical
Woman 3 (1990).
"Power and Gender in the Musical Experiences of Women," by Carol E. Robertson in Women and Music in Cross Cultural Perspective, (Chicago: Univ. of Illinois Press) 1989.
Sept. 5 Where are the Women?
Readings: "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" by
Linda Nochlin in Art and Sexual Politics, ed. by Thomas Hess
and Elizabeth Baker (NY: Collier).
"Women as Musicians: A Question of Class," by Nancy Reich
in Solie.
"Introduction" from Rapture Engaged: The Suppression of the Feminine in Western Culture, by Ruth Anthony El Saffar, (London: Routledge) 1994.
"The sound of Women in Music: Talent Used and Abused," by Alberto Innaurato in On the Issues: The Progressive Women’s Quarterly, Winter, 1999
Week 3
Sept. 10 Women’s "Roles"
Readings: Introduction from Women Making Music, ed. By Jane Bowers and Judith Tick (Chicago: Univ. of Illinois Press) 1986.
"Passed Away is the Piano Girl: Changes in American Musical Life: 1870-1900," by Judith Tick, in Bowers and Tick.
Chapter One in Cultivating Music in America: Women Patrons and Activists since 1860, ed. By Ralph P. Locke and Cyrilla Barr (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press) 1997.
Sept. 12 Challenging the Roles
In class video: Some Like it Hot
Week 4
Sept. 17 Challenging the Roles (still…)
Readings: "Women's Orchestras...United States," by Carol Neuls-Bates in Bowers and Tick
" Women Conductors: Credibility in a Male Dominated
Profession" by Kay Lawson in The Musical Woman 3.
"Women Orchestral Conductors in America: The Struggle for Acceptance: An Historical View from the Nineteenth Century to the Present," by Shelley M. Jagow
"A Maestro Need not be a Mister," by Norman Lebrecht
Guest: Dr. Emily Freeman Brown, conductor, TBA
Sept. 19 Explanation of major projects
Week 5
Sept. 24 Women and Music in the Middle Ages and Renaissance
Readings: "Ancient and Medieval Music" in Pendle.
"Ful weel she soong..." Anna Bagnall Yardley (pp. 15-38) in
Bowers and Tick
In class: Hildegard video (excerpts)
Sept. 26
Readings: "The Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Centuries" in Pendle.
"Courtesans, Muses, or Musicians?" Anthony Newcomb in
Bowers and Tick.
"The emergence of Women Composers in Italy..." Jane Bowers
in Bowers and Tick.
"The Voice of Barbara Strozzi," Ellen Rosand in Bowers and Tick.
Week 6
Oct. 1 Women and Music in the 19th Century
Readings: "The Romantic Period" in Pendle.
"Clara Schumann," by Nancy Reich in Bowers and Tick
Oct. 3 Guest: Mr. Sandy Craig
Week 7
Oct. 8 Group project discussion and workday
Oct. 10 NO CLASS/Fall Break
Week 8
Oct. 15 Women and Music in 20th-Century Art Music
Readings "Modern Music around the World" in Pendle
"North America since 1920" in Pendle
guest: Dr. Marilyn Shrude
Oct. 17 New Music and Art Festival
Class goes to Seminar with Paul Lansky at 1:00 PM in Bryan Hall
Go directly to Bryan Hall
Week 9
Oct. 22 Midterm
Oct. 24 Women in Non-Western Music
"Women in Non-Western Music" (314-330) in Pendle
Week 10
Oct. 29 Women and Music in Jazz
Readings: "American Popular Music" in Pendle
"African-American Women in Blues and Jazz" in Pendle
"Mean Mama Blues: Bessie Smith and the Vaudeville Era" by
Henrietta Yurchenco in Music, Gender, and Culture, ed. By
Herndon and Ziegler
In class video: Ladies sing the Blues
Oct. 31 Gamelan Day
Meet in classroom (be on time!) and we will go to the gamelan room together
Week 11 Music and Misogyny
Nov. 5 In class video: Dreamworlds
Readings: TBA
Nov. 7 Group project wrap up
Week 12
Nov. 12 Music and Sexuality
Readings: Chapter 7 "Living to Tell: Madonna's Resurrection of the
Fleshly" in Feminine Endings by Susan McClary (Minnesota: U of MN Press) 1991.
"Queering the Pitch: A Posy of Definitions and Impersonations," by Wayne Koestenbaum and "On a Lesbian Relationship with Music: A Serious Effort Not to Think Straight," by Suzanne G. Cusick, both in Queering the Pitch: A New Gay and Lesbian Musicology edited by Philip Brett, Elizabeth Wood, and Gary C. Thomas (London: Routledge) 1994.
Nov. 14 Guest: Dr. Diane Christopherson
Week 13 Individual Final Project Presentations
Nov. 19
Nov. 21
Week 14
Nov. 26
Nov. 28 NO CLASS/Thanksgiving
Week 15
Dec. 3
Dec. 5
Week 16
Dec. 10
Dec. 12
Exam Week (if needed for presentations)