Music 301/501

Women in Music

A Few 20^th Century Composers

20^th Century Avant Garde: Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901-1953)

·        Born in Ohio; very conservative upbringing

·        Arm problems steered her into composing

·        Made many important contacts in Chicago, e.g. Henry Cowell, that led to immersion in both avant garde and folk music, styles which dominated her compositions

·        Studied with Charles Seeger (her future husband) confirmed dissonant, serial trends in her work

·        Received a Guggenheim in 1930; first woman and one of only five up to 1945

·        Earlier works very avant garde

·        serialized sets (Schoenberg),

·        sound mass (Varèse), clusters, intense dissonance

·        From Late 30’s on, most works based on folk songs; interest arose from study of Cowell’s ideas

·        Example of earlier style: Violin Sonata (1926)

·        Uses asymmetrical meters, ostinato, very intricate counterpoint

Rebecca Clark (1886-1979)

·        English born (Harrow)  into a musical family

·        Studied violin from age 8, later concentrated on viola and became touring soloist

·        Began composing songs age 17

·        Studied composition at Royal College of Music from age 21

·        One of the first women members of a professional orchestra in London

·        Won composition contests in Europe and America, e.g. for Viola Sonata, 1919

·        Some works published under male pseudonym Anthony Trent. She admitted publishers paid more attention to those than some of the works under her name

·        Compositions included songs and chamber music

·        Her music is “English” in the use of folk songs and modal harmony

·        Example: Trio for Violin Cello and Piano (1921), mvt. 3: uses English country dance themes.  Harmony is progressive, approaching polytonality at times. Lots of rhythmic vitality

Ellen Taafe Zwilich (b. 1939 in Miami)

·        Non-musical but supportive family; played piano, violin, trumpet

·        Educated at Florida State; further study after graduation in NYC (Ivan Galamian)

·        Free-lanced in NYC as violinist, but always wanted to be a composer; by early 20’s she had heard many of her works (also unusual)

·        Received doctorate in Composition from Juilliard (first woman to receive this degree) in 1975; teachers were Elliott Carter and Roger Sessions

·        Music usually catagorized as “neo-romantic,” using large genres and resources in large sound sweeps, but developed further beyond harmony of romantics

·        Her success is probably as high as almost any other living composer, man or woman

·        Example: Einsame Nacht (“Lonely Night”): songs 3 and 4

·        Text by Hermann Hesse, existentialist; translations Jezic p. 178

·        Piano part covers entire instrument; vocal part not as wide

·        Piano in 1^st mvt has very sweeping gestures; 2^nd mvt is more subdued; lots of dialogue between singer and piano  PLAY

·        Example: Symphony No. 1 (originally Three Movements for Orchestra), 1982

·        The composition that won her the Pulitzer Prize in 1983

·        Great exploitation of range of colors in orchestra

·        First 15 bars of 1^st movement serve as basis for the entire work, emphasizing the interval of the third.