Welcome!
I began working on this anthology around 2003, spurred on by my curiosity about Josephine Trott. It was hard to believe that this person could have produced the Melodious Double Stops books and the piece The Puppet Show, then disappeared from the musical world. Who was she? Where was she from? What else did she do? Were there more like her?
It also struck me around this time that most of my college students had never played a composition written by a woman. That just didn’t seem right. I knew from previous research that there was a wealth of music to be found, but a paucity of music available to meet the needs of every level of playing. So, I went on a quest to find fun pieces in a variety of styles that, for the most part, weren’t currently available, and that would be playable by beginning, intermediate and advanced students. There would no longer be an excuse for feeling odd using the pronoun “she” for a composer!
In addition to finding pieces from the last few centuries, I wanted to include women writing today. Ellen Taaffe Zwilich and Libby Larsen were early supporters of the project, and I was able to find some young composers both in and out of school to make contributions as well. My aim was to include compositions reflecting a variety of styles and eras, as well as multiple levels of playing, in the collection. I also wanted to make sure the pieces were both pedagogically sound and musically rewarding. The volumes are organized around the grade levels described in the ASTA String Syllabus. Volume 1 (Beginning), corresponds to Grades 1 and 2, Volume 2 (Intermediate 1) corresponds to Grade 3, Volume 3 (Intermediate 2) with Grade 4, and lastly Volume 4 fits in with Grades 5 and 6. The books are not meant to be a progressive method, and most pieces are of a suitable length for recital/encore use. Creating the anthology was a nine-year project, including research and then inputting the music with Sibelius. I hope you find the pieces fun to play and teach!
Please have a look around the website-- it is a work in progress! There will be sound files of many of the pieces in the anthology, suggestions for other pieces composed by women you might like, and updates on more publications by women composers here. There is a lot more material than I could fit in these volumes! And if you have comments or questions, I'd love to hear from you. You can email me on the "About the Editor" page.
Best wishes,
Cora Cooper
It also struck me around this time that most of my college students had never played a composition written by a woman. That just didn’t seem right. I knew from previous research that there was a wealth of music to be found, but a paucity of music available to meet the needs of every level of playing. So, I went on a quest to find fun pieces in a variety of styles that, for the most part, weren’t currently available, and that would be playable by beginning, intermediate and advanced students. There would no longer be an excuse for feeling odd using the pronoun “she” for a composer!
In addition to finding pieces from the last few centuries, I wanted to include women writing today. Ellen Taaffe Zwilich and Libby Larsen were early supporters of the project, and I was able to find some young composers both in and out of school to make contributions as well. My aim was to include compositions reflecting a variety of styles and eras, as well as multiple levels of playing, in the collection. I also wanted to make sure the pieces were both pedagogically sound and musically rewarding. The volumes are organized around the grade levels described in the ASTA String Syllabus. Volume 1 (Beginning), corresponds to Grades 1 and 2, Volume 2 (Intermediate 1) corresponds to Grade 3, Volume 3 (Intermediate 2) with Grade 4, and lastly Volume 4 fits in with Grades 5 and 6. The books are not meant to be a progressive method, and most pieces are of a suitable length for recital/encore use. Creating the anthology was a nine-year project, including research and then inputting the music with Sibelius. I hope you find the pieces fun to play and teach!
Please have a look around the website-- it is a work in progress! There will be sound files of many of the pieces in the anthology, suggestions for other pieces composed by women you might like, and updates on more publications by women composers here. There is a lot more material than I could fit in these volumes! And if you have comments or questions, I'd love to hear from you. You can email me on the "About the Editor" page.
Best wishes,
Cora Cooper
