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The "Babe-ification" of Women in Classical Music, Part 1

9/23/2012

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The next few posts will be a serialization of a paper I wrote back in the dim recesses of memory (meaning 1999), and presented at the Feminist Music and Theory V conference in London, England. It seems to me the main changes since then are the increasing "babe-ification" of men (google Charlie Siem, for an example)... I suppose that's a kind of progress?

Two hundred years ago, the female musicians of the Venetian ospedali could be heard but not seen, sheltered from view as they performed. Today it seems that the music industry has decided that women musicians must be seen– and often a great deal of the woman’s body must be seen– before she will be heard; that is, before her recording will be marketed or purchased. Why is it that a woman’s appearance, whether judged as suitable or unsuitable, continually captures the attention of the musical establishment? Have we really progressed so far beyond the attitudes towards those ospedali students, or is this merely the other side of the same coin?

This paper had its genesis about five years ago, from what at first seemed to me an innocuous observation. While browsing through violin recordings (my particular interest), I began noticing an increasing number of “cheesecake” photos on cd covers. Delighted as I am to note the upsurge of talented young women violinists, it did strike my middle-aged and chubby self that perhaps the already tough criteria for success as a Classical musician was getting tougher– if you were female, you’d better be a “babe.”

What a mystery! A recording is an aural, not a visual experience– if the musician is accomplished, why should we care about his or her form? As I began to look at the perception of women musicians it became clear that, in one way or another, their appearance has always been as significant as their skill in the public’s eye and mind.

Perception-- what we appear to be and what others wish we would appear to be. The perception of proper feminine roles has always been a major issue for women in music. Those roles have perhaps been debated with the greatest heat in regard to women as composers. While these women were not actively in the limelight like performers, their “womanliness” (which, of course, would be reflected in their appearance) was nonetheless of great interest to the public. To quote Christine Ammer in her book Unsung: “If... a woman should produce a respectable composition, it was argued that she could do so only at the expense of her ‘womanhood.’ For example, one writer pointed out that, even if matrimony and lack of strength and endurance did not deter a woman composer, it still took a considerable amount of ‘fight’ to make one’s way. Even many men found themselves temperamentally ill equipped for such battle. And if a woman should be suited for it, it would diminish her ‘womanly qualities,’ and then what would become of her power of writing ‘womanly music?’”

So many Catch-22's! Writers often worked hard to assure their readers that these risqué women composers had not lost this mysterious “womanliness” by virtue of their musical pursuits. Here, for example, the introduction to an article from the February 1904 issue of Etude Magazine interviewing Amy Beach:

“When Mr. George Whitfield Chadwick first heard Mrs. Beach’s symphony, he is said to have exclaimed, ‘Why was I not born a woman?’ It was the delicacy of thought and finish in her musical expression that had struck him, an expression of true womanliness, absolute in its sincerity... She is a woman of charmingly simple manners, and, as foregone conclusion, of high, innate refinement. She is of medium height. Her eyes are of a grayish blue, large, and smiling. Her complexion is fresh and brilliant... Her straightforwardness is like her personality– gentle, direct, convincing... If you should put direct questions to her as I did you would learn that she composes when she feels the inclination move her to it; that she studies the piano when she is not writing; that one time of day is as good to work in as another, and that her housekeeping is of a very earnest interest to her. This last, however, was an admission, not an answer; but there was such ample proof of it that it must be put down. So many great ladies in art have told me what good housekeepers they were, and, after leaving them, I have had to stop, on turning the first shielding corner, to brush from my overcoat the veneer of dust it had acquired on their hall bench. Mrs. Beach’s domestic regime is not of this type. It fills you with chagrin, indeed, not at the prospect of dust carried out, but at the fearful possibilities of dust carried in.”

The double standard becomes so clear when we turn the tables and apply the same treatment to men! The brilliant mystery writer Dorothy L. Sayers does just that in a collection of essays from the 1930's, entitled Are Women Human?

“Probably no man has ever troubled to imagine how strange his life would appear to himself if it were unrelentingly assessed in terms of his maleness; if everything he wore, said or did had to be justified by reference to female approval; if he were compelled to regard himself, day in and day out, not as a member of society, but merely as a virile member of society... If he were vexed by continual advice how to add a rough male tough to his typing, how to be learned without losing his masculine appeal, how to combine chemical research with seduction, how to play bridge without incurring the suspicion of impotence... He would be edified by solemn discussions about ‘Should Men Serve in Drapery Establishments?’ and acrimonious ones about ‘Tea-Drinking Men’; by cross-shots of public affairs ‘from the masculine angle,’ and by irritable correspondence about men who expose their anatomy on beaches (so masculine of them), conceal it in dressing-gowns (so feminine of them), think about nothing but women, pretend an unnatural indifference to women, exploit their sex to get jobs, lower the tone of the office by their sexless appearance, and generally fail to please a public opinion which demands the incompatible... If he gave an interview to a reporter, or performed any unusual exploit, he would find it recorded in such terms as these: ‘Professor Bract, although a distinguished botanist, is not in any way an unmanly man. He has, in fact, a wife and seven children. Tall and burly, the hands with which he handles his delicate specimens are as gnarled and powerful as those of a Canadian lumberjack, and when I swilled beer with him in his laboratory, he bawled his conclusions at me in a voice that implemented the promise of his swaggering moustache.’”

A recurring theme in Ms. Sayers 1936 novel, Gaudy Night, is the importance of finding one’s “job” in life, and remaining faithful to it, no matter the outside opinion. Interesting to hear this sentiment echoed two years later by Nadia Boulanger, when asked by a reporter how it felt to be the first woman to ever conduct the Boston Symphony: “I’ve been a woman for a little over fifty years, and have gotten over my initial astonishment. As for conducting an orchestra, that’s a job. I don’t think sex plays much part.”

Alas, this clarity of vision seems all too rare. 


stay tuned for more...

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Part Two of Two Unsung Heroes: Harvey S. Whistler and Arthur P. Schmidt

9/8/2012

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Now we turn to the second unsung hero, Arthur P. Schmidt. Schmidt and his publishing company were notable for their support of contemporary American composers in the early 20th century, and for our purposes, particularly notable for their support of women composers of the time. The company's extensive archives are housed at the Library of Congress. In an uncharacteristic (and perhaps unintentional) display of humor, the library's website lists the following description of the collection:

Linear feet of shelf space occupied: 212 
Number of Containers: 514 
Approximate number of items: ?????

In addition to a catalog of the company's archives housed at the Library of Congress, the website http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/music/eadxmlmusic/eadpdfmusic/mu2005.wp.0035.pdf
also provides the following biography of Schmidt:

"Arthur Paul Schmidt was born in Altona, Germany on 1 April 1846 and came to the United States in 1866. He worked for the G.D. Russell publishing house in Boston before opening his own retail and foreign music importing business in 1876. The A.P. Schmidt company soon gained a reputation for publishing works of many distinguished American composers. And, with branches in New York from 1894 to 1937 and in Leipzig from 1889 to 1910, it would become one of the largest music publishing and importing firms in the United States. Mr. Schmidt died on 5 May 1921 but the firm continued until it was absorbed by the Summy-Birchard Company of Evanston, Illinois in 1960. The influence of the A.P. Schmidt Publishing Company on the development and dissemination of American music is immeasurable."

One aspect to appreciate about Schmidt's championship of American composers in that time is that he did so with little expectation of financial reward. His support extended to composers of the New England school such as Amy Beach, George Whitefield Chadwick, Arthur Foote, John Knowles Paine and Horatio Parker, and also Edward MacDowell (who was more lucrative). He was the first American publisher to publish an American symphony, Chadwick's Symphony No. 2, in 1888. In addition to Amy Beach, women published by Schmidt include Florence Newell Barbour (1866-1946), Marion Bauer (1887-1955), Gena Branscombe (1881-1977), Mabel Daniels (1878-1971), Helen Hopekirk (1856-1945), Lucinda Jewell (1874-?), Margaret Ruthven Lang (1867-1972), Frances McCollin (1892-1960), Edna Rosalind Park, Olga von Radecki (fl. 1882), Anna Priscilla Risher (1875-1946), Clara Kathleen Rogers (1844-1931), and Mildred Weston. A scroll through the music archive pdf (at the website listed above) reveal many less-celebrated names of women: Mildred Adair, Mrs. Crosby Adams, Blanche Ray Alden, Emma Ashford, Alice H. Baker, Mertena Bancroft, Charlotte Barnard, Gertrude Bartlett, Irenee Berger, Helen Lee Bidwell, Sarah Coleman Bragdon, Minna Brinkman, Radie Britain, Gail Ridgway Brown, Kate L. Brown, Mary A. Browne, and Carrie Bullard, just to name those in the A's and B's.

After Schmidt's death, the company continued its enlightened policy towards women, especially as it turned to publishing more "educational" works. In addition to the three works of Kemp Stillings discussed in a previous post (and I just saw a fourth one on the list I hadn't known about till now), pedagogical works by the intriguingly-named Ida Mae Crombie (Scale Stories and three other works-- I don't know why, I just love to say her name), Ruth Laighton (First Steps in Shifting and four other books), Edith Hatch (Melodious Etudes in Double Notes and Octaves, a scale book, and 18 character pieces), and Lillian Shattuck (Bowings for Three-Octave Scales, and The Very First Lesson for Violin) can be found on the archive list. There are other composers with numerous descriptive titles to their credit, but there is no way of telling the instrumentation from the information provided. Field trip...  

Speaking of field trips, I did say I would find out how Harvey Whistler's personal music collection ended up at Arizona State University. Jacob Dakon, author of the article from which I quoted extensively, let me know that "it was started by Georgeanna Whistler (his wife) after his death. She was looking for someone to take his music and ASU stepped up to the plate." The collection Jacob started at Ohio State contains Whistler's methods, theses, research articles, personal documents, etc. He says they are waiting for a few boxes from California to complete the collection. If you're in Columbus, stop by and have a look!


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