Updates and expands Claghorn's previous book, Women Composers and Hymnists (Scarecrow, 1984), presenting succinct biographies for female composers in both secular and sacred music.

The few in earlier times who gained some renown were as often as not the sisters, daughters, wives, or muses of well-known men--the surnames of Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann speak for themselves. Even with the present-day increase in their number, women composers have largely failed to draw the attention of the public.In recognition of these nearly invisible yet greatly talented musicians, Julie Anne Sadie and Rhian Samuel have brought together an international corps of experts to produce The Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers. This definitive source provides detailed biographies of more than 1,000 creators of Western classical music. In signed articles, the Dictionary chronicles the lives and works of women composers from all corners of the world. Here you can read about the Medieval mystic Hildgard von Bingen, the Renaissance madrigalist Maddalena Casulana, the flamboyant seventeenth-century vocal composer Barbara Strozzi, the prolific New Englander Amy Beach, and the Pulitzer Prize winner Ellen Taaffe Zwilich.

Although American women have written many of our most memorable popular songs, their contributions have received little recognition. The first biographical dictionary devoted to American women songwriters, this work profiles 181 well-known and little-known women who have written popular and motion picture songs, musicals, country, blues, jazz, folk, gospel, and hymns. Many African-American and contemporary songwriter/performers such as Madonna, Janet Jackson, and Mariah Carey are included. This volume provides hard-to-find biographical and career information across the broad spectrum of indigenous American popular song. A history of women's contribution to the creation of American popular song emerges through these profiles. Grattan takes pains to profile the famous, the unsung, and those who persevered through sheer tenacity and against all odds. The dictionary is divided into ten music categories and profiles are alphabetically arranged within each category. An introduction to each chapter gives an historical overview of women's contributions to that form of music. Each profile consists of an up-to-date biographical essay on private life, career as both songwriter and, in many cases, performer, most famous songs, and sources of further information. Entries are cross-referenced. Lyrics from a number of the best-known songs by women songwriters are included. A bibliography and song index will aid the researcher.

When the first edition of Unsung was published in 1980, Booklist called it a publishing event, and The Boston Globe declared that Unsung is a book that relies on research more than rhetoric and, as such, gives long overdue recognition to the role of women in the development of American music. Unsung became the classic text in the field; this second edition, revised and expanded, extends the book's authority to the present day by surveying a full 200 years of active women in American music. Ammer has inserted new material throughout the book, rewritten and restructured portions of the text and added two new chapters. She has added dozens of composers and performers, including women involved in ragtime and jazz from the late 1800s to the present. The book chronicles the long over-looked achievements made between 1800 and 2000 by early musical pioneers, organists, composers in several different categories from traditional to avant grade, conductors, string and keyboard players, leaders of women's orchestras, innovators in jazz and other American idioms, opera composers and conductors, teachers and musical patrons and advocates.(Singers are omitted in both editions, for they compete only with other women in their own voice parts. Rather, the book concentrates on women composers, instrumentalists, conductors, orchestra and opera managers and music educators.) Succinct biographical sketches show the influences on - and influences of - hundreds of musicians. Since the publication of the first edition, women musicians have made some important strides. Students and scholars are increasingly interested in researching and writing the history of women in music. The outlook for today's musicians has also changed. An increasing number of women perform in first-rank orchestras, a handful of women conductors have gained national attention and individual instrumentalists have won recognition. Since 1983, three women have been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for their compositions, an award previously won only by men; similarly, in 1999 the Avery Fisher Prize was given to Sarah Chang. Pamela Frank and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, the first time in the history of the prize that any woman has been so acknowledged. As a result, some have suggested that Unsung is no longer an appropriate title for this book.Still, Ammer maintains that given the perspective of two centuries, the achievements of women musicians are still largely overlooked.

Popular music owes greatly to the spirit of rebellion. In all of its diversified, experimental, modern-day micro-genres, music's roots were first watered by good old-fashioned social dissension- its incendiary heights pushed heavenward by radicals and rogue revolutionaries. And perhaps none are more influential and non-conformist than women. Always first in line to give convention a sound thrashing, women in music have penned sonic masterpieces, championed sweeping social movements, and breathed life into sounds yet unimagined. Today's guitar-wielding heroines continue to blaze the trail, tapping reservoirs and soundscapes still unknown to their male counterparts- hell hath no fury like a woman with an amplifier. Women Icons of Popular Music puts the limelight on 24 legendary artists who challenged the status quo and dramatically expanded the possibilities of women in the highly competitive music world. Using critical acclaim and artistic integrity as benchmarks of success, this can't-put-down resource features rich biographical and musical analyses of a diverse array of musicians from country, pop, rock, R&B, soul, indie, and hip-hop. It goes beyond the shorter, less detailed biographical information found in many women in rock compendiums by giving readers a more in-depth understanding of these artists as individuals, as well as providing a larger context-social, musical, political, and personal-for their success and legacy. Highlighted in sidebars throughout are related trends, movements, events, and issues to give readers a broad perspective of the defining moments in music and pop culture history. With discographies, illustrations, and a print and electronic resource guide, Women Icons of Popular Music is a rousing, insightful resource for students and music fans alike. Tori Amos Joan Baez Mary J. Blige Patsy Cline Ani DiFranco Aretha Franklin Janis Joplin Carole King Madonna Joni Mitchell Diana Ross Patti Smith Tina Turner

Throughout the twentieth century women have made significant contributions to the creation of American musical theatre. Directing, choreographing, writing, arranging, producing and designing musicals in a variety of venues throughout America, women have played a significant role in shaping the development of musical theatre both on and off Broadway and in regional, educational, and community venues. The essays in this book examine the history of women in musical theatre, providing biographical descriptions of the women themselves; analyses and interpretations of their productions; and several accounts of how being a woman affected the artists' careers. Topics include the similarities among the careers of successful but neglected lyricists Rida Johnson Young, Anne Caldwell, and Dorothy Donnelly; the Depression-era productions of Hallie Flanagan and Cheryl Crawford; the transformation of the classic "showgirl" image through the dances and stage movement created by prominent female choreographers; and a survey of numerical data highlighting the discrepancy between the number of men versus the number of women hired to direct professional musical productions in various venues across the United States.

First study of American women composers and attitudes towards women musicians in the nineteenth century.

Denise Von Glahn explores the relationship between listening and musical composition focusing on nine American women composers inspired by the sounds of the natural world: Amy Beach, Marion Bauer, Louise Talma, Pauline Oliveros, Joan Tower, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Victoria Bond, Libby Larsen, and Emily Doolittle. Von Glahn situates "nature composing" among the larger tradition of nature writing and argues that, similar, works of these women express deeply held spiritual and aesthetic beliefs about nature. Drawing on a wealth of archival and original source material, Von Glahn skillfully employs literary and gender studies, ecocriticism and ecomusicology, and contemporary musicological thought to tell the stories of these composers who seek to understand nature through music.

Exploding the assumption that black women's only important musical contributions have been in folk, jazz, and popHelen Walker-Hill's unique study provides a carefully researched examination of the history and scope of musical composition by African American women composers from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Focusing on the effect of race, gender, and class, From Spirituals to Symphonies notes the important role played by individual personalities and circumstances in shaping this underappreciated category of American art. The study also provides in-depth exploration of the backgrounds, experiences, and musical compositions of eight African American women including Margaret Bonds, Undine Smith Moore, and Julia Perry, who combined the techniques of Western art music with their own cultural traditions and individual gifts. Despite having gained national and international recognition during their lifetimes, the contributions of many of these women are today forgotten.

Featuring analytical discussions or descriptions of about 150 different pieces of electroacoustic music by women composers in the United States, this book is the most definitive attempt to date to discuss the achievements of women as composers of experimental and avant-garde music from the 1930s to the present day. Using a wealth of primary material such as interviews and personal correspondence, Women Composers and Music Technology also explores currently relevant issues in gender and technology. Drawing out the relationships between composers and their working environments, and between teachers and students, Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner discusses the contribution of women composers to electroacoustic music. Complete with a bibliography and discography covering the work of 90 composers, the book is a valuable resource for those wishing to learn more about particular composers and their works. Further volumes are planned which will cover composers from continental Europe, the United Kingdom, Mexico, South America and Australasia.

When the first edition of Queering the Pitch was published in early 1994, it was immediately hailed as a landmark and defining work in the new field of Gay Musicology. In light of the explosion of Gay Musicology since 1994, a new edition of Queering the Pitch is timely and needed. In this new work, the editors are including a landmark essay by Philip Brett on Gay Musicology, its history and scope. The essay itself has become a cause celebre, and this will be its first full appearance in print. Along with this new historical essay, the editors are contributing a new introduction that outlines the changes that have occurred over the last decade as Gay Musicology has grown.

A groundbreaking collection of essays in feminist music criticism, this book addresses problems of gender and sexuality in repertoires ranging from the early seventeenth century to rock and performance art. ". . . this is a major book . . . [McClary's] achievement borders on the miraculous." The Village Voice"No one will read these essays without thinking about and hearing music in new and interesting ways. Exciting reading for adventurous students and staid professionals." Choice"Feminine Endings, a provocative 'sexual politics' of Western classical or art music, rocks conservative musicology at its core. No review can do justice to the wealth of ideas and possibilities [McClary's] book presents. All music-lovers should read it, and cheer." The Women's Review of Books"McClary writes with a racy, vigorous, and consistently entertaining style. . . . What she has to say specifically about the music and the text is sharp, accurate, and telling; she hears what takes place musically with unusual sensitivity."-The New York Review of Books

A classic in gender studies in music, Marcia J. Citron's comprehensive, balanced work lays a broad foundation for the study of women composers and their music. Drawing on a diverse body of feminist and interdisciplinary theory, Citron shows how the western art canon is not intellectually pure but the result of a complex mixture of attitudes, practices, and interests that often go unacknowledged and unchallenged.   Winner of the Pauline Alderman Prize from the International Alliance of Women in Music, Gender and the Musical Canon explores important elements of canon formation, such as notions of creativity, professionalism, and reception. Citron surveys the institutions of power, from performing organizations and the academy to critics and the publishing and recording industries, that affect what goes into the canon and what is kept out. She also documents the nurturing role played by women, including mothers, in cultivating female composers. In a new introduction, she assesses the book's reception by composers and critics, especially the reactions to her controversial reading of Cécile Chaminade's sonata for piano.   A key volume in establishing how the concepts and assumptions that form the western art music canon affect female composers and their music, Gender and the Musical Canon also reveals how these dynamics underpin many of the major issues that affect musicology as a discipline.  

So You Want to Sing Music by Women opens wide a vast repertoire of vocal music written by women to advocate for widespread inclusion of this too-often neglected work in performance repertoire. Hoch and Lister provide a historical and contemporary perspective, chronicling the Western art music canon while also addressing contemporary trends in music theater and CCM. In addition to providing a historical overview and social context in which women created music, this volume explores the music of hundreds of historical and contemporary women composers, such as Hildegard von Bingen, Clara Schumann, Lili Boulanger, Cathy Berberian, Erykah Badu, and Sara Bareilles. In addition to discussions of art song, opera, choral music, and avant garde/experimental music, Erin Guinup and Amanda Wansa Morgan also contribute chapters devoted to music theater, CCM, and advocacy for women composers. Interviews with high-profile composers including Lori Laitman, Rosephanye Powell, Meredith Monk, Georgia Stitt provide accounts from the frontlines of today's composing world. Additional chapters by Scott McCoy and Wendy LeBorgne address vocal technique and health, and Matthew Edwards provides guidance for working with sound technology. The So You Want to Sing series is produced in partnership with the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Like all books in the series, So You Want to Sing Music by Women features online supplemental material on the NATS website. Please visit www.nats.org to access style-specific exercises, audio and video files, and additional resources.

In Women of Influence in Contemporary Music: Nine American Composers, Michael K. Slayton has collected essays, which focus on women who have made significant contributions to American music: Elizabeth Austin, Susan Botti, Gabriela Lena Frank, Jennifer Higdon, Libby Larsen, Tania León, Cindy McTee, Marga Richter, and Judith Shatin. While these composers have much in common, not least of all dedication to their art, their individual stories reveal different impulses in American music. Their works reflect the shifting societal landscapes in the United States over the last seven decades, as well as different stylistic approaches to writing music. Each chapter includes a biography of the composer, an interview, and a detailed analysis of one major composition. The composers openly reflect on their individual journeys, in which they have discovered respective musical languages and have found success during different times in history. Because few music books focus solely on female composers, Women of Influence in Contemporary Music offers a rare glimpse into the styles and attitudes of gifted women and their work.

 This collection of new interviews with twenty-five accomplished female composers substantially advances our knowledge of the work, experiences, compositional approaches, and musical intentions of a diverse group of creative individuals. With personal anecdotes and sometimes surprising intimacy and humor, these wide-ranging conversations represent the diversity of women composing music in the United States from the mid-twentieth century into the twenty-first. The composers work in a variety of genres including classical, jazz, multimedia, or collaborative forms for the stage, film, and video games. Their interviews illuminate questions about the status of women composers in America, the role of women in musical performance and education, the creative process and inspiration, the experiences and qualities that contemporary composers bring to their craft, and balancing creative and personal lives. Candidly sharing their experiences, advice, and views, these vibrant, thoughtful, and creative women open new perspectives on the prospects and possibilities of making music in a changing world.