Mus 113, Women in Music

Approved by Faculty Senate March 30, 2009

Mus 113, Women in Music

3 cr.

Summer, 2008

SYLLABUS

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Music 113, Women in Music is a 2-credit survey open to the general student as well as the music major. Through a combination of lectures, assigned reading and listening, and class discussion, the course surveys the history of women in music, from the Greek poet Sappho to the present. The title “Women in Music” implies much more than women as composers or performers; the course will examine prominent figures in such diverse roles as educators, conductors, critics, patrons and more. While the primary focus of the coverage is the Western high art tradition, some consideration of the relation of women to musical life in other cultures will be included. For the student with interest in a particular aspect of musical life, or a specific culture, the assigned book report will provide the opportunity to explore that interest more thoroughly.

This Course Applies to: University Studies - Arts & Sciences (Humanities)

USP Course Objectives (University Studies Criteria that promote students' abilities to):

#1. Identify and understand specific elements and assumptions of music:

#2. Understand how historical context, cultural values and gender roles influenced perceptions and interpretations:

#3. Understand the role of critical analysis in the interpretation and evaluation of music in the human experience.

MAJOR OBJECTIVES

After completion of this course, the student will:

#1. Be able to identify and understand elements of musical creative and recreative activity as it relates to female musicians. (USP Objectives #1 & 2)

#2. Be able to understand ways in which gender influences musical perceptions and interpretations as they relate to performers and to listeners. (USP Objectives #1 2, & 3)

#3. Be able to understand the role of gender and cultural analysis in interpreting and evaluating expressions of human experience. (USP Objectives #2 & 3)

#4. Be able to describe the role of women in "art" music from the Middle Ages to the present day. (USP Objectives #2)

#5. Be able to describe the contributions of women in contemporary popular music. (USP Objectives #2 & 3)

#6. Be able to identify representative works written by women of specifically for women performers. (USP Objectives #1 & 3)

TEXTBOOKS

Required:Karin Pendle. Women and Music: a history, 2d ed.

Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001

On Reserve:James R. Briscoe, ed. New historical anthology of music by women.

Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004

Companion compact discs.

GRADING

Grades will be assigned on the basis of the following:

3 - 5 Quizzes over assigned reading and listening:40%

Contribution to class discussion:25%

(includes attendance)

Final presentation (book report):35%

ATTENDANCE

Regular attendance is assumed. One un-excused absence is granted. Each un-excused absence beyond that will lower the grade for Contribution to class discussion one letter. Quizzes missed due to un-excused absence will not be made up. Absences considered excused must be arranged at least 24 hours in advance in writing.

COURSE CONTENT

Feminist esthetics

Ancient and medieval music (incl. Sappho, poet, singer)

Women and music to ca. 1450 (incl. Hildegard von Bingen, composer, sacred music)

The 15th through the 18th Centuries

(incl. Francesca Caccini, composer, performer secular music)

The 19th Century

(incl. Clara Schumann, Fanny Mendelssohn, composers, instrumentalists;

Jenny Lind, singer)

20th Century Europeans (incl. Nadia Boulanger, teacher)

Women in American Music

(incl. Amy Beach, composer, performer

Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, patron

Dorothy Delay, teacher

Claudia Cassidy, music critic

Beverly Sills, performer, administrator

Antonia Brico, conductor)

Women in Blues and Jazz

(incl. Bessie Smith, blues singer

Ella Fitzgerald, jazz singer)

BOOK REPORT

Each student will select a book from a list containing books in the WSU Library on topics related to women and music. This book should be selected and approved by the instructor before the end of the second week of classes. At the end of the course, each student will prepare a 4—page printed report. Using the written report as a reference, the student will give a 15—minute oral presentation, expanding on those aspects of the book that the student found most valuable, or possibly, most controversial.

Information contained in the written report should include the following:

Complete bibliographic citation: Author, title, publisher (place, publisher, date), edition, number of pages. Refer to entries in the university library catalog for examples.

What are the author’s qualifications to write on this topic? What other published writing has he/she produced? Are there published reviews of this book, and if so, what is the reviewer’s opinion? RILM and Periodicals Index On Line are tools to locate reviews and also other publications by authors.

For what readership is the book intended? General reader, scholars with musical training, both?

How is the book organized? Chronologically? By topics? A collection of essays by various authors? Is there an index, and is it sufficiently detailed to be useful?

In your view, what are the strengths and weaknesses of the book? If it is not a recent publication, is the information still accurate and relevant?

Summarize the content of the book in sufficient detail for someone to determine whether this book will provide information they might seek in a research project.

How does the information contained in this book support or conflict with the information encountered in the reading and class presentations in the course?

Information contained in the oral presentation may expand on those aspects above that the presenter finds most interesting, or problematic. The presentation might begin by reading the written report, and then continue with note cards. Visual and aural illustrations are encouraged.

A sample 4—page book review taken from Notes, the quarterly publication of the Music Library Association, is attached as a reference.

Book Report List

Ammer, Christine. Unsung: A History of Women in American Music.ML 82/A45/2001

Locke, R. and Cyrilla Barr, eds. Cultivating Music in America.ML 82/C85/1997

Glickman, Sylvia and Martha Schleifer, eds. From Convent to Concert Hall.ML 82/F76/2003

Green, Lucy. Music, Gender, Education.ML 82/G74/1997

Halstead, Jill. The Woman Composer.ML 82/H35/1997

Hyde, Derek. New-Found Voices: Women in Nineteenth-Century English Music.

ML 82/H92/1998

Macarthur, Sally. Feminist Aesthetics in Music.ML 82/M22/2002

Macleod, Beth. Women Performing Music: The Emergence of American Women as Classical Instrumentalists and Conductors. ML 82/M24/2001

McClary, Susan. Feminine Endings: Music, Gender, and Sexuality.ML 82/M38/2002

Herndon, Marcia and Susanne Ziegler, eds. Music, Gender, and Culture.ML 82/M78

LaMay, Thomasin, ed. Musical Voices of Early Modern Women.ML 82/M798/2005

Marshall, Kimberly, ed. Rediscovering the Muses: Women’s Musical Traditions.

ML 82/R43/1993

Koskoff, Ellen, ed. Women and Music in Cross-Cultural Perspective.ML 82/W63/1987

Bowers, Jane and Judith Tick, eds. Women Making Music: The Western Art Tradition, 1150-1950. ML 82