Women in History 3 – “The Forgotten Classical Music”

A woman playing a piano is a familiar image. Women have enjoyed listening to classical music too, but in yesteryears, did they ever write it?

According to historian, Anna Beer, yes they did, and the women deserve to be remembered as part of our cultural heritage.

Hello Friends,

Cultural historian Anna Beer has written a book about women composers dating back to the 17^th Century. Against the odds, some women did succeed in creating classical music which was a world for men. Some of the music in Anna Beer's youtube playlist is wonderful and beautiful (link at the end of the post).

Getting the music out into the world was a challenge for the feminine composers. The expectations in the past eras of history were for women to become wives and mothers. The women tried many different approaches to breaking the glass ceilings or open the door to the exclusive music sanctums.

Barbara Strozzi provided music as well as sex to her music patron. She was a courtesan in Venice, a singer of erotic songs for men and she also published her own music.  

Lili Boulanger, a French woman, presented herself as a femme fragile, a fragile woman, a girl. She was not a threat to the establishment. She went on to win the highest musical honor. 

Barbara and Lili are two of the composers featured in the book,“Sounds and Sweet Airs” written by Anna Beer. 

The Book Blurb

"The cultural historian Anna Beer’s rewarding new book about the forgotten women of classical music includes insightful portraits of eight composers, a couple of whom are truly forgotten, like the 17th-century Italian Francesca Caccini. But penetrating essays on better-known figures, like Clara Schumann, are even more interesting for the way Ms. Beer conveys the sexism and lifelong frustrations some immensely gifted creative artists encountered.” ―Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times

As Heard on NPR's Weekend Edition

“Absorbing ... [Beer] writes with rich detail and sympathetic insight about [these women's] ambitious, adventurous battles to overcome barriers to creativity."

— Publishers Weekly

"Savvy, sympathetic ... essential and insightful study of a woman’s unsung place in the closed world of classical music."

—The Wall Street Journal

SOUNDS AND SWEET AIRS reveals the hidden stories of eight remarkable composers, taking the reader on a journey from seventeenth-century Medici Florence to London in the Blitz.

Exploring not just the lives and works of eight exceptional artists, historian Anna Beer also asks tough questions about the silencing of their legacy, which continues to this day. Why do we still not hear masterpieces such as Hensel’s piano work "The Year," Caccini’s arias and Boulanger’s setting of Psalm 130?

A long-overdue celebration of neglected virtuosos, SOUNDS AND SWEET AIRS presents a complex and inspirational picture of artistic endeavour and achievement that deserves to be part of our cultural heritage.

The featured composers are Francesca Caccini, Barbara Strozzi, Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Marianna Martines, Fanny Hensel (née Mendelssohn), Clara Schumann, Lili Boulanger and Elizabeth Maconchy.

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“Sounds & Sweet Airs” is available now for the Kindle price of $9.78 US.

Here's the link to Amazon.com

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Read more about it the book here, National Public Radio
Discover the composers in “Sounds and Sweet Airs” by Anna Beer, listen to a playlist of beautiful classical music on youtube, here

When I’m driving, I often listen to the radio channel that is all classical music. It has a very calming effect. If I’m driving through the Australian bush or forest, and surrounded by nature, the music is magical. Rarely do I ever hear any music that was composed by women.  How much longer will these musicians remain forgotten?

Enjoy your weekend.

♥ Ashlyn