Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Why We Dont Have Famous Female Composer In History ?

Like Beethoven, Hummel, Paganini, Schubert, Berlioz, Strauss, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Czerny, Liszt, Alkan, Wagner, Schumann, Brahms, Bizet, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Debussy, Sibelius,Scriabin
Rachmaninoff, Mahler, Ravel, Haydn, Mozart, Bach

all of them are male what is the explanation of this ?

Read about society during the time of Beethoven, Hummel, Paganini, Schubert, Berlioz, Strauss, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Czerny, Liszt, Alkan, Wagner, Schumann, Brahms, Bizet, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Debussy, Sibelius,Scriabin
Rachmaninoff, Mahler, Ravel, Haydn, Mozart, Bach....

You'll find your answer there.

I ask ''Famous'' female Composer read the title carefully. And i dont talk about society i talk about history.

Because historically, education was preferentially given to boys and women had to go under pseudonyms to get anything published. I believe that Mendelssohn had some of his sister's music published under his name. Clara Schumann is quite a well-known composer. If you go back even further, there's Hildegard of Bingen. I'm sure others can provide more examples as well.

Clara Schumann is the only name I can think of but certainly not famous like the others.

Looks like we both thought of Clara at the same time

There was also Fanny Mendelssohn.

Here is another way of framing the question:

Why are there many famous female authors, from Jane Austen to Virginia Woolf, but almost no famous female composers?


-Jason

Batuhan: The reason is social, not historical, or at least historically social! What did you expect as a reply? That women are not as capable as men in composing? If this is so, it simply isn't true.

I love the works of Gubaidulina, Tansy Davies and many othes... In fact: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_composers_by_birth_year

Now, the why they are not as famous... try checking how many females are famous throuhout history and you'll probably also end up in a social reason rather than anything else. EDIT: Indeed writting... sorry about that.

Darn right. Writing was a much more suitable task for a woman than being a professional musician. Performing meant that you had to be in the public eye. Fanny Mendelssohn's father told her that "music will perhaps become his [i.e. Felix's] profession, while for you it can and must be only an ornament." And who knows - perhaps women did compose music privately but it never got performed unless they had male relatives in the business, like Fanny and Clara. Don't forget that history has been written by men.

Well what I'll say may be controversial but it also holds a shred of truth.

Scientifically speaking, there are more male geniuses (based on I.Q.) than female (there are also more mentally-challenged men). Males tend to fall on either side of the I.Q. bell curve, so there are less men with average I.Q. than women, but also more men with very high I.Q. Obviously, I.Q. doesn't measure creativity or musical flair, but it is a general indicator of intelligence and when have you known a stupid composer? There aren't many.

As for the "women in society" argument, well yes, during the time of Mozart/Bach/Beethoven/Schubert etc. the education of women left a lot to be desired. But I don't think that same argument can be carried forth to the time of Rachmaninoff/Ravel etc. Women were educated in music then, and obviously are to the present day, but yet the vast majority of contemporary composers that I can think of (film composers, new age etc.) are men.

Maybe we're just better at this one particular aspect of human life? After all, we are very different and there are things that women tend to be better at than men.

Read this thread and maybe you'll understand.

I'm not super-feminist here - the role of women as mothers is crucial in human society and sometimes they need to (and should) compromise their careers to take care of children. But I believe it's incorrect to infer that it's due to lack of intelligence.

I read your post. Read up on society during the times the composers you listed lived. You'll find your answer there.

Sorry, for the snarkiness, but your question is a bit naive.

Can you share some 'scientific' proof over that? Cause I honestly find not a single shread of truth in the above!

More over, there was a thread about 'talent overater' and another book in teachers forum. You should go check it out and get an idea that talent could be given later in life, rather than born with. Similary the same applied with IQ...

When... did women start to vote? I do think much later than Ravel's (general) time. More over if I recall correctly the (2nd) feminist movement was around the 60s, right? (first was around the time of Virginia Woolf, incidently, already mentioned here).


Take out the word 'better' and leave the word 'different' and we're fine!

Take it from a guy who's feeding his kids, taking them to showers, putting them to sleep, taking them out to walks, etc, while his wife works (more steadily, as an architect, while her husband is a freelance composer). I tend to think that I'm doing a damn fine job raising my kids, which normally should be a 'female chore'... (Not to mention the pride I take from this and the enjoyement).

Nope we are not the same, but I judge differences on a few physical aspects (when talking about athletics for example), but mainly personality, intelligence, etc. And NOT the sex!

We suck?

Yes - there have been numerous studies showing that there are twice as many men falling on the 'extremes' as women. Here's an example of one study conducted by numerous doctors at top universities:

Deary, I.J.; Irwing, P.; Der, G; Bates, T.C. (2005). "Brother–sister differences in the g factor in intelligence: Analysis of full, opposite-sex siblings from the NLSY1979". Intelligence 35:451-456.



What about modern day female composers? The vast majority of film/contemporary composers that I know are men.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to put them down! Not by any means, I'm not sexist I'm just scientific. I'm not trying to offend anyone.

Yeah... you think the 'world' isn't sexist anymore? Come on.

+1

Did you go to any of the concerts in the Barbican/BBC Gubaidulina weekend a few years ago? I recorded much of it when it was broadcast. (I also recorded her St John Passion from the Proms performance in 2002 with Gergiev and the Kirov Orch.)

So true. Angelina. Substitute any other minority into this discussion and suddenly it becomes too hot to handle.

A. Nonymous was a woman - Her only instrument, her voice, her compostions hummed over soup, danced with the broom, crooned over babies, and keened over the dead.