International Women's Day, coming up tomorrow, provides a platform for many Women's charities to increase awareness and support. This is no different for Women in Music charities, including those that encourage the performance and awareness of musical works by otherwise underrepresented female composers, such as the Cambridge Minerva Festival, Boulanger Initiative and Illuminate. But what is the point in trying to create this equality for composers who are no longer alive to appreciate it? Surely, we should focus instead on living composers? However, I would argue that the two go hand in hand.
So, how can creating equality for historical composers affect current and future generations?
Firstly, the vast majority of concert venues, orchestras and choirs still perform music by dead composers, partly because people still enjoy this music, and partly because each performance is a new take on the work. Many scholars have argued that each performance is a work of art in itself (Peter Kivy) since meaning is produced in the real time of performance (Richard Schechner). Therefore, since the art of performing dead composer’s works is not just ongoing but thriving, we must ensure that these performances consider and work towards the equality we strive for today.
Secondly, it encourages current and future composers that the music industry isn’t just for men, but that women too can make their mark. Popular music books such as The Lieder Anthology (Hal Leonard, 2003) where only 3 out of 66 pieces are by female composers despite the numerous lieder composed by Clara Schumann or Fanny Mendelssohn, or concerts as recent as the 2020 New Year Concert Vienna which featured no music by female composers, will no doubt discourage women from thinking that they can indeed make their mark on the music world. However, by creating equality for historical composers, where Clara Schumann is considered on the same level as Ludwig van Beethoven, Fanny Mendelssohn the same as Johann Strauss and Amy Beach the same as Anton Dvorak, we encourage generations of women to be brave and strive to make their mark upon our music, bringing us joy, excitement, tranquillity and hope while they do so.
Finally, by drawing attention to the works of these historical female composers, women who want careers as composers now can be filled with hope. After all, if these historical composers could make an impression on the music world despite not being able to have a job, choose who and when to marry, vote, or have their own bank accounts, then it is amazing to think what women of this generation, who have so much more freedom, can do. Of course, there’s still a long way to go (as proved by the 2020 New Year concert), but by striving for historical equality through performance, education and publication, the legacies of past female composers can be used to shape the future, paving the way for many generations of female musicians to one day experience true equality in music.
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