Thursday, April 15, 2010
female composers
When I think about classical music composers, people who come into my head are all men, for example Mozart, Bach, Liszt, and so on.
I can’t name any female composers.
So I looked for information about classical composers, then I found an interesting perspective regarding how women who composed music in 19th century Europe suffered because of the male-dominated culture.
Of those women, Fanny Mendelssohn is the person I was interested in.
Fanny Mendelssohn (1805-1847) was brought up in a wealthy family and got a good education in music, language, and philosophy.
Her brother is Felix Mendelssohn, known as a famous classical composer.
Fanny and Felix showed their talent for music; however, their father limited her creative musical activity. Although she created fantastic music, the society didn't readily accept women as composers, though they did as instrumentalists. Therefore she published her pieces under the name of her brother.
Finally, in 1846, she published her works under her own name.
She died in 1847 during the rehearsal of her brother’s cantata. It was only a year after publishing under her name.
She had a gift and passion for music. She was praised for her creative activity; however, she couldn't go mainstream as a composer because of the male-dominated culture.
Though Fanny faced the difficulty of being a composer, she kept doing what she wanted to do. I appreciate her strength.
https://www.essentialsofmusic.com/
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This was a really interesting topic for you to choose because I feel like it is something I don't even think about, which is definite evidence of patriarchy. I didn't even think about looking back to famous composers but it is seen in a lot of other spheres as well, women in history seem to be muffled out to an extent. Fanny makes for one talented composer, thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteGood start Ai. I like that you tackled a subject we have not even touched on in class, and a form of media we haven't mentioned. Thanks for linking the piece, too!
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see a little more analysis and application in this post. You do mention the concept of a male dominated society and how it affected Fanny Mendelssohn's life, but most of your short post is a summary of the facts of her life.