NEWSLETTER v 4 n 1 April 1995
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A $ by your name on the mailing label means your membership is due. Membership is $3.00 (US, UK or Canadian currency acceptable). Make cheques payable to Queen's University. Send cheques, names and addresses (add e-mail &/or phone number, if you wish) to: Dr. Roberta Lamb, School of Music, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7L 3N6. |
In this issue:
2.1 Feminist Theory III: Negotiating the Faultlines
2.2 "Sound Thinking: Music and Philosophy Symposium"
2.3 Fourth Festival of Women Composers
3.1 Border Crossings: Future Directions in Music Studies
3.2 Accent '94 Conference of the Ontario Music Educators' Association
3.3 AMS Conference
3.4 ISME Conference
3.5 Music Education in the United States: The Cultural Imperative of Community Music
4. Book Reviews
Women Composers: The Lost Tradition Found
5. Upcoming Articles by GRIME Members
6.
GRIME Newsletter
Notes
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Friday, June 16th, 1995, 4:45-5:30pm at the Feminist Theory III Conference, U-C, Riverside. Please submit any agenda items to R. Lamb as soon as possible. We will have the usual AGM reports, but if someone has a special topic for discussion, this would be the place for it. Send agenda items/topics by e-mail to: lambr@qucdn.queensu.ca
2.1 Feminist Theory III: Negotiating the Faultlines. June 15-17 1995, University of California, Riverside.
Registration before June 1 $50; after June 1 $60
Student registration $25
Single day $25 (student $10)
Box Lunch (Friday & Saturday) $7.50 each
Hotel: Marriott Courtyard (909) 276-1200 (ask for Feminist Theory & Music Rooms) $49 a night including continental breakfast. Other hotels available. Travel: Canyon Crest Travel will give 5% discount on Super Saver fares on American and United. Phone 1-800-544-6633 and ask for Patty Jimenez or Raquel De Nucci. Office hours M-F 7:30-5:30; Sat 9-1 (Pacific Standard Time) The airport is ONTARIO, CA. (LAX is 80 miles away, and transport is expensive or slow). If registrants will let us know their times of arrival we will pick them up at Ontario. Amtrak stops at San Bernadino, 10 miles away.
In addition to the GRIME meeting, sessions of particular interest to GRIME members include: a study session on "Women in Music" courses (bring your syllabus); plenary panel "Negotiating the Fault Lines"; "Telling the Story of Nadia Boulanger", Jeanice Brooks; "The Politics of Representation on the Podium", Ellen Waterman; "The Safe Haven of Childhood", Virginia Caputo; "Nadia Boulanger: Theoretical Mother to a Diverse Musical Family", Rosemary Killam; "How is equality possible at the Sibelius Academy?", Riitta
Valkeila; "Women, Music, and Settlements", Shannon Green; "Music Lessons", Kevin Kopelson; "Applying Feminist Pedagogy", Barbara Coeyman; "Soft boundaries: A Feminist Pedagogy", Claire Detels; "Music Pedagogy from a Feminist Perspective", Judy Lockhead. All enquiries to Feminist Theory and Music III , Department of Music, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0325
2.2 "Sound Thinking: Music and Philosophy Symposium" Fri. Oct.13-Sun. Oct.15, 1995. Hart House, St. George Campus,
University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario (Hart House may change).
Symposium includes lectures by: Geoffrey Payzant, Francis Sparshott, Wolfgang Bottenberg, David Elliot, Lydia Goehr, Bruno Nettl, Joel Rudinow, Ann Lederman, Eugene Gates, Renne Cox Lorraine and Mitch Miller. Performances include: Nietzsche's Lieder, sung by Vilma Vitols; scenes from J.J. Rousseau's "Le devin du village", Opera Division, University of Toronto; World Music Ensemble; and works by Anna Amalia, Marianna Martines, Claude Arrieu, Fanny M. Hensel, Cecile Chaminade, Maya Badian, and Lili Boulanger, played by Paula Conlon and Elaine Keillor. Of special interest to GRIME members will be Eugene Gates (Toronto Faculty of Music): "Sexual Aesthetics and the Music of Dame Ethel Smyth". Registration is Friday 13th October from 3-4pm. $25 regular, $15 students (for two catered lunches). Talks/performances free. For more information, please contact:
Jennifer Bates E-mail: jbates@epas.utoronto.ca
2.3 Indiana University of Pennsylvania presents the Fourth Festival of Women Composers, March 20-23, 1996
Performers, composers, educators, musicologists, theorists, and librarians are invited to submit a 1-page abstract of their proposed lecture, recital, or lecture/recital featuring music of women composers. Women composers are also invited to submit scores. Deadline for proposals is June 15, 1995.
Please send to: Dr. Sarah Mantel or Dr. Susan Wheatley, Festival Directors - Department of Music; Indiana, PA 15705; (412) 357-2390
FAX: (412) 357-7899
E-Mail: wheatley@grove.iup.edu or sjmantel@grove.iup.edu
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3.1 Border Crossings: Future Directions in Music Studies (March 8-11, 1995)
by Andra McCartney (York University).
The Border Crossings conference, held from March 8th to 11th, 1995 at the University of Ottawa, brought together a number of international scholars whose academic work explores the borders of music research. The conference was sponsored by the University of Ottawa and Carleton University. Invited speakers included George Lipsitz, Veit Erlmann, Shuhei Hosokawa, David Gramit, Anahid Kassabian, Beverley Diamond, Jocelyne Guilbault, Line Grenier, Regula Qureshi, Robert Bowman, Peter Wicke, James Deaville, Antoine Hennion, Roberta Lamb, Lori Burns, Philip Brett, Suzanne Cusick, Will Straw, Richard Middleton, John Covach, Vera Micznick, Henry Klumpenhouer, Murray Dineen, John Shepherd, Robert Walser, and Elizabeth Wood.
Of particular interest to GRIME members was the session on Music Education, in which the speakers were Roberta Lamb and Thomas Regelski. The first paper, "Music Trouble: Desire, Discourse, and the Pedagogy Project," created a "biomythography" (Audre Lord) or "fictionalysis" (Daphne Marlatt) through Roberta Lamb's polyphonic presentation of an academic paper reflecting on music education and its simultaneous positioning both inside and outside music, as slides were projected that used poetry, family photographs, and music scores to form a dialogue with spoken words.
Through this dialogue, Lamb explored her experiences and understandings of music-education as a musician, teacher, feminist, lesbian. This performance, both through its intriguing and inspiring form as well as through its content, reminded the audience that music is a drag, and that bringing it out of the closet can be energizing.
The second paper, entitled "Multiculturalism and Music Education: Critical Theory," was less directly focused on music education, a disappointment since this was the only such session at the conference, another reminder perhaps of music education's position on the border of music studies. Thomas Regelski stated that in order to shorten his paper to fit the available time, he had cut short the section that dealt with education in order to concentrate more on critical theory, since he believed that this would best suit the audience. The ensuing discussion of critical theory as elaborated by the Frankfurt School, particularly Jurgen Habermas, as well as through the work of educator Paulo Freire, while presenting some useful ideas regarding the importance of critical theory and praxis remained paradoxically within the abstract realm, with no concrete examples or methodologies for his conception of the teacher as "cultural mediator" for multicultural students.
This session, like many at this intriguing conference, indicated that while many borders are being crossed, others are more guarded. There were several thought-provoking papers over the five days of the conference, and the proceedings [to be published] will be worthwhile reading.
3.2 Accent '94 Conference of the Ontario Music Educators' Association
(November 3-5, 1994)
by Charlene Morton, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
The Ontario Music Educators' Association Conference was held November 3-5, 1994 in London, Ontario . In addition to the usual concerts, research forums, instrumental and choral clinics, and displays sponsored by the music industry, there were other sessions organized into four timely conference themes: Advocacy and Integration, Technology, Outcome-Based Education, and Multiculturalism.
Participants in the multicultural sessions were offered hands-on drumming and percussion experience, choral and instrumental repertoire, multimedia resources, and storytelling techniques. It is unfortunate that the opportunity to reflect on broader ethical and socio-political issues related to race and class in music education was displaced by a pedagogical thirst to explore new classroom materials and techniques. For example, during the forum on Multiculturalism, "sensitive issues" such as those raised by Showboat were acknowledged as difficult without receiving meaningful discussion.
Gender-related issues were not a theme or session topic at the conference. However, data for those seeking gender-related analysis was noticeable as early as the official opening ceremony when Maureen Forrester performed a Schubert lieder with the Amabile Youth Singers. A brief translation of the Schubert lieder was relayed to the audience who greeted its courting-context with a warm communal chuckle. After the Schubert performance, Ms Forrester gave a speech recalling her career. In contrast to the Schubert introduction, Ms Forrester's comments about her early performance opportunities described someone trapped in a gender-specific setting that did not altogether suit her. She explained that she was disappointed that she could not sing with the big bands. Instead she had to sing at church suppers and ladies' teas. She did not, however, belittle the importance of this beginning to her career; in fact, she lamented the loss of ladies' music clubs in contemporary society because they had helped to sponsor and promote her early singing opportunities. Although Ms Forrester did not analyze her snippets of gender-related anecdotes, I am sure many women in the audience empathized with her personal examples of limited early performance opportunities.
When I arrived home after the conference, I borrowed Ms Forrester's autobiography Out of Character (1986) from the public library. About her mother she wrote "She didn't think people loved her unless she had their sympathy" (29) and "I suppose my mother was a disappointed woman. She had wanted to be somebody and have money, but it didn't work out that way. She had married a man who loved her and earned a living, but that wasn't enough for her. She longed to be a respected person in the community and the ticket to that was her church work" (30). She wrote that her father "wanted to see me in a dress with a petticoat, those little patent-leather Mary Janes and a bow in my hair, which I detested" (31). "What I wanted to do was skate and ski and play basketball" (36). Future conferences would do well to reflect on the socio-political themes in the narratives of women and non-white musicians. To do justice to initiatives to be more inclusive in our musical practices, we need more than just pedagogical curiosity.
(October 27-30, 1994)
by Sondra Howe (University of Minnesota)
The American Musicological Society held its annual meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 27-30, 1994. Women's roles as composers, performers, and patrons were analyzed in many papers. Papers were presented on the performances of nuns in commedie spirituali in 1642 Siena, (Colleen Reardon); Francesca Caccini's compositions and their suppression by Giulio Caccini (Suzanne G. Cusick); and Clara Wieck's Piano concerto in Minor (Stephen D. Lindeman). In a session on "Amazons and Hero(in)es" chaired by Ruth A.Solie, there were papers on representations of warrior queens in Venetian Baroque opera (Daniel E. Freeman), gender issues in Beethoven's Fidelio (Christine D. Smith), and Verdi's Amazons (Mary Ann Smart).
In a session on "Gender, Concert Organization, and Patronage," there were papers on women concert organizers in eighteenth-century London (Alyson McLamore), and American patronage since 1880 (Ralph P. Locke). The career of Matilda Sissieretta Jones, "Black Patti," was presented (John Graziano). In a session relating the canons in the classical, jazz, and world music traditions, participants discussed definitions of "canon" and the implications of recording and domestication of music.
There seems to be a growing interest in gender issues and women composers in AMS, as reflected in the paper presentations and informal discussions during the conference.
(JULY 18-23, 1994)
by Sondra Howe, University of Minnesota
The 21st Biennial World Conference of the International Society of Music Education was held in Tampa, Florida, July 18-23, 1994. The week included wonderful performances by children and adults from many cultures, plenary sessions, and presentations. Although women from around the world are active in ISME as conductors, delegates, and lecturers, gender issues and women composers were hardly mentioned at the conference.
June Boyce-Tillman (King Alfred's College, Winchester, England) presented a paper on "The Role of Women in the Passing on of Tradition and Its Implications for the School Music curriculum." Tillman discussed different ways of knowing, referring to Belenky's Women's Ways of Knowing, in relation to a spiral model of the sequence of musical development.
The next ISME conference will be held in Amsterdam, Holland, July 21-27, 1996. The deadline for research posters is November 1, 1995. For information, write to: Dr. John Geringer, School of Music, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712-1208, USA.
3.5 Music Education in the United States: The Cultural Imperative of Community Music
by Elizabeth S. Gould. Paper Presented at the Seminar Community Music in a Changing World.
International Society for Music Education. Athens, GA July 10-15, 1994.
The evolving nature of contemporary society in the United States necessitates innovative music education pedagogies and curricula that respond to our increased cultural, social and ethnic diversity. In terms of context (pedagogies), these responses include conceiving of learning as enduring, sustainable, and shared. In terms of content (curricula), they include basing instruction on the realities of students' everyday lives; literally, by addressing students music educational needs as they relate to their lived experiences.
Based on the modern assumptions that society is oppositionally structured with unequal power relations and that social change is necessary to alter these relations, innovative music education strategies must be grounded nevertheless in postmodern theory, that is, they must approach problems form new and even unlikely perspectives. Critical feminist pedagogy, a combination of feminist theories and a postmodern extrapolation of critical theory, provides a means by which this may be implemented. Comprised of educational practices and processes in which groups utilize their own lived reality to create knowledge related to music and culture, this pedagogy is described as reflective, dialectical interaction by which difference is articulated and meaning is problematized without necessarily precluding possibilities for agency. The cultural imperative of this grounding of postmodern music educational practices in feminist problems and processes is to include the entire community in relevant, lifelong music educative activities.
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Women Composers: The Lost Tradition Found, 2nd Ed. Diane Peacock Jezic, (2nd Ed. prepared by Elizabeth Wood). New York: The Feminist Press, 1994; 250pp. Reviewed by Marilyn Stephens Scott, Sociology, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Toronto, ON.
Six years after its initial appearance, and five years after the author's death, this unique text reappears in a second edition prepared by Elizabeth Wood. In her forward, Wood outlines
the changes made, which include corrections of typographical and factual errors, up-dating of publication, recording, and biographical information, and the addition of an appendix listing publishers specializing in women's music. Otherwise, the initial book remains unchanged, and for those unfamiliar with Jezic's work, the content is worth reviewing.
The main thrust of this book is to acquaint the reader with the "lost tradition" of women composers of western art music. It features the lives and works of 25 composers, all of whom, without exception, are of European and American origin. Their stories are presented chronologically, and the 900 years spanned by the book are divided into six distinct periods, beginning with the medieval period of the 11th century and culminating with the 20th century. This ordering validates this text as a source book for the study of music by allowing for logical integration of these women into the traditional corps of music history knowledge.
Each chapter focuses on the life and work of one woman composer, beginning with Hildegard of Bingen (Germany), born 1098, and ending with Judith Lang Zaimont, (Memphis, Tennessee), born 1945. Besides a biographical summary of each composer, a critical analysis of selected work is provided, as well as a listing of compositions, a bibliography, and a discography.
One of the highlights of the book is the inclusion of six appendices of supplementary information, the first of which ranks music appreciation texts in order of women composers mentioned. Numbers two through five provide information on record companies and publishers who feature works by women, a comparative chart juxtaposing the styles and genres of more familiar male composers alongside those of fifty women composers, and a selected list of 20th century women conductors. The sixth appendix details a catalogue of available recordings which have been carefully coordinated with 58 of the compositions featured in the book. This is a key feature which facilitates a thorough study and analysis for those interested in in-depth investigation of women composers.
As noted earlier, the criteria for inclusion in this book were women composers of European and American origin: no composers of Canadian origin were mentioned. It follows that a work devoted to the creativity of those Canadian women who have thrust themselves into this tiny, invisible, and daunting field is in order. Despite an increasingly pluralistic
world, and the universal span of the realm of music, an exploration of the uniqueness of Canadian women's music seems a worthy one.
As a pianist, teacher, musicologist, mother, and feminist, Diane Peacock Jezic understood many of the barriers of race, ethnicity, class, and gender faced by women: creative women and women musicians specifically. Jezic's audience is targeted as those interested in either women, or music, or both. Her purpose in this book was threefold: to represent the major period and genres of music history, to present women composers of the typical female genres of chamber works, songs, and piano pieces, as well as those genres traditionally dominated by men: the nonet, opera and cantata. Her overall aim was not only to dispel the invisibility of women composers, but to invalidate the myth that perpetuates the exclusivity of musical composition to men. Jezic has provided a pioneering text which challenges the preconceived hierarchies and value systems of traditional musicology. It is noted with regret that because of her early death, this concise and engaging a work is not a prelude to successive contributions to the world of music, but a premature and untimely finale.
Reprinted with permission from RFR/DRF, Vol. 23, No. 3. 1994.
REMINDER:
Please submit your suggestions for the GRIME bibliography
of materials pertaining to gender and music education or ask your colleagues to
submit their suggestions! Guidelines: This bibliography will be in 2 parts--1)
an annotated list of sex-equitable teaching materials, including sources that
help re inscribe women into music history. We are looking for materials that
are suitable for use in preschool, elementary or secondary school curriculum.
2) an annotated list of published and unpublished research in gender and music
education. Send your ideas to: Dr. Julia Eklund Koza, Dept. of Curriculum &
Instruction, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 225 N. Mills St., Madison, WI
53706, USA.
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5. Upcoming Articles by GRIME Members
Watch for the following articles by GRIME members:
The Quarterly Journal of Music Teaching and Learning , Fall '94 Vol. 5, No. 3:
"Sound, Sociality, and Music: Part One " by Wayne Bowman
"Sound, Sociality, and Music: Part Two " by Wayne Bowman
"Getting a Word in Edgewise: A Feminist Critique of Choral Methods Texts" by Julia Eklund Koza
Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education. Winter 1994/1995 No. 123
Qualitative Methodologies in Music Education Research Conference May 19-21, 1994:
"Introduction" by Eve Harwood
"Music Education as a Collaborative Project: Insights from Teacher Research" by Mary Hookey
"Levels of Learning in Orff SPIEL" by Janet Robbins
Kari Veblen's article, "Truth, Perceptions, and Cultural Constructs in Ethnographic Research: Music Teaching and Learning in Ireland," will appear in a future issue of Bulletin.
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6. GRIME Newsletter, Roberta Lamb, Editor
The goal for publication of Vol. 4, No. 2 is October 1995. Send your newsletter contributions by September 15th, 1995. If you would like to write a conference or book review, please do!! Reviews of available recordings or videos would be good, too. The articles that came in for this issue were too interesting to cut any further, but please try to write short articles (500-900 words). If the newsletter gets thicker, the postage cost goes up.
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