Klarinet Archive - Posting 000104.txt from 2009/08

From: "Dan Leeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Solo pieces by living women composers
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 20:21:37 -0400

I would propose that the answer to the women composers request is much more
simple.

For a long time, women composers were not acknowledged. Mendelssohn's
sister Fanny was a fine musician and wrote music, too. But she has faded
into the background because she was a women.

The same thing is true for Mozart's sister Nannerl. Mozart himself told her
what a fine composer she was, but, as a woman, she had no opportunity.

So now, it is very logical to look for female composers of a particular era
or country or ethnicity or what have you.

For a while in the 1950s, it was commonplace to present music of black
composers. And now, there is a resurgence of composers who died in the
Holocaust.

Dan Leeson
----- Original Message -----
From: "corvo di bassetto" <rab@-----.de>
To: <klarinet@-----.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2009 4:33 PM
Subject: Re: [kl] Solo pieces by living women composers

> Fred,
> of cause that's fine, all women composers, all Jewish (Brandwein did that
> all the time, didn't he?), all French Opera, great. But how about
> programs including pieces by "Arian" or by "Caucasian" composers only (we
> unfortunately had the former in Germany for years and you had the latter
> in the US even longer)? Or an Orchestra made up entirely of blond,
> blue-eyed 6 feet tall "Herrenmenschen" (lit. "Sir" (male)-"people")?
> Sure, there are good pieces written by blond people (though not very
> many, for whatever reasons) and -- more recently -- by female composers,
> but it's mad statistics to argue that lack of hair pigments or presence
> of mammary glands was a feature of the music or that black hair was a
> prerequisite for writing counterpoint. Hence I don't give a --- about the
> ethnic, let alone biological background of an artist. If it turned out
> Wagner was actually a baboon, I might concede: for a baboon it's not so
> bad.
>
> best
> danyel
>
>
> On Aug 13, 2009, at 7:38 PM, Fred Jacobowitz wrote:
>
>> Danyel,
>> Why are the two ideas incompatible. There are many WONDERFUL pieces by
>> female composers. Easily enough to make up a first-rate recital. And
>> it's a great hook - that is, inducement to get people to come to the
>> concert, including those who wouldn't normally do so. I once did a
>> recital of all encore pieces! A lot of people came to that one. Ditto
>> Jewish composers, opera music (e.g. concert paraphrases like the Bassi),
>> etc.
>>
>> Fred Jacobowitz
>>
>> CASE CLOSED Musical Instrument Case Repair Service
>> Kol Haruach Klezmer Band
>> Ebony and Ivory Duo
>>
>> You don't get harmony when everybody sings the same note.
>> ~Doug Floyd
>>
>>
>>
>> On Aug 13, 2009, at 5:34 AM, corvo di bassetto wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> It makes me mad that concerts are no longer programed to include good
>>> music but such written by a specific sociological or even biological
>>> in-group.
>>>
>>> Best
>>> danyel
>>>
>>>
>>> On Aug 13, 2009, at 4:21 AM, Enid Blount Press wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi All,
>>>> I've been asked to play 4 solo clarinet pieces by women composers in
>>>> London
>>>> on a short mini-recital, and I have never had a women composers-
>>>> focused
>>>> recital. I'm playing a new solo work by Julie Harting, from New York,
>>>> called Coagula, which I have recorded and which is a longer solo
>>>> piece, but
>>>> to make up the other 14 minutes, I need 3 other composers! Though the
>>>> festival may provide me with some choices, I'm wondering if anyone has
>>>> suggestions of good, short-ish pieces that are learnable by early
>>>> November
>>>> that are by living women composers... Thanks very much in advance!
>>>> Enid
>>>> Blount Press (please feel free to email me directly).
>>>>
>>>> Enid Blount Press
>>>> New York, NY
>>>> enidblount@-----.edu
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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