By Eric Ruijssenaars
Women composers are vastly underrepresented and underrated, and still also sadly unknown. It is generally assumed that there are few, or at least relatively few. This is of course a crucial question, when demanding a fair representation.
What could and should be our goal? What is a fair representation? What can we, women composers and their supporters, demand, in the concert halls, on classical radio channels and in the newspapers?
The numbersTo try to answer this question we must look at the numbers of female and male composers. In the case of women composers that number quest can only begin with Aaron Cohen’s International Encyclopedia of Women Composers. In the second edition of this work, published in 1987, he got to more than 6000.
The importance of this book can hardly be overstated, but a closer look reveals that it must be far from complete. Cohen did his international research in a time when that was enormously difficult. There was no internet. Very little research had been done, worldwide, on which he could rely. It’s impossible to say how many he did not find.
Apart from that, it necessarily omits all the composers born after about 1965. That’s a giant amount meanwhile, still quite rapidly growing.
To put it otherwise, it is simply impossible to get to a complete list (let alone getting an idea of the number of women who published their works anonymously or under a male pseudonym). The further one gets researching women composers, the more the ‘end’ gets out of sight. The number of women composers is infinite.
While it was never really made easy for women composers, the situation became only disastrous when the 33 rpm long play record was introduced in the 1950s. Classical music was introduced to many people, but the LP’s had 0% women composers. That’s how several generations grew up believing there weren’t any. We are still left with the remnants of it.
It wasn’t only in classical music that women were erased from the history books. Only now we are hearing the stories of many overlooked excellent women in all walks of life. There have always been women composers. On this DONNE365 blog we could earlier present a work from the 8th century, apparently the oldest surviving music by a woman. It’s important to be aware of this very long tradition too.
Conclusion
It’s shocking that, still, quite close to half of classical music gets little chance because it is composed by women. It’s a mystery too, knowing how good they are. Most of all it is a gross injustice, which must be fought against. Destroying the myth that there have only been few women composers is crucial in this struggle for a fair representation, because in reality there is no end to them. It’s fair therefore to demand nothing less than 50%.
Eric Ruijssenaars
Email: ericruijssenaars@hotmail.com
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