List of female composers by birth date

Nineteenth-century composer and pianist Clara Schumann.

The following is a list of female composers, ordered by their year of birth.[1] Almost all of the composers who are described in music textbooks on classical music and whose works are widely performed as part of the standard concert repertoire are male composers, even though there has been a large number of women composers throughout the classical music period.

Scholar Marcia Citron has asked "[w]hy is music composed by women so marginal to the standard 'classical' repertoire?" [2] Citron "examines the practices and attitudes that have led to the exclusion of women composers from the received 'canon' of performed musical works." She argues that in the 1800s, women composers typically wrote art songs for performance in small recitals rather than symphonies intended for performance with an orchestra in a large hall, with the latter works being seen as the most important genre for composers; since women composers did not write many symphonies, they were deemed to be not notable as composers.[2] In the "...Concise Oxford History of Music, Clara Schumann is one of the only female composers mentioned." [3] Abbey Philips states that "[d]uring the 20th century the women who were composing/playing gained far less attention than their male counterparts." [3]

Some notable composers include: Hildegard von Bingen (1098–1179), a German Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, visionary, and polymath. Fanny Mendelssohn (1805–1847); Clara Schumann (1819–1896); Amy Beach (1867–1944); Nadia Boulanger (1887–1979); Lili Boulanger (1893–1918); Imogen Holst (1907–1984); Violet Archer (1913–2000); and Thea Musgrave (born 1928).

Female composers are also listed alphabetically at List of female composers by name.

Before 15th century

16th century

1601-1650

1651-1700

1701-1750

Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia

1751-1800

1801-1850

1851-1900

1900s

1910s

1920s

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

Unknown

See also

Sources

References

  1. ↑ Print sources include the Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers, ed. by Julie Anne Sadie & Rhian Samuel (New York ; London : W.W. Norton, c1995), and Aaron I. Cohen, International Encyclopedia of Women Composers (NY: Books & Music, 1987).
  2. 1 2 Citron, Marcia J. Gender and the Musical Canon. CUP Archive, 1993.
  3. 1 2 "The history of women and gender roles in music". RVANews. Retrieved 17 February 2016.

See also

Further reading

External links

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