Approved by Faculty Senate March 30, 2009
Mus 113, Women in Music
3 cr.
Summer, 2008
SYLLABUS
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Music 113, Women in Music is a 2-credit survey open to the general student as well as
the music major. Through a combination of lectures, assigned reading and listening, and class
discussion, the course surveys the history of women in music, from the Greek poet Sappho to the
present. The title “Women in Music” implies much more than women as composers or
performers; the course will examine prominent figures in such diverse roles as educators,
conductors, critics, patrons and more. While the primary focus of the coverage is the Western
high art tradition, some consideration of the relation of women to musical life in other cultures
will be included. For the student with interest in a particular aspect of musical life, or a specific
culture, the assigned book report will provide the opportunity to explore that interest more
thoroughly.
This Course Applies to: University Studies - Arts & Sciences (Humanities)
USP Course Objectives (University Studies Criteria that promote students' abilities to):
#1. Identify and understand specific elements and assumptions of music: #2. Understand how historical context, cultural values and gender roles influenced
perceptions and interpretations: #3. Understand the role of critical analysis in the interpretation and evaluation of music in
the human experience.
MAJOR OBJECTIVES
After completion of this course, the student will:
#1. Be able to identify and understand elements of musical creative and recreative activity as it
relates to female musicians. (USP Objectives #1 & 2)
#2. Be able to understand ways in which gender influences musical perceptions and
interpretations as they relate to performers and to listeners. (USP Objectives #1 2, & 3)
#3. Be able to understand the role of gender and cultural analysis in interpreting and evaluating
expressions of human experience. (USP Objectives #2 & 3)
#4. Be able to describe the role of women in "art" music from the Middle Ages to the present
day. (USP Objectives #2)
#5. Be able to describe the contributions of women in contemporary popular music. (USP
Objectives #2 & 3)
#6. Be able to identify representative works written by women of specifically for women
performers. (USP Objectives #1 & 3)
TEXTBOOKS
Required:
Karin Pendle. Women and Music: a history, 2d ed.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001
On Reserve:
James R. Briscoe, ed. New historical anthology of music by women.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004
Companion compact discs.
GRADING
Grades will be assigned on the basis of the following:
3 - 5 Quizzes over assigned reading and listening:
Contribution to class discussion:
(includes attendance)
Final presentation (book report):
40%
25%
35%
ATTENDANCE
Regular attendance is assumed. One un-excused absence is granted. Each un-excused absence
beyond that will lower the grade for Contribution to class discussion one letter. Quizzes missed
due to un-excused absence will not be made up. Absences considered excused must be arranged
at least 24 hours in advance in writing.
COURSE CONTENT
Feminist esthetics
Ancient and medieval music (incl. Sappho, poet, singer)
Women and music to ca. 1450 (incl. Hildegard von Bingen, composer, sacred music)
The 15th through the 18th Centuries
(incl. Francesca Caccini, composer, performer secular music)
The 19th Century
(incl. Clara Schumann, Fanny Mendelssohn, composers, instrumentalists;
Jenny Lind, singer)
20th Century Europeans (incl. Nadia Boulanger, teacher)
Women in American Music
(incl. Amy Beach, composer, performer
Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, patron
Dorothy Delay, teacher
Claudia Cassidy, music critic
Beverly Sills, performer, administrator
Antonia Brico, conductor)
Women in Blues and Jazz
(incl. Bessie Smith, blues singer
Ella Fitzgerald, jazz singer)
BOOK REPORT
Each student will select a book from a list containing books in the WSU Library on topics related
to women and music. This book should be selected and approved by the instructor before the end
of the second week of classes. At the end of the course, each student will prepare a 4—page
printed report. Using the written report as a reference, the student will give a 15—minute oral
presentation, expanding on those aspects of the book that the student found most valuable, or
possibly, most controversial.
Information contained in the written report should include the following:
Complete bibliographic citation: Author, title, publisher (place, publisher,
date), edition, number of pages. Refer to entries in the university library catalog
for examples.
What are the author’s qualifications to write on this topic? What other
published writing has he/she produced? Are there published reviews of this book,
and if so, what is the reviewer’s opinion? RILM and Periodicals Index On Line
are tools to locate reviews and also other publications by authors.
For what readership is the book intended? General reader, scholars with
musical training, both?
How is the book organized? Chronologically? By topics? A collection of
essays by various authors? Is there an index, and is it sufficiently detailed to be
useful?
In your view, what are the strengths and weaknesses of the book? If it is
not a recent publication, is the information still accurate and relevant?
Summarize the content of the book in sufficient detail for someone to
determine whether this book will provide information they might seek in a
research project.
How does the information contained in this book support or conflict with
the information encountered in the reading and class presentations in the course?
Information contained in the oral presentation may expand on those aspects above that the
presenter finds most interesting, or problematic. The presentation might begin by reading the
written report, and then continue with note cards. Visual and aural illustrations are encouraged.
A sample 4—page book review taken from Notes, the quarterly publication of the Music Library
Association, is attached as a reference.
Book Report List
Ammer, Christine. Unsung: A History of Women in American Music.
ML 82/A45/2001
Locke, R. and Cyrilla Barr, eds. Cultivating Music in America.
ML 82/C85/1997
Glickman, Sylvia and Martha Schleifer, eds. From Convent to Concert Hall.
ML
82/F76/2003
Green, Lucy. Music, Gender, Education.
ML 82/G74/1997
Halstead, Jill. The Woman Composer.
ML 82/H35/1997
Hyde, Derek. New-Found Voices: Women in Nineteenth-Century English Music.
ML 82/H92/1998
Macarthur, Sally. Feminist Aesthetics in Music.
ML 82/M22/2002
Macleod, Beth. Women Performing Music: The Emergence of American Women as Classical
Instrumentalists and Conductors.
ML 82/M24/2001
McClary, Susan. Feminine Endings: Music, Gender, and Sexuality. ML 82/M38/2002
Herndon, Marcia and Susanne Ziegler, eds. Music, Gender, and Culture. ML 82/M78
LaMay, Thomasin, ed. Musical Voices of Early Modern Women.
ML 82/M798/2005
Marshall, Kimberly, ed. Rediscovering the Muses: Women’s Musical Traditions.
ML 82/R43/1993
Koskoff, Ellen, ed. Women and Music in Cross-Cultural Perspective.
ML 82/W63/1987
Bowers, Jane and Judith Tick, eds. Women Making Music: The Western Art Tradition, 11501950.
ML 82