WOMEN MAKING MUSIC

Professor: Dr. J. Michele Edwards Music 51:01 Spring 2001

SYLLABUS

January 29 (M): Introduction to course

January 31 (W): Women Blues Performers: Intersections

Reading: Hazel Carby, "It Jus Be's Dat Way Sometime: The Sexual Politics of Women's Blues," in Feminisms: An Anthology of Literary Theory and Criticism, eds. Robyn R. Warhol and Diane Price Herndl, pp. 746-58.

Listening: Sample women blues singers on some of the following CDs (LibRes), including some music discussed in Carby on Carby Blues Sampler plus: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom; Classic Recordings of the 1920s (2 vols.). Sissy Man Blues; The Copulatin' Blues.

Video viewing in class, followed by discussion: Wild Women Don't Have the Blues [historic and recent blues performers]

Framing Questions

February 2 (F): Framing Questions

Readings: Whiteley, Intro plus chapters 1-3; Marcia Citron, Gender and the Musical Canon, Chapter 2, "Creativity" (LibRes) [you may also find the short Introduction useful]

Listening: Choose any 2 of the women mention by Citron and listening to some of their music. Available CDs with various composers' music include (on LibRes): Women's Voices Five Centuries of Song (voice & piano), Compositio segle XVII a IXX (piano), Women of Note (mostly varied instrumental). Note the variety of styles created and try to develop ways of describing what you hear—what your ear is drawn toward—and how you respond to the music.

Journal assignment (before class): Outline the main points of the readings. What questions have been raised for you and not yet answered?

February 5 (M): Framing Questions (continued)

Readings: McClary, Chapter 1; Ellen Koskoff, "An Introduction to Women, Music, and Culture," in Women and Music in Cross-Cultural Perspective, ed. Koskoff, pp. 1-23; Suzanne G. Cusick, "'Thinking from Women's Lives': Francesca Caccini after 1627," in Rediscovering the Muses. Women's Musical Traditions, ed. Kimberly Marshall, pp. 206-225.

Listening: CD of Caccini's La Liberzione di Ruggiero (1625); just sample some different segments of this to get an idea of the style of her music.

Journal assignment: include ideas that integrate the various readings about Framing Questions. What do you consider to be the "framing questions" for this course?

February 7 (W): Musical Autobiography

Preparation: Prepare list of women composers/performers in your collection of CDs/cassettes/LPs; reflect on your collection noting where women are present/absent; select 1 or 2 favorite cuts to share with the class.

February 9 (F): Library Resources. See E-Resources.

Meet at Library with Beth Hillmann in BI Room

Project: Begin developing topics

Intersection of Gender & Class

February 12 (M): Intersection of Gender & Class: 19th-century Europe

Reading: Nancy Reich, "Women as Musicians: A Question of Class," in Musicology and Difference. Gender and Sexuality in Music Scholarship, ed. Ruth Solie, pp. 125-46;

Listening: select from the CDs of music by Clara Schumann and/or Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (on LibRes); be prepared with some comments about what you hear in this music—how you would describe it or how you react to it. This could be a part of your journal as well. CDs include: Compositio segle XVII a IXX; The Women's Philharmonic (Lili Boulanger, Clara Schumann, Germaine Tailleferre, Fanny Mendelssohn); Lieder Robert & Clara Schumann (with Barbara Bonney); Chore & Lieder (FM, CS, LB); Women of Note; as well as items under the 2 composers names.

February 14 (W): Intersection of Gender & Class: Arabic Women (Fairuz & Umm Kulthum)

Reading: Danielson, Virginia.

Viewing: Umm Kulthum: A Voice Like Egypt (Res at Media Services)

Listening: selections from the following CDs - The Legendary Fairuz – Lebanon; Fairuz: Qasaëd; and Global Divas [voices from women of the world]. (LibRes)

February 16 (F): Intersection of Gender & Class & Sexuality: Country Music

Reading: Whiteley, chap. 10 (k.d. lang); also Martha Mockus, "Queer Thoughts on Country Music and k.d. lang," Queering the Pitch. The New Gay and Lesbian Musicology, ed. by Philip Brett, Elizabeth Wood, and Gary C. Thomas, pp. 257-71.

Listening: Selections from k.d. lang's Absolute Torch and Twang (CD on LibRes)

Note: Although the readings focus more on sexuality, I'm hoping that we can extend the analysis to do more with class.

Women Performing Identities—Sexuality and Gender

February 19 (M): Joplin

Reading: Whiteley, Chapter 4

Listening: Joplin cuts from Whiteley CD (LibRes)

Taking Stock: We will also take a few minutes to discuss how class is going, including changes which might be appropriate; expectations; questions about your projects.

Project: 1-page proposal due

February 21 (W): Madonna

Reading: McClary, Chapter 7; Whiteley, Chapter 9

Viewing: Madonna's Live to Tell and Justify My Love (Res at Media Services)

Listening: Madonna's Live to Tell and Like a Prayer (LibRes)

Journal: DUE DATE 1

February 23 (F): Opera & the Sapphonic Voice

Reading: Elizabeth Wood, "Sapphonics," in Queering the Pitch. The New Gay and Lesbian Musicology, ed. by Philip Brett, Elizabeth Wood, and Gary C. Thomas, pp. 27-66.

Listening: some examples of the singers discussed by Wood: Mary Garden - A Selection of Her Finest Recordings; Nellie Melba - "Un ange est venu..." on Melba in French Song and Opera; Emma Calvé - The Complete Known Issued Recordings; various on 20 Great Sopranos Sing 20 Great Soprano Arias. I know these are old recordings, but think about the vocal quality as described by Wood. (LibRes)

Journal assignment: After preparing for discussion of the reading, think about one of your favorite women singers (any genre, any style), listen to the singer, and then describe/discuss the voice and its appeal to you.

Project: Resources due

February 26 (M): Fassbaender

Reading: Terry Castle, The Apparitional Lesbian. Female Homosexuality and Modern Culture, Chapter 9, pp. 200-238 (plus endnotes on pp. 268-73) [about singer Brigitte Fassbaender]

Listening: recordings of performances by Fassbaender cited in this reading (LibRes)

Project: Revised proposal due and in class discussion of the proposals (and drafts if you have something started).

February 28 (W): (opera continued)

Complete our discussion of the pervious 2 readings and in class viewing of video of Fassbaender in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier.

March 2 (F): (opera continued)

Presentation by Catherine Bishop (senior in music)?

Challenges to Gender Stereotypes and the Feminine

March 5 (M): Joni Mitchell {GUEST: Lloyd (Chip) Whitesell?}

Reading: Whiteley, Chapters 5 and 6; Lloyd Whitesell, "A Joni Mitchell Aviary," Women & Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture 1 (1997): 46-54.

Listening: Mitchell cuts from Whiteley CD (LibRes)

March 7 (W): Daughters of Chaos: Patti Smith & Siouxsie Sioux

Reading: Whiteley, Chapter 7

Listening: Smith & Siouxsie cuts from Whiteley CD (LibRes)

Project: 3-page draft. Read and critique each others drafts on your own during class

March 9 (F): Sonic Strategies

Reading: Edwards, "Senza sordini: Women, Gender, and Sonic Strategies" in Frauen- und Männerbilder in der Musik: Festschrift für Eva Rieger, pp. 146-62. Oldenburg: Universität Oldenburg, 2000.

Listening: Anne LeBaron's Blue Harp Study No. 1 [on Reserve for Music 44]

March 12 (M): Annie Lennox

Reading: Whiteley, Chapter 8

Listening: Lennox cuts from Whiteley CD (LibRes)

Journal: DUE DATE 2

March 14 (W): GUEST: TBA

March 16 (F): No class. I will be in San Antonio at a the national meeting of the American Choral Directors Association where I will meet with the Editorial Board of The Choral Journal.

****SPRING BREAK****

This week I will be presenting a paper, "Anne LeBaron: Music Technology and the Harp," at the 6th Festival of Women Composers at Indiana Univerisity of Pennsylvania.

Women, Race and Postcolonialism

March 26 y(M): Women and Rap

Guest: Anthony Pinn, Religious Studies Dept., Mac

Reading: Trisha Rose, “Bad Sistas” in Black Noise

March 28 (W): Women and Rap (continued)

Discuss plus excerpts from video Ladies First: Women in Music Videos by Queen Latifah

Project: 5-page drafts due at conference, March 28-30

March 30 (F): Background on "Orientalism," Otherness and Postcolonialism

April 2 (M): Women, Race & Opera

Reading: McClary, Chapter 3 "Sexual Politics in Classical Music"; also read info from the booklet accompanying the CD (pp. 9-13 and synopsis pp. 21-25)

Listening: Excerpts from Bizet's Carmen (CD on LibRes) - at least the spots specifically dealt with in the reading (numbers given for Solti recording at LibRes):

"Habanera" (= L'amour est un oiseau rebelle) <CD I.6>

Flower Song (= La fleur que tu) <CD II.9>

Last scene (C'est toi!) <CD III.11-12>

Video Viewing (HRC): "Habanera" scene from Carmen (Res at Media Services; please re-cue for your colleagues). I want you to see this so that the "body" is present; however, I want to work for a discussion which incorporates both the sounds and the sights [not just the latter]). Think about how the music and visual elements interact.

Journal assignment and class preparation: How does McClary explain the character of Carmen with regard to "orientalism"? How is her "oriental" identity linked to her sexuality? According to McClary Carmen must die; does McClary link this with her "oriental" identity or her sexuality? Are you convinced by McClary? Can you think of the opera and performance in other ways which would recuperate it for a feminist or female listener who does not want to be implicated in Carmen's death?

April 4 (W): Postcolonialism & the Representation of Asian Women

Reading: Hisama, Ellie M. "Postcolonialism on the Make: The Music of John Mellencamp, David Bowie and John Zorn." Popular Music 12/2 (1993): 91-104. [Western stereotypes of Asian women as delicate, exotic, and feminine fueled the success of the mail-order bride business in the 1980s, as well as an increase in Asiophilia in popular and postmodern music.] Also newspaper material about negative reactions by Asian Americans to Zorn who has lived in Japan for much of the past decade and speaks fluent Japanese. (Musicology as political action.)

Listening/viewing: CDs by John Zorn, Bowie & Mellencamp; also popular music by Asian American woman, Magdalen Hsu-Li (LibRes)

Blurred Boundaries

April 6 (F): Cross-gender Casting; Androgyny; Gender-bending in Music

I will introduce this topic with some background information about concepts and issues related to this subject and present some musical examples. {video clip of Tak}

April 9 (M): Takarazuka: Performing Gender

Reading: Jennifer Robertson, " " in Takarazuka: Sexual Politics and Popular Culture in Modern Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998, pp. .

Viewing: Dream girls (1994; 50 min.), [Annotation: "A documentary film illustrating the ways that the all-female Takarazuka Music School and its annual musical revue reflect Japanese puritanism and sexual politics."] (Res at Media Services)

Viewing: [Takarazuka performance – commercial video] (Res at Media Services)

April 11 (W): Presentations

April 13 (F): Vacation day

April 16 (M): Presentations

Project: Editing pairs established

Journal: DUE DATE 3

Creating Alternative Paths?

April 18 (W): Tori Amos and others

Reading: Whiteley, Chapter 12

Listening: Cuts from Whiteley 2 CD (LibRes)

April 20 (F): Brit Pop – Spice Girls

Reading: Whiteley, Chapter 13

Listening: Cuts from Whiteley 2 CD (LibRes)

April 23 (M): Laurie Anderson

Reading: McClary, Chapter 6

Video Viewing (HRC): "Lingua d'amour" on Home of the Brave; "O Superman" on Laurie Anderson: Collected Videos (Res at Media Services)

Listening: "Lingua d'amour" on Mister Heartbreak; "O Superman" on Big Science or Cutting Edge (CDs at LibRes)

Project: Dress rehearsal drafts due

Music as Gendered Discourse

April 25 (W): Women Lamenting

Reading: Nancy Sultan, "Private Speech, Public Pain: The Power of Women's Laments in Ancient Greek Poetry and Tragedy," in Rediscovering the Muses. Women's Musical Traditions, ed. Kimberly Marshall, pp. 92-110; Rebecca A. Pope & Susan J. Leonardi, "Divas and Disease, Mourning and Militancy: Diamanda Galás's Operatic Plague Mass, in The Work of Opera: Genre, Nationhood, and Sexual Difference, ed. Richard Dellamora & Daniel Fischlin, pp. 315-33.

Listening: at least the beginning of Plague Mass (1990) by Diamanda Galás (CAUTION: do not turn the volume very high.) For more information see http://www.diamandagalas.com/.

Viewing: Galás, Judgement Day (excerpt) (Res at Media Services)

April 27 (F): Gender & Genre

Reading: Jeffrey Kallberg, "The Harmony of the Tea Table: Gender and Ideology in the Piano Nocturne," Representations 39 (1992): 102-133.

Listening: the two nocturnes discussed by Kallberg: Nocturno by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel & from Clara Schumann's Op. 6; plus select from other CDs of music by Hensel

Preparation: work collaboratively in pairs (a music student + a nonmusic student) on the reading, listening, and preparation of discussion questions. Each pair should prepare at least three questions/issues for discussion that grow out of this article, and students will lead the discussion. Pairs = Betsy & Ola; Laurel & Maddie .

April 30 (M): TBA

Project: Final drafts due

May 2 (W): Performing our own and others' music + Challenges to the Canon

>Hope some class members will agree to perform informally for us.

>We will all do 1 or 2 of the 25 Sonic Meditations by Pauline Oliveros and discuss implications of her concept. The meditations were conceived in 1974 for a group of women; she did not view them as compositions for performance in front of an audience. They grow out of Oliveros's interest in consciousness studies, martial arts, world religions, and world music. These meditations require no prior experience with meditative techniques and no particular musical skill.

Journal: Discuss how the Sonic Meditations challenge/critique the idea of the musical canon (you might refer to the Marcia Citron's Gender and the Musical Canon, source of an earlier reading and on Reserve).

May 4 (F): Composer Rebecca Clarke

Guest: Liane Curtis (Scholars' Coordinator, Women's Studies Research Center, Brandeis University)

May 7 (M): Conclusion and Evaluation

Journal: DUE DATE 4

Project: Return papers (hopefully) and discuss research projects

********

Activism and Discrimination: Orchestras and Conductors

Reading: Jan Herman, "Taking On the Vienna Philharmonic" - article, sidebars, links, and try the quiz all at http://www.msnbc.com/news/355820.asp; {not there} J. Michele Edwards, "Women on the Podium" available on Course Website.