First, "open the classic"
Canon was originally a religious term, meaning "Canon of scripture". In the field of literature, classics refer to those important works that are well known and recognized by scholars, teachers and readers. After a long period of accumulation, they reached a consensus, which was popularized and continued through school education. Classics are "exemplary" and "authoritative", which, to a certain extent, express the social norms and values generally recognized by the society at that time, and some even become symbols of the national or national spirit. From the feminist point of view, the standards of western literary classics are mostly male-centered, and influenced by race, class and gender, which embodies the values of upper-middle-class white men in Europe as a whole, and the works of women and vulnerable groups cannot be included in the classics. Since 1970s, under the influence of feminist literary criticism, American academic circles have extensively discussed the choice and definition of literary classics, and exposed the patriarchal ideology in literary classics. Kaidian is one of them.
The discussion of "opening classics" in literary circles mostly revolves around factors such as power and gender. They criticize the power oppression that permeates the process of the establishment, selection and interpretation of classics, hoping to build a more equal classic system. After 1970s, many universities or research institutions expanded or revised the existing curriculum contents and research fields, and a large number of works by women and ethnic minorities were discovered or re-evaluated. The establishment of classical music system can not be separated from social constraints. In the field of music, white male musicians occupy an absolute advantage, and women have much fewer opportunities to learn professional music than men, and only a few can engage in composition. Before the emergence of professional female composers in the second half of the 20th century, women mostly created some popular genres that satisfied women's self-entertainment, such as art songs and piano sketches, and paid little attention to opera, symphony and other fields that needed more education and practice, and their creative activities were not widely recognized. For feminist researchers, the evaluation of music classics should not be determined solely by aesthetic factors, but also by social and cultural factors. They used the knowledge and methods accumulated in the fields of history, sociology, philosophy and culturology to explore female musicians living in male norms and taboos, and the history of female music that was once considered insignificant was sorted out and renamed.
Second, the study of women's music history
Before feminism influenced music research, western music tradition paid little attention to women. 1903, Arthur elson's "Female Musical Works" was published, which became one of the few works that paid attention to female musicians, especially female composers. The research objects involved many female musicians from ancient Greece to modern Europe and America. From the modern academic point of view, this work still has some regrets, such as unclear citation information, insufficient exploration of the social status and lifestyle of female musicians, and some viewpoints are slightly outdated. However, at the beginning of the 20th century, when this book was published, many ideas of the budding western feminist movement had not been universally recognized, and women had no right to speak in the academic field. In this context, this book is particularly precious.
Sophie Derynk (1888- 1967) published the book Women and Music. Sophie Derynk was born in a wealthy and decent family in Philadelphia, USA, and received a good music education since childhood. In her book, she points out that it is not that women can't create great music, but that our social structure denies women and prevents them from having the same status as men. At that time, the book didn't get much attention and its popularity was not high. It was not until the 1990s that Ruth Soli's A History of Sophie Delink reevaluated the history of women and questioned the compilation of traditional history that people began to re-recognize this book. Soli's question in the article involves that traditional historical research pays too much attention to "great figures" and "great works", and thinks that historians are concerned about the novelty of music, its influence on later generations and whether it can be included in classic tracks. This has also led to the neglect of women's works in historical research. Today, Sophie Delink herself is regarded as a pioneer of female musicology and gender studies, and Women and Music is also regarded as an important work of early female music research.
Under the influence of feminist movement, the status of women has been greatly improved. Some universities have set up women's research centers, and performance agencies and record companies have paid more and more attention to female musicians, and comments and monographs have emerged one after another. In the process of trying to rewrite or rewrite the history of music after 1980s, there are several types of women who first enter the researchers' field of vision: professional female composers, performers (singers), music patrons and women associated with famous male musicians. The Collection of Women's Music 65438-0987, edited by James R. Briscoe, traces the origin and evolution of European women's creation in chronological order, and introduces the works of European women composers with examples, which reflects the diversity of women's creation in space and time. Edited by Sylvia Glickman and Martha Shriver, The Female Composer: Music Across History is much richer in length and material selection. The History of Women and Music, edited by Karin Pendl, analyzes the situation of female musicians and patrons in Europe from ancient Greece to the present, and also discusses 19 and American female musicians in the 20th century in several chapters. As a textbook suitable for undergraduates, the editor intentionally broadened the scope of research and devoted another chapter to American pop music, art patrons and professional composers from non-European countries such as Australia and New Zealand.
Musician Judith Tick's main research field is American music. Since 1970s, she realized that only a few important (male) composers in academic and teaching fields could not represent the whole American music culture. 1979 Tick's monograph1American Female Composers Before 870 and the revision based on her doctoral thesis ⑦ established her academic position in the field of gender studies. In this book, the author describes in detail the creative background, experience and main works of American female composers from the perspective of feminism from both social and cultural aspects. Similar to Tick, the academic research of American musician Jane Bowers is also centered on the study of female music history, paying special attention to how female musicians create music in male-dominated fields and succeed. 1987 "Female Music Creation: Western Art Tradition, 1 150- 1950", co-edited by Tick and Bowles, made a special study on female musicians in the European and American art and music fields from 12 to the 20th century, including female musicians in the Middle Ages. Although the book adopts the traditional feminist research method and adds neglected female musicians to the music history, this "women-centered" book, which pays attention to women's unique experiences, has surpassed the "additional music history" based on materials in both breadth and depth and presented a new look.
The case study of female musicians is the highlight of women's studies. Clara schumann (1819-1896) was probably the most influential female musician before the 20th century. This pianist and composer occupies an important position in the history of music and has long been called robert schumann's wife. Clara schumann is a hot figure in women's studies, and Nancy B. Reich's biography clara schumann: Artists and Women is an important one among many studies. This biography focuses on the key issues in clara schumann's life: her close relationship with her father, her relationship with her mother, her education and career development, the choices she was forced to make to balance her family and career, how she became a mother, and her attitude towards her husband's illness, attempted suicide and hospitalization. This book is divided into two parts. The first part narrates in chronological order, but in the second part, the author takes Clara's relationship with friends, music creation, stage performance and teaching career as the main line, extracts some experiences from Clara's life and comments on it, and discusses her brilliant and legendary life. The advantage of this method is that it fully discusses the contents that biographers don't pay much attention to but are very important, such as Clara's eight children, her colleagues and contemporary musicians, their music creation, teaching methods, publishing history, performances, and of course her relationship with her husband and Brahms. In addition, the author can see Clara's contradictory attitude towards her father and mother from her letters and diaries, and show Clara's efforts to balance the contradiction between family and career with rich pictures and complete performance catalogues. The in-depth description in many aspects makes us better understand Clara's multifaceted personality, which is more real Clara, although contradictory. From this perspective, Ricky's narrative is vivid and personal.
In the 20th century, with the vigorous development of women's liberation movement and the improvement of women's status, women constantly broke the gender roles endowed by traditional society and displayed their talents in the public sphere. However, even talented women often choose to give up their careers when faced with the dilemma of career and family. Ruth Crawford Seager (1901-1953) is an early American avant-garde composer. She created modern music works in the 1920s and 1930s, which showed her outstanding creative talent. Crawford's works are not many, all from his early years. In the late 1920s, he fell in love with American musician, composer, critic and conductor Charles Siegel, and married him on 1932. After marriage, Crawford devoted himself to family life and her husband's music career, especially his work of collecting and editing American folk music. Crawford raised four children altogether. In the dilemma of wife, mother and composer, she basically gave up music creation until shortly before her death due to cancer. Crawford's experience made many people sigh. From 65438 to 0997, Judith Tick's biography Ruth Crawford Siegel: A Composer's American Music Collection (⑩) comprehensively discussed the musician's life and his contribution to the collection and research of American traditional music.
Besides female composers, performers, singers and patrons. It is also within the scope of gender studies, such as 1980 Uncelebrated: A History of American Women's Music edited by Christine Amer? Lola? Series? This paper comprehensively introduces and evaluates the creation and performance of American female musicians in the field of art and music since17th century from the aspects of keyboard players, string players, composers, women's symphony orchestras, opera composers, conductors, modern music composers and music teachers, and added two chapters of ragtime and jazz in the second edition of 200 1. 1997 "Outstanding Supporting Actress Music" Mona Mende? Lola? Hey? This book introduces the outstanding women who have contributed to music and dance from eight parts: the ladies in the big salon, elegant patroness of the old world, wives and lovers, inspiring teachers, American patroness, creative manager, famous mothers and sisters, dancers and their contributions. 200 1 Beth mcleod's female performance music: the emergence of American classical instrumentalists and female conductors? Lola? Hey? This paper introduces the female musicians and conductors in the American classical music circle. These female musicians broke the taboo of women performing in the public sphere in American society in the19th century, and became concert performers, symphony orchestra musicians, conductors, etc. And play a more important public role.
With the opening of modern society, it is more and more common for women to participate in music activities. Female performers, teachers and composers have become the norm, and women's participation and achievements in some fields (such as teachers, singing and playing) have surpassed those of men. Since 1970s, women-related topics have been widely discussed, including the study of women's music history, women composers, women performers and women patrons. It is very popular, and there are countless related dissertations, monographs and periodical papers. But for many scholars, similar historical research still belongs to the "missing and filling" of bringing women into the established framework of music history. Although some high-quality historical works have been published, in the male-dominated academic field, promoting a female music history and looking for some "dirty" female composers to prove that women have history can not fundamentally change their understanding of female musicians, nor can they change the development law and established disciplinary framework of music history.
Third, the criticism of female music.
The investigation of women's music history not only expands the research scope of musicology, but also brings great vitality to academic circles. However, the problem is that the construction of music classics is really influenced by ideology, but there is still a certain scale to judge the value of works. No matter how much the existing classics are influenced by race, class and gender, they really represent the essence of western cultural and artistic achievements. Therefore, many scholars who are skeptical about the value of women's studies believe that although women's contributions have been recognized in the modern academic field, some female composers' works have been performed or published, and many issues related to women have appeared in various academic conferences, papers and works, most of them have just walked to the forefront of history because of their gender, and their music works or activities have no practical value. Therefore, after the female music works have been fully excavated and sorted out, the aesthetic evaluation of female music works has become a focus.
Feminism believes that power and gender temperament are interdependent, and people of different genders, classes and races are endowed with different gender temperament. The essentialist gender thinking mode of binary opposition holds that there are many completely different opposites between men and women. Physiologically, women must have female gender characteristics and are associated with negative values such as physiology, emotion, gentleness and dependence, while men are associated with positive values such as courage, rationality and independence. In order to get rid of the troubles caused by gender, many female composers insist on not taking gender identity as an issue, and strive to create music that is "the same" as men, so as to prove that they can write music instead of "women's music". However, while not letting their creations and performances "sound too weak", some female musicians will try to avoid being too "tough" and losing their femininity. Marcia J. Khitrun in Gender and Music Classics (1993)? Lola? Hey? This book studies female composers in different historical periods and regions. Through the study of biographies, notes, diaries or letters, it discusses the similarities of their life experiences, emotional experiences, ways of thinking and career paths, and puts forward how the "classic" standards of western art music influence female composers and their creations. Therefore, the author discusses the requirements of performance institutions, academic criticism, music publishing industry and recording industry for music classics, and also evaluates the shaping of women's roles by gender. However, the author also thinks that "female composer" is a broad concept. As an independent individual, we can not only consider the overall construction of women by power and knowledge, but also ignore the unique personal experience of female composers.
Different from the relatively unified musical language of tonality music, the music in the post-tonality period is more personalized. Perhaps, as some critics have said, modern music is too "masculine" and feminism has not discussed it too much. Ellie Hisama wrote in Gender Music Modernism: The Music of Ruth Crawford, Marion Bauer and miriam Gide? Lola? Hey? "Incorrect" is the first book to raise the issue of music modernism from the feminist perspective. The first chapter of this book, Cultural Analysis and Post-tonal Music, introduces the research methods and strategies, and analyzes the third and fourth movements of American modernist female composer Ruth Crawford's string quartet (193 1) and the art song China, Laundryman (65438+). Of the seven works analyzed in this book, five are purely instrumental. In the concrete narration, Black Room combines the works and life experiences of these composers, and uses the composer's public records, private letters, diaries and the memories of friends when creating this work to prove the subtle differences in gender. Based on "Feminism-Modernism", Black Room analyzes the narrative theme shared by three composers, hoping to build a bridge between modernism and feminism, which is complicated but interesting.
Feminist music aesthetics? Lola? Hey? Error is a monograph focusing on the aesthetics of women's music works. The author Sally MacArthur hopes to reshape the evaluation criteria of women's music with "feminist music aesthetics". As one of the few monographs on the aesthetic interpretation of female composers and their music works from the feminist perspective, the author questioned the practice of evaluating female music by the "ideal standard" of male mode, and demonstrated the connotation and legitimacy of "feminist aesthetics" by comparing the differences between male and female composers who created works with the same content. For example, in the fourth chapter, the author analyzes the works of British composers Rebecca Clark (1886- 1970) and Elizabeth Lutins (1906- 1983) and Clark's piano trio (Pia). In addition, the author also analyzes the symbolic meaning between (female) body and music works in The Circle of Love by Australian composer Anne Boyd (198 1). From the similarity between postmodernism and feminism, Elena Katz-Cernin is regarded as a postmodern piano work Tast-en. This paper analyzes the national identity, environmental factors, race and religion from Moya Henderson's two very different works: stubble (1975), a drama during his school days, and Holy Land (1983), which was written for organ and audio tape.
conclusion
Gender is the most important difference in human society, and the social relationship established with the help of physiological gender differences is the earliest and most common classification standard in every social form, which affects all aspects of family, society, culture, religion and music life. Western music history has always paid attention to those famous and creative male musical geniuses. In contrast, lesser-known musicians are unknown and nobody cares. Women's music research pays special attention to "unknown" women's music activities, and excavates, collects and analyzes their music works. For decades, influenced by semiotics, psychoanalysis, cultural studies, post-structuralism, post-colonialism, homosexual theory and queer studies, gender studies have been deepened and expanded, and the research focus is no longer limited to the simple study of women's music history. Moreover, with the change of social environment and historical context, women's social, economic and political status has been greatly improved, and female musicians can receive more complete music training and create more freely. The best female composers have successfully challenged the stereotypes for centuries, proving that women can also create first-class music, even if they compete with the greatest men in this field. As the starting point of gender research, the value of "Feminism" still exists, and many scholars are far more interested in women's social status, role and identity than pure feminist music criticism theory. They use the new gender theory to study female musicians in the new period and explore the female identity and unique personality that constantly adapt to the new social context, which is also an inexhaustible topic in women's studies.
(1) [America] Arthur Ellson's Women in the Music World, translated by Xu Lei, Shandong University Press.
Version 20 14.
② Sophie drinker. Music and women: the story of the relationship between women and music. New york: Coward McCann, 1948.
(3) Ruth Soli, Sophie's drinking history. Edited by Katherine bergeron and Philip V. Pahlman. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1992, pp23-43.
(4) James R. Brisco. Selected works of women's music history. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987.
(5) edited by Sylvia Glickman and Martha Furman Shriver. Female composer:
Music of past dynasties. New york: G.K. Hall Company, 1996.
6. Karin Pendl. Women and music: history. Bloomington, Indiana
University press, 199 1.
All landowners Judith tick. American female composers before 1870. New york:
University of rochester press, 1979.
Edited by Jane Bowles and Judith Tick. Women who make music: the west
Art tradition, 1 150- 1950. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987.
9 [America] Nancy Qu Rui's clara schumann:/kloc-the greatest female pianist of the 9th century (second
), translated by Chen Qiuping and You Shufeng, Taipei Gao Yi Culture, 2003.
Attending Judith ticking. Ruth Crawford Seager: The composer's exploration of American music. New york: Oxford University Press, 1997.