On Tuesday (9/22) at NewMusicBox, Emily Hogstad writes, “On September 16 The Spectator ran a bizarre, demeaning article entitled ‘There’s A Good Reason Why There Are No Great Female Composers.’ … Both The Spectator and my blog [entry examining the article] … accrued hundreds of passionate comments…. Lots of people have lots of ideas why there are no female composers in the pantheon of immortals…. Some of those justifications make sense, but I doubt that any one of them alone is sufficient.… Clickbait is affecting the cultural discussion in very weird ways. By that measure, the article was a roaring success.… People find the subject of women in music to be fascinating. Classical music especially loves to panic over its imminent irrelevancy and demise. So I would think that everyone who loves it would be racing to embrace new angles that people show interest in. This may mean deliberately spotlighting the contributions of any number of fabulously accomplished women from throughout music history. The ultimate disrespect to the topic of women in music would be to say relatively little about it, as has happened for far too long.… The hubbub around the subject is an intensely hopeful sign.”
Posted September 24, 2015
