Gendering Musical Modernism

Description:
This book explores the work of three significant American women composers of the twentieth century: Ruth Crawford, Marion Bauer and Miriam Gideon. It offers a unique approach to a rich body of music that deserves theoretical scrutiny and provides information on both the lives and music of these fascinating women, skillfully interweaving history and musical analysis in ways that both the specialist and the more general reader will find compelling. In this important study, Ellie Hisama has employed forms of analysis by which she links musical characteristics with aspects of the composers' identities. This is revealing both for questions of music and gender and the continuing search for meaning in music. The book thus draws attention to the value of the music of these three composers and contributes to the body of analytical work concerned with the explanation of musical language.

Review:
'This important and provocative study should suggest new paths for feminist analysis.' CHOICE Nov 2001 '...Hisama's general project and specific interpretations effectively illustrate new ways of mapping the influence of gender on musical structure... stimulating and original perspective...' Elizabeth Crist, Notes

Table of Contents:
List of figures; List of tables; List of examples; Foreword Ian Bent; Acknowledgments; List of abbreviations; Note about technical terms; 1. Cultural analysis and post-tonal music; 2. The question of climax in Ruth Crawford's String Quartet, third movement; 3. Inscribing identities in Crawford's String Quartet, fourth movement; 4. The politics of contour in Crawford's 'Chinaman, Laundryman'; 5. Gender, sexuality, and performance in Marion Bauer's Toccata; 6. Musical sublimation in Bauer's 'Chromaticon'; 7. 'A Woman's Way of Responding to the World': Miriam Gideon's 'Night is My Sister'; 8. Feminist agency in Gideon's 'Esther'; Epilogue; Bibliography; Index.

Author Biography:
Ellie M. Hisama is Associate Professor of Music at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York and is Director of the Institute for Studies in American Music at Brooklyn College.