One of my pet projects this summer was to read more about women in classical music, and to do a lot of listening. I thought I’d share the resources I came across in the Maxwell Music Library.
We have sixteen books with the subject heading of women and music, and that is where I would start if you were interested in this subject. My top two included Women Making Music by Bowers and Tick, which talks about women in the western art tradition (1150-1950). This has a great overview of the topic. To delve deeper, I would recommend Women in Music edited by Neuls-Bates, an anthology of source readings from the middle ages through 1995. The most memorable section to me were the letters to Fanny Mendelssohn from her father and brother, telling her why she should not be striving to write music.
The best reference tool we have is Women in Music: A Research and Information Guide, published in 2005. It includes sections on reference works, music histories, feminist theory, sexuality, music education, historical periods, ethnomusicology, and various genres.
An essential resource when considering this topic are the two anthologies of music by women edited by James Briscoe. We have the accompanying CDs.
Many of the audio databases have playlists related to women in music, like the one on Blues Women (Furman users only) in American Song by Alexander Street Press. Dig in and do some listening, and remember that all of our audio databases have unlimited users!
We also have books, scores, and recordings specific to each composer, so once you have learned more about the overall theme of women in music, you should be able to go deeper in the collections of our library.