Comments on: Music by Women

By: kjbishop

kjbishop — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:27:38 +0000

Oh, there’s a lot more there than I realised… as for your relative, I could get emotional about that too. (I’m surprised she was out of hospital — but perhaps I shouldn’t be.)

By: Gillian

Gillian — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:16:38 +0000

I think you should both listen to random music from that website. Not only am I less miffed (my composers *are* there, but hidden – and one of them was in love with stuff that was comforting listening, if that reassures at all – my father used to call them ‘Light Classics’) but there are playable excerpts for quite a few. I love this new age of musical extracts online – we can make up our own minds about music!

Contemplating lovely sounds is much better than dwelling on the other, which is that one of my near relatives had to carry a 3 year old child up many stairs three days after a caesarian. I could get quite emotional about the issues of who does what and whether they ought to, I think.

By: kjbishop

kjbishop — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:41:31 +0000

Few men would…

By: Colin

Colin — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:31:23 +0000

i might but i wont.

By: kjbishop

kjbishop — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:49:17 +0000

You might want to discuss that with mothers…around the world…

By: Colin

Colin — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:46:54 +0000

I don’t know about carrying 30lt of water on my head. but carrying 2 year olds and up i thought was a mandom thing.

By: kjbishop

kjbishop — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:24:03 +0000

Gillian – see, I don’t know any Australian women composers. But then, I don’t think I know any Australian male composer — not counting modern musos — either… Miriam Hyde’s name sounds vaguely familiar. I have to admit, I’ve yet to hear a contemporary classical (sorry for the oxymoron) piece by man, woman or beast that I really enjoy. I like catchy melodies and obvious beats — or else really ambient stuff. Don’t like persistent discords and weird spacing. I dig the scherzo from Glanville-Hicks’s Etruscan Concerto very much, and her Gymnopedies here. And wow, the samples from Transposed Heads are rather intriguing.

Could it be that the numbers of female composers grew at the same time as “classical” music got bloody difficult to listen to, so that now they simply share their obscurity with male peers?

By: kjbishop

kjbishop — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:20:14 +0000

Colin – a tuba weighs 10-18kg. A two-year-old child weighs 12-20 kg. I hereby submit that all carrying of two-year olds (and up) should henceforth be a Mandom and be done by men. (And all carrying of 30 litre water pots on top of the head, too.)

By: Gillian

Gillian — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:52:22 +0000

The ANU did a project maybe 20 years ago whre tehy record a multidisk set of major Aussie women composers. I was stupid and didn’t buy it because it didn’t include the composers I knew (and I was miffed they were left out) and I do regret my then-sulk. There’s now a website (and it still doesn’t have the composers I knew – it’s like there are two camps of suport for women composers and some support one group, some another and only Mirrie Hill is in both!). Anyhow, there’s a website here: http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/guides/women-composers

Don’t know if it helps. (I want to read that long post, when you’re ready to write it, but some things take extra thinking-through.)

By: Colin

Colin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:56:46 +0000

I know classic sense of music it was a man’s sport. That said too some of these instriments particularly in the bass section still falls mainly into a “Mandom” due to size and weight.