Dimensions
129 x 198 x 27mm
From the sixteenth century to the present day, female composers have been subjected to ludicrous criticisms, had their sex lives scrutinized and the veracity of their authorship questioned. Despite working within a maledominated musical culture, and even sometimes subscribing to society’s beliefs about what they could and should do, time and again there were women who evaded, confronted and ignored the ideologies and practices that sought to exclude them from what they loved.
This is a celebration of eight formidably talented women who produced such masterpieces as Hensel’s piano work ‘The Year’, Caccini’s arias and Boulanger’s setting of Psalm 130. Historian Anna Beer examines how these women worked with the restrictions upon them, writing what they could, when they could. If it is still against the odds to become a female composer, then the ways in which individual women have beaten those odds bears telling. Long-overdue, Sounds and Sweet Airs paints a complex and inspirational picture of artistic endeavour and achievement that deserves to be part of our cultural heritage.
