The Pioneering Women Composers

I was hoping to see Cécile Chaminade (1857 - 1944) make an appearance. The show Anne With an E introduced me to her, and I felt cheated for never having come across her even in my years at music school. Her gorgeous and playful "Thème Varié" for solo piano is something I dream of being able to play myself one day, though it's far beyond my current reach. 😊

I was also wondering if Nannerl, sister of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, would've gotten a shout-out. I gather there's some speculation that some of her brother's childhood compositions (and maybe even later ones) might actually have been her handiwork, yet he passed them off as his as a favor in order to "legitimize" them in a world that refused to acknowledge female composers. I've never looked into it deeply, so I expect there's far more to the story. But whatever the case may be, the mere suggestion of such a theory speaks to the "no girls allowed" attitude society had toward music composition back then.

Watching from the UK. ❤

They imitated well the music models created by males.

Great video, although I'm surprised you didn't mention Barbara Strozzi. I think she's a great example of an early female composer.

No mention of Alma Deutscher? WT actual F?

Thank you for this video! I had the amazing privilege to perform in Lisbeta - En trollkona skall du icke låta leva (Lisbeta - thou shalt not suffer a witch to live). An opera about the witch hunts in the Åland Islands in the late 17th century.
Score by Karolina Eiriksdottìr, libretto by Carina Karlsson, conducted by Anna-Marie Helsing and directed by Ida Kronholm.
Women keep getting their voices heard more and more in music, but it is still a male dominant game.

Francesca Caccini, daughter of Giulio Caccini, her stage work "La liberazione di Ruggiero" is probably the earliest opera by a woman composer.
Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, French baroque composer, "her sonatas, from later in her life, are considered triumphs of the genre."
Edit: Wow, "Chi desia" by Francesca rocks! Check it out.

Barbara Strozzi. She was quite famous in 17th century Italy, according to Wikipedia she had more secular music in print than any other composer of the era.

It's astonishing to imagine what these women in the past centuries must have come through to even be allowed to do same things as men did. How many bright minds have been restricted from blossoming into creative geniuses. Terrifying.

Kaija Saariaho.

Thank you for highlighting these women! Those quotes were heartbreaking. I'm glad women are free to write music nowadays, even if they're sometimes unfairly maligned.

If we leave the world of classical music, there is a number of remarkable women who compose for the pop industry. They are not performers themselves but they are well esteemed in the industry.

Ruth Crawford Seeger

Tell us in the comments if there are any other pioneering women composers you'd like to highlight

Somehow you forgot to mention two of the most world-renowned women composers of the 20th century, Galina Ustvolskaya and Sofia Gubaidulina.

Can we have a listening and analyzing of their music series please?

I love learning about women whose stories are re emerging

Why haven't we heard of them before? Amazing.