Female and/or Black composers?

Started by Zizekian, July 07, 2012, 02:42:29 PM

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Zizekian

July 07, 2012, 02:42:29 PM
Hi, everyone! I am just now beginning to seriously explore the world of classical music and I had a question: Can anyone recommend any female and/or Black composers? Besides Grazyna Bacewicz, I don't think I have any works by female composers, and I don't think that I have any works by Black composers (I have some albums by Winton Marsalis, and one album featuring a musical collaboration between Don Cherry and Penderecki, but I'm thinking of artists who work primarily in the genre of classical).

Any suggestions?

springrite

#1
July 07, 2012, 03:06:26 PM
For black composers, William Grant Still, composer of the Afro-American Symphony, is the obvious choice.

There are many good female composers. Of the living ones, Saariaho and Gubaidulina. There are others but these two are ones I'd recommend the most. Past composers include ones like Clara Schumann, Lili and Nadia Boulanger, Alma Mahler, etc. If you are not into new music, then start with Lili Boulanger, I'd say.
Do what I must do, and let what must happen happen.

Todd

#2
July 07, 2012, 03:12:08 PM
If you like modern/contemporary music, a few you may want to consider include are below.  (The vast majority of my collection (99%+) is composed by white men, though.)  I own all but the Hailstork, though I did hear a broadcast of the Second Symphony a few years ago.  I should probably buy that disc.

 


 

The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

Zizekian

#3
July 07, 2012, 05:27:59 PM
Great! Thanks for the suggestions. Are Clara Schumann and Alma Mahler related to their male composer namesakes?

Karl Henning

#4
July 07, 2012, 05:45:09 PM
Wedded unto them.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Szykneij

#5
July 07, 2012, 05:56:05 PM
Men profess to be lovers of music, but for the most part they give no evidence in their opinions and lives that they have heard it.  ~ Henry David Thoreau

Don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines. ~ Satchel Paige

Mirror Image

#6
July 07, 2012, 07:14:53 PM
Favorite female composer: Lili Boulanger - her life was cut tragically short, but she left behind some powerful, heartbreakingly beautiful music

Favorite Black composer: Don't have one. There haven't been any, in the classical genre, that have been particularly interesting to me.

Vesteralen

#7
July 17, 2012, 04:50:56 AM
It may be relatively light and very accessible music, but I've enjoyed what I've heard by Cecile Chaminade.

Another modern composer is Joan Tower.  She was composer in residence at my local symphony last year and I enjoyed the premiere of her work "Stroke".

Leo K.

#8
July 17, 2012, 08:25:15 AM
I wholeheartedly second Hailstork's second symphony on Naxos.


snyprrr

#9
July 20, 2012, 06:50:47 AM
Can I be blunt about Afro-American Composers?

Mingus

Braxton

maybe Monk


I'm not about to recommend any... oh, wait a minute, I DO have a favorite. Hmm ::), I'm embarrassed. May I recommend the 'Black Mozart'? I forget his name... Chevalier something... a great swordsman also,... historically interesting too...


...and, how bout Wendy Carlos?!

cjvinthechair

#10
July 23, 2012, 09:14:44 AM
Since I'm catching up with the site after something of an absence, during part of which I've been trying to increase my awareness of female composers, can I add 2 pence worth ?
I don't like anything too extreme, so how about Lydia Auster(EST), Emma-Lou Diemer(USA) - Requiem & Flute Concerto particularly - , Helena Munktell(SWE), Alla Pavlova(RUS), & a couple more slightly more 'edgy'(?) Russians, Victoria Poleva & Galina Ustvolskaya.

Any use - any more for me to search out ?     Thanks.
Clive.

listener

#11
July 23, 2012, 01:54:43 PM
conservative  female suggestions- Grace Williams, Doreen Carwithen (William Alwyn's 2nd wife)
conservative black - Ulysses Kay, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
"Keep your hand on the throttle and your eye on the rail as you walk through life's pathway."

Robert

#12
July 23, 2012, 02:53:23 PM
The greatest Black Composer is Duke Ellington.....

mahler10th

#13
July 27, 2012, 11:28:22 AM
Alla Pavlova.



Ukraine born New York based.

Rinaldo

#14
July 27, 2012, 11:46:16 AM
Quote from: snyprrr on July 20, 2012, 06:50:47 AM
...and, how bout Wendy Carlos?!

Don't know if it fits within the classical universe but Beauty in the Beast is a masterpiece definitely worth checking.

Quote from: Mirror Image on July 07, 2012, 07:14:53 PM
Favorite female composer: Lili Boulanger - her life was cut tragically short, but she left behind some powerful, heartbreakingly beautiful music

Rather similar story was Vitezslava Kapralova, who wrote some tremendous piano music and showed tons of promise but sadly didn't live past 25. She actually studied under Nadia Boulanger, among others.
"The truly novel things will be invented by the young ones, not by me. But this doesn't worry me at all."
~ Grażyna Bacewicz

Ten thumbs

#15
July 28, 2012, 01:44:19 PM
A little list of very fine female composers to get you started (in addition to those already mentioned):

Fanny (Mendelssohn) Hensel
Louise Farrenc
Emilie Mayer
Agathe Backer-Grøndahl
Mel Bonis
Amy Beach

Also, if you like lieder:
Josephine Lang
A day may be a destiny; for life
Lives in but little—but that little teems
With some one chance, the balance of all time:
A look—a word—and we are wholly changed.

Jean Rivier

#16
July 30, 2012, 08:19:50 AM
My favorites female composers: Hildegard Von Bingen, Lili Boulanger, Germaine Tailleferre, Galina Ustvolskaya and Sofia Gubaidulina. I think all are recommended. I also like Sophie Eckhardt-Gramatte and lately I "discovered" Grazyna Bacewicz.
Black composers hardly know.

mahler10th

#17
July 30, 2012, 08:25:40 AM Last Edit: July 30, 2012, 08:27:32 AM by Scots John
Quote from: Jean Rivier on July 30, 2012, 08:19:50 AM
My favorites female composers: Hildegard Von Bingen, Lili Boulanger, Germaine Tailleferre, Galina Ustvolskaya and Sofia Gubaidulina. I think all are recommended. I also like Sophie Eckhardt-Gramatte and lately I "discovered" Grazyna Bacewicz.
Black composers hardly know.

I did not know Grazyna Bacewicz was female.  I have heard the name many times, but never listened.  Now I will.   :-*

Oh, she was Polish too...wow...my brain goes electrically nuts when listening to some Polish composers.  Hope she is the same...

Rinaldo

#18
July 30, 2012, 09:22:48 AM
Quote from: Scots John on July 30, 2012, 08:25:40 AMOh, she was Polish too...wow...my brain goes electrically nuts when listening to some Polish composers.  Hope she is the same...

Bacewicz is amazing. I love her sonatas for violin & piano - lots of electricity there!
"The truly novel things will be invented by the young ones, not by me. But this doesn't worry me at all."
~ Grażyna Bacewicz

Jem

#19
August 07, 2012, 05:20:33 AM
Known as he Black Dvorak – Samuel Coleridge Taylor

http://www.100greatblackbritons.com/bios/samuel_coleridge-taylor.html
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