Unsung : a history of women in American music / Christine Ammer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ammer, Christine.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women musicians--United States.

Women musicians.

United States.

Women composers--United States.

Women composers.

Physical Description:

382 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

Century edition.

Place of Publication:

Portland, OR : Amadeus, [2001]

Summary:

Since the publication of its first edition in 1980, when Booklist called it "a publishing event," Unsung has become the classic text in the field. This second edition, revised and expanded, extends the book's authority to the present day by surveying a full 200 years of women active in American music.

The author has added dozens of composers and performers, including women involved in ragtime and jazz from the late 1800s to the present, and notes the many important strides women musicians have made in the past 20 years. An increasing number of women perform in first-rank orchestras, a handful of women conductors have gained national attention, and individual instrumentalists have won recognition. Succinct biographical sketches show the influences on -- and influences of -- hundreds of women musicians. Singers are omitted: they compete only with other women in their own voice parts. Rather, the book concentrates on women composers, instrumentalists, conductors, orchestra and opera managers, and music educators.

Contents:

1. The First Flowering

At the Organ 13

2. The "Lady Violinists" and Other String Players 32

3. Seated at the Keyboard 62

4. The First "Lady Composers" 91

5. Apartheid

The All-Women's Orchestras 118

6. American Composers in European Idioms 139

7. Grass Roots

Composers in American Idioms 166

8. Opera Composers and Conductors 192

9. Contemporary and Postmodern Idioms

After 1950 212

10. Electronic Music, Mixed Media, Film, Performance Art 230

11. Today's Orchestras, Conductors, and Instrumentalists 249

12. Teaching Music 282

13. Angels and Advocates 303

Appendix Women Musicians in Thirteen Major U.S. Orchestras 313.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 346-360) and index.

ISBN:

1574670581

1574670611

OCLC:

44128163