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Christina Colebank

Underrated Women Composers

Dr. Merlino
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Throughout history there has been an abundance of composers who have created and

applied innovations to music to allow us to have the music we know today. Whenever we think

about music composers, our minds bring up names like Mozart, Haydn, Wagner and Stravinsky.

One thing that all of these composers have in common are that they are all white men. In history

there has been so many underrated women composers that did a lot for the music we know

today, but we do not appreciate them enough.

Hildegard Von Bingen was a saint, composer and poet that was born over 900 years ago.

Though she spent most of her life in a monastery, she left behind an abundance of songs behind

when she died. Now we think of Hildegard as one of the first composers in western music, but

why don’t we see her name in a lot of our music texts before the 90’s? Hildegard did not start to

become popular until around 1980 when there was a performance of her music. This had people

become curious about her and they began studying hundreds of recordings of her music and

different scholarly writings.1 There was so many remarkable things about this woman that we did

not even know about until she piqued interest in the 80s. When she was alive there is no

evidence that her music ever made it out of her convent.

Another woman composer that does not get enough attention is Barbara Strozzi. She was

a big composer in the 17th century and is considered one of the most prolific composers of

secular vocal music in Venice.2 It is remarkable that Barbra was actually able to make a name for

1
Owen Hopkin, “Hildegard of Bingen: Life and Music of the Great Female Composer,” Classic
FM, November 16, 2018, https://www.classicfm.com/composers/bingen/guides/discovering-
great-composers-hildegard-von-bingen/)
2
Lizzie Davis, “This Is the Amazing Story of Baroque Composer Barbara Strozzi,” Classic FM,
January 31, 2020, https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/barbara-strozzi/)
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herself while she was alive, usually female composers had to compose under and male name in

order to have their works printed. She put her name on everything and was able to pave the way

for female writers of secular music to publish under her own name. Her music was very different

for the time due to her relationship between the music and the words of her works. Along with

being a composer she was a single mom to three and that was definitely not heard of at that

time.3

Over time we see cases where famous male composers had female relatives that had

talents that matched theirs, that is Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann. Fanny Mendelssohn

was someone who had so much love for music and it was disappointing to see that her talents

could not thrive as much as Felix Mendelssohn, her brother. During the time her brother was

becoming very well known, he would come to her to have her critique his work and he always to

her advice to heart and would make revisions based on her opinions. Her talents on the piano

equaled if not surpassed that of her brothers, though at this time women composer were not able

to peruse a career as a musician. After getting married, she continued composing and created

over five hundred musical works that consisted of small-scale keyboard pieces, songs, chamber

music and choral works.4 The other female composer with a famous counterpart was Clara

Schumann, wife of Robert Schumann. From a young age she studied piano and actually

established quite a name for herself in Europe. After marrying Robert, they had eight children in

3
Ibit

4
“Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, 1805-1847,” The Library of Congress, 4AD,
https://loc.gov/item/ihas.200156440)
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thirteen years. Even with all the time spent taking care of their children, she was able to tour and

compose more. She created works for orchestra, chamber music and character pieces for solo

piano.5 These are two of the most well-known women composers that showed just as much

talent as their famous counterparts.

When we move ahead in time, we meet some women composers who remarkably made a

name for themselves despite what events were happening around them. Rebecca Clarke was born

into an oppressive lifestyle in Harrow, England. She began musical studies on the violin at age 9

and her father wanted her to study music and allowed her to go to the Royal Academy of Music.

After two years into studying at university level she was proposed to by a professor, it was

declined, and her father pulled her out of the university. Despite her early life struggles she had a

fantastic career as a performer and composer. She was on of the first female orchestral musicians

and was so successful she toured international as a soloist. Clarke composed many works but

many of them were for the viola. Though most of her works are unpublished still to this day die

to women composers being controversial at the time. A lot of her music follows the

impressionistic style and provides a lot of emotional depth.6

These female composers were very important in their time because they were doing

something that could have seemed impossible for them. It is unreal that most of the women were

actually able to make a name for themselves or at least as much as they could while they were

alive and continue to be influential to this day. Women composers are starting to be valued more

5
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Clara Schumann,” Encyclopædia Britannica
(Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., September 9, 2019),
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Clara-Schumann)
6
“Rebecca Clarke: Viola Master and Composer,” Classical Music Indy, May 14, 2018,
https://www.classicalmusicindy.org/rebecca-clarke-viola-master-and-composer/)
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and more as we study them in history. Before the 80’s this would have been more difficult. This

just proves the importance of appreciating all composers no matter what gender.

Bibliography

Davis, Lizzie. “This Is the Amazing Story of Baroque Composer Barbara Strozzi.” Classic FM,
January 31, 2020. https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/barbara-strozzi/.

“Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, 1805-1847.” The Library of Congress. Accessed 4AD.

https://loc.gov/item/ihas.200156440.

Hopkin, Owen. “Hildegard of Bingen: Life and Music of the Great Female Composer.” Classic FM,
November 16, 2018. https://www.classicfm.com/composers/bingen/guides/discovering-great-
composers-hildegard-von-bingen/.
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“Rebecca Clarke: Viola Master and Composer.” Classical Music Indy, May 14, 2018.
https://www.classicalmusicindy.org/rebecca-clarke-viola-master-and-composer/.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Clara Schumann.” Encyclopædia Britannica.

Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., September 9, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Clara-
Schumann.