Women Composers' Thread/International Women's Day 2015 on R3

[Serial_Apologist]

Here beginneth the thread (hoping I haven't made any gaffes already)

Details here and here.

Thanks R64

Am I right in thinking Radio 3 doesn't normally give so much attention?

[Radio64]

Thanks R64

Am I right in thinking Radio 3 doesn't normally give so much attention?

(a reply! at last!)

Am I right in thinking that no-one in the UK ever gives it much attention?
Over here it has always been a big thing for women with the yellow mimosa flower as its symbol sold/given religiously like roses on St. Valentine's. You just need to say 'otto marzo' here and everyone knows what happens on that day.

[Serial_Apologist]

(a reply! at last!)

Am I right in thinking that no-one in the UK ever gives it much attention?
Over here it has always been a big thing for women with the yellow mimosa flower as its symbol sold/given religiously like roses on St. Valentine's. You just need to say 'otto marzo' here and everyone knows what happens on that day.

You only have to say Otto Klemperer over here, and hardly anybody will know what (or who) you're talking about

[Radio64]

You only have to say Otto Klemperer over here, and hardly anybody will know what (or who) you're talking about

Including me ... Is she a female composer?

[greenilex]

The half affected by the Day (better half?) are not indifferent.

Vive la?

[doversoul1]

At least women composers can be in the spotlight for being women even just for one day. No such luck for all those hundreds of male composers (men composers?) whose music is hardly ever played on Radio 3.

Is there any point in bundling them all together simply because they belong to the same sex, and is there any reason to believe that women composers’ music isn’t played very much because it is composed by women, or the works are worth promoting despite the fact that they are composed by women?

Can’t we just have music by as many composers as can be fitted into the regular schedule without any special banner (and that’s done for the rest of the year…)?

Just a matter of interest: is this the new controller’s idea or was the plan already in place when he took over the controllership?

[french frank]

Just a matter of interest: is this the new controller’s idea or was the plan already in place when he took over the controllership?

I suppose it would be just possible to prepare something for March 8, but he would have had to be very speedy thinking of it so soon after his arrival. My guess is that it was pencilled in a while ago. May not have been RW's idea as it is only one day, rather than six weeks non-stop, ending on IWD.

[jean]

Over here it has always been a big thing for women with the yellow mimosa flower as its symbol sold/given religiously like roses on St. Valentine's.

All that mimosa and mock-chivalry really took me by surprise when I was in Italy.

There's never been anything like that here - in my experience it was always rather more political. Like this:

[Radio64]

All that mimosa and mock-chivalry really took me by surprise when I was in Italy.

There's never been anything like that here - in my experience it was always rather more political. Like this:

Yes quite. It's been toned down a bit now - less political, more like an excuse for groups of women to visit male stripclubs.

But we digress....

[Serial_Apologist]

Can’t we just have music by as many composers as can be fitted into the regular schedule without any special banner (and that’s done for the rest of the year…)?

I think it would be a wonderful idea to have a weekly programme titled "Unjustly neglected composers", then we could hear music by such as Maurice Emmanuel, Serge Nigg, Jean-Luis Martinet, and Egon Wellesz.

[MrGongGong]

Sounds like a wonderful opportunity to hear music that in the main I have never heard
Shame there's nothing from

Eliane Radigue
Pauline Oliveros or
Ellen Fullman

[Flosshilde]

Can’t we just have music by as many composers as can be fitted into the regular schedule without any special banner (and that’s done for the rest of the year…)?

Isn't that what happens? Only they tend to be mostly (like 99.9%) men? I can't believe that the music by women we don't hear is worse than the music of many of the men we do hear.

[french frank]

Isn't that what happens? Only they tend to be mostly (like 99.9%) men? I can't believe that the music by women we don't hear is worse than the music of many of the men we do hear.

Still, if there's an International Women's Day to showcase their talents as compensation, they can be forgotten again for the rest of the year? Except, I don't think that's quite what you're recommending ...

[doversoul1]

Isn't that what happens? Only they tend to be mostly (like 99.9%) men? I can't believe that the music by women we don't hear is worse than the music of many of the men we do hear.

Sorry. Not quite sure what you mean by the first sentence. I assume the composers will be all women on International Women’s Day. What I meant was; just select and play music by as many composers as possible irrespective of the composers’ sex, and do this everyday of the year.

Composers of classical music are mostly men because historically and generally speaking, composition was a means of making living which women didn’t do.

I don’t believe that the music by men whose music we don’t hear is worse than the music of many women composers.

So what’s so special about the music by women composers?

Does this make sense? Of have I misunderstood you?

[french frank]

CotW will apparently be Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre ... (excuse my removal of the accent on the initial E - I'm not keen on accents on upper case. Not that it's wrong).