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

[Beef Oven!]

I'd rather not say that at all, thanks!

Ok, back to pc then. It's the same thing, either way. Someone once said 'what's in a name'?

[Serial_Apologist]

But what did you expect? A thread about an event on the radio that is linked to a campaign, which WWD is, would be naturally about the issue. If only Radio 3 were more independently minded and scheduled a day of women composers irrespective of any social issues, we would certainly have talked about the music and would have been much happier. Until some people start saying that music can never be separated from social issues….

You said politics before; are you now adding social issues? Terminology is very important in debates of this kind...

[jean]

But what did you expect?

Adult behaviour, uninformed by everyday sexism.

Foolish of me, I know.

[ahinton]

Adult behaviour, uninformed by everyday sexism.

Foolish of me, I know.

By that, I think that you mean (as indeed you suggested earlier) that your principal expectation of such a thread was an intelligent and informative discussion of music by a wide variety of female composers, which strikes me as a perfectly reasonable hope.

[doversoul1]

You said politics before; are you now adding social issues? Terminology is very important in debates of this kind...

I said ‘when someone says… ’ (i.e. not me). What I meant by the post was that this thread was about the day’s event that had specific reference to WWD, therefore it was rather unrealistic of jean to expect that the thread would be all about the music that was played on the day without people shouting about inequality and all that. Or at least it would have been more calmly about music if the day had been a no-string event. Does this explain?

jean
I didn’t stop there.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It's like treading eggshells on this thread. When one person posts, another appears to get the wrong end of the stick. As has been pointed out earlier, it would be good to discuss the music.

[jean]

jean
I didn’t stop there.

No, but you asked me a question, which I attempted to answer.

The rest of your post seemed to be about your answer to your question.

But if you want my comment on that, I'd say that I'd prefer to think of IWD as a peg to hang some much-needed exposure for women composers on rather than as a 'campaigning' event with 'strings attached' (if that's what you mean by your 'no-string' reference).

Besides, this is a merged thread, and one of its original components doesn't mention IWD at all.

[Honoured Guest]

Radio 3 had the good idea of broadcasting a wide-ranging contextual showcase day of music by female composers, many of them unfairly neglected, and International Women's Day 2015 (yesterday) was a very good day to choose to broadcast this special sequence of programming, particularly as it fell on a Sunday this year.

[teamsaint]

It's like treading eggshells on this thread. When one person posts, another appears to get the wrong end of the stick. As has been pointed out earlier, it would be good to discuss the music.

hard to know where to start though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_composers_by_birth_year

This is good though.

anyway, how are the R3 schedules looking today for women composers, aside from COTW which is a tie in to yesterday?

Not that promising ?

[ahinton]

Or at least it would have been more calmly about music if the day had been a no-string event.

But then there'd have been no Bacewicz....

[jean]

Radio 3 had the good idea of broadcasting a wide-ranging contextual showcase day of music by female composers, many of them unfairly neglected, and International Women's Day 2015 (yesterday) was a very good day to choose to broadcast this special sequence of programming, particularly as it fell on a Sunday this year.

Rarely have I found myself in such wholehearted agreement with HG.

[doversoul1]

No, but you asked me a question, which I attempted to answer.

The rest of your post seemed to be about your answer to your question.

But if you want my comment on that, I'd say that I'd prefer to think of IWD as a peg to hang some much-needed exposure for women composers on rather than as a 'campaigning' event with 'strings attached' (if that's what you mean by your 'no-string' reference).

Besides, this is a merged thread, and one of its original components doesn't mention IWD at all.

I could say a lot more about ‘the rest’ of my post but I don’t think that’s terribly relevant.

So would I, very much (re: IWD being just the peg), but that is, I think unrealistic, and that is why I wish this event had been on a different day, and just being a day of works by women composers (i.e. no-string). That should be a good enough peg.

As for the original thread titles, one did mention IWD. Ah well. Perhaps someone could start a thread with a title something like ‘Music Played on 8th March’.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Well, if no-one else is going to talk about music, I'll start the ball rolling. Sunday evening's Live in Concert included Lili Boulanger's D'un matin de printemps . This was the Real McCoy. I would recommend anyone who hasn't heard it to access it on iPlayer. Just fast-forward through Katie Derham's interminable interviews and get to the music.

If only Lili had lived and worked for as long as Nadia, what a different musical world we might now live in.

[ahinton]

Well, if no-one else is going to talk about music, I'll start the ball rolling. Sunday evening's Live in Concert included Lili Boulanger's D'un matin de printemps . This was the Real McCoy. I would recommend anyone who hasn't heard it to access it on iPlayer. Just fast-forward through Katie Derham's interminable interviews and get to the music.

If only Lili had lived and worked for as long as Nadia, what a different musical world we might now live in.

I do so agree; her output is obviously small, as one might expect of so fastidious and tragically short-lived a composer, but it's all well worth investigating and it remains a matter of no small astonishment to me that it's not already far better known than it is. The same for Bacewicz; although she was far more prolific and also active as a performer, her life was likewise cut short before she reached the age of 60, yet although she's now fairly well represented on disc, her name rarely is seen on concert programmes.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

As Mélanie Bonis's Trois Femmes de Legende, I don't think I shall ever wipe the recording. Yet unlike many of the other composers featured, Bonis was quite unknown to me.