Piano Music by Black Women Composers

Piano Music by Black Women Composers
Author: Helen Walker-Hill
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 161
Release: 1992-02-28
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0313064725

In recent years, considerable scholarly attention has been paid to women in music, and information on the music of a handful of black women composers, such as Florence Price and Mary Lou Williams, has been published. Determined search, however, is needed to locate what little data is available on most such composers. Proceeding from a desire to use music of black women composers in her piano performance and teaching, Helen Walker-Hill has dedicated herself to uncovering this material, utilizing secondary sources and numerous archives, conducting interviews with composers, and engaging in voluminous correspondence with individuals and institutions. The result is the most comprehensive catalog of music composed by African American women to date. The depth of detail required limiting the scope to solo and ensemble piano music. However, an introductory overview on the contributions of black women in music and biographical sketches on the fifty-four composers profiled in the catalog contain broader information. Over 300 piano works are listed, with detailed descriptive information on close to 200 works the author was able to obtain and study, including sources and levels of difficulty. Appendixes list available published music, ensemble instrumentation, music for teaching, and music published before 1920. A selected bibliography and a selected discography are also provided. This biographical dictionary and descriptive catalog will be most directly useful to performers and teachers, but the breadth of information makes it valuable for research in music history, African American studies, and women's studies.

From Spirituals to Symphonies

From Spirituals to Symphonies
Author: Helen Walker-Hill
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 429
Release: 2007
Genre: African American women composers
ISBN: 0252074548

Exploding the assumption that black women's only important musical contributions have been in folk, jazz, and pop Helen Walker-Hill's unique study provides a carefully researched examination of the history and scope of musical composition by African American women composers from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Focusing on the effect of race, gender, and class, From Spirituals to Symphonies notes the important role played by individual personalities and circumstances in shaping this underappreciated category of American art. The study also provides in-depth exploration of the backgrounds, experiences, and musical compositions of eight African American women including Margaret Bonds, Undine Smith Moore, and Julia Perry, who combined the techniques of Western art music with their own cultural traditions and individual gifts. Despite having gained national and international recognition during their lifetimes, the contributions of many of these women are today forgotten.

The Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers

The Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers
Author: Julie Anne Sadie
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 604
Release: 1995
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780393034875

Throughout history women have been composing music, but their achievements have usually gone unrecognized.

Choral Music by African American Composers

Choral Music by African American Composers
Author:
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Total Pages: 244
Release: 1996
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780810830370

Lists and describes both published and unpublished choral works by some 100 Afro-American composers and arrangers, encompassing works representing all styles from four-part settings to avant-garde pieces. The bulk of the book is an annotated list of compositions in tabular form, organized alphabetically by composer's name, listing publication dates and number of pages, vocal ranges, type of accompaniment, publishers, and catalog number. Includes a listing of collections, biographical sketches, a discography, and addresses of publishers and composers. Useful for conductors and researchers. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Black Women Composers

Black Women Composers
Author: Mildred Denby Green
Publisher: Macmillan Reference USA
Total Pages: 182
Release: 1983
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

Brass Music of Black Composers

Brass Music of Black Composers
Author: Aaron Horne
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 558
Release: 1996-05-16
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0313064865

Aaron Horne provides the most comprehensive guide to brass music written by black composers. He covers composers from around the world in the 19th and 20th centuries. Included in the book is biographical information; commission, duration, instrumentation, date of publication, premiere, publisher, discography for each piece; bibliographical sources; and an index which groups the music by numbers, medium, and ensemble. This is the fourth volume in Aaron Horne's monumental effort to provide the most comprehensive guide to music composed by black composers. In this volume he covers composers from around the world in the 19th and 20th centuries, including William Grant Still, Ulysses Kay, Anthony Davis, John Coltrane, and other major figures from the world of classical, jazz, and popular music. The main body of the book is divided into sections devoted to African, African American, Afro-European, and Afro-Latino composers. Within each section composers are arranged alphabetically; each entry provides biographical information as well as commission, duration, instrumentation, date of publication, premiere, publisher, discography for each composition. Backmatter includes a Brass Music Index which groups the music by numbers, medium, and ensembles; a title index; discography; and bibliography. As with the earlier volumes, this is an essential reference tool for anyone with an interest in researching and/or performing the music of black composers.

Women and the Piano

Women and the Piano
Author: Susan Tomes
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 307
Release: 2024-03-12
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0300277768

Women are an essential part of the history of the piano—but how many women pianists can you name? Throughout most of the piano’s history, women pianists lacked access to formal training and were excluded from male-dominated performance spaces. Even the modern piano’s keys were designed without consideration of women’s typically smaller hands. Yet despite their music being largely confined to the domestic sphere, women continued to play, perform, and compose on their own terms. Celebrated pianist and author Susan Tomes traces fifty such women across the piano’s history. Including now-famous names such as Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn, Tomes also highlights overlooked women: from Hélène de Montgeroult, whose playing saved her life during the French Revolution, to Leopoldine Wittgenstein, influential Viennese salonnière, and Hazel Scott, the first Black performer in the United States to have a nationally syndicated TV show. From Maria Szymanowska to Nina Simone, and including interviews with women performing today, this is a much-needed corrective to our understanding of the piano—and a timely testament to women’s musical lives.