Sovereign Feminine

Music and Gender in Eighteenth-Century Germany

Nonfiction, Entertainment, Music, Music Styles, Classical & Opera, Classical
Cover of the book Sovereign Feminine by Matthew Head, University of California Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Matthew Head ISBN: 9780520954762
Publisher: University of California Press Publication: May 9, 2013
Imprint: University of California Press Language: English
Author: Matthew Head
ISBN: 9780520954762
Publisher: University of California Press
Publication: May 9, 2013
Imprint: University of California Press
Language: English

In the German states in the late eighteenth century, women flourished as musical performers and composers, their achievements measuring the progress of culture and society from barbarism to civilization. Female excellence, and related feminocentric values, were celebrated by forward-looking critics who argued for music as a fine art, a component of modern, polite, and commercial culture, rather than a symbol of institutional power. In the eyes of such critics, femininity—a newly emerging and primarily bourgeois ideal—linked women and music under the valorized signs of refinement, sensibility, virtue, patriotism, luxury, and, above all, beauty. This moment in musical history was eclipsed in the first decades of the nineteenth century, and ultimately erased from the music-historical record, by now familiar developments: the formation of musical canons, a musical history based on technical progress, the idea of masterworks, authorial autonomy, the musical sublime, and aggressively essentializing ideas about the relationship between sex, gender and art. In Sovereign Feminine, Matthew Head restores this earlier musical history and explores the role that women played in the development of classical music.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In the German states in the late eighteenth century, women flourished as musical performers and composers, their achievements measuring the progress of culture and society from barbarism to civilization. Female excellence, and related feminocentric values, were celebrated by forward-looking critics who argued for music as a fine art, a component of modern, polite, and commercial culture, rather than a symbol of institutional power. In the eyes of such critics, femininity—a newly emerging and primarily bourgeois ideal—linked women and music under the valorized signs of refinement, sensibility, virtue, patriotism, luxury, and, above all, beauty. This moment in musical history was eclipsed in the first decades of the nineteenth century, and ultimately erased from the music-historical record, by now familiar developments: the formation of musical canons, a musical history based on technical progress, the idea of masterworks, authorial autonomy, the musical sublime, and aggressively essentializing ideas about the relationship between sex, gender and art. In Sovereign Feminine, Matthew Head restores this earlier musical history and explores the role that women played in the development of classical music.

More books from University of California Press

Cover of the book Disarming Words by Matthew Head
Cover of the book Finding Women in the State by Matthew Head
Cover of the book The Lost Boys of Zeta Psi by Matthew Head
Cover of the book America's Lone Star Constitution by Matthew Head
Cover of the book The Turtles of Mexico by Matthew Head
Cover of the book Who Will Lead Us? by Matthew Head
Cover of the book Reflections on the University of California by Matthew Head
Cover of the book Downcast Eyes by Matthew Head
Cover of the book The Problem of Women in Early Modern Japan by Matthew Head
Cover of the book Purchasing Medical Innovation by Matthew Head
Cover of the book The Gnat and Other Minor Poems of Virgil by Matthew Head
Cover of the book Stories in the Time of Cholera by Matthew Head
Cover of the book Paradoxes of Green by Matthew Head
Cover of the book The Self-Help Myth by Matthew Head
Cover of the book The Failure of Environmental Education (And How We Can Fix It) by Matthew Head
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy