Is women composer’s history indeed a story of discriminations? Were some of them worthy to be part of the big names in the temple of music creators? In her prologue Zack says:

“even today in the 21st century, the prevailing opinion is that non-publication of works by women (not too many performances, H.H) throughout the ages derives from the quality of their works. The argument is one; had they composed works like those by Haydn, Beethoven, and Mozart, we would have heard of them, for after all, music, like every other artistic genre, is gender neutral.”

During our conversation Zack says that the inclusion of women is not simple, in comparison to the canonized male composers.  “Women did not get a chance to enter the canon. For 800 years they were not included in music history books. The works of the most prominent were performed in their time but were forgotten afterwards”.

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But today we know of works by composers such as Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn of the 19the century, and Barbara Strozzi from the 17th century. Maybe that the leading male composers, who understand music and influence flavor and class, diagnosed that women composers’ works are not of a high standard?

“I am not talking about the league of Bach, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. From this point of view the book of the canon has been closed and locked for male, and female composers. What I mean is performance of high-quality music that is not measured in terms of the canon. In this group women are still discriminated.”

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In Israel?

“Yes. How many works by women composers are performed as part of the annual repertoires of orchestras?”

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Are these composers discriminated because they are women?

“it may not be just discrimination but also a continuation of cultural inertea. And yes, this situation calls for affirmative action. There is a need of more research, of looking for good music by women and performing it. This calls for a cardinal change, and I expect that conductors will say: ‘I will see to it that women’s works will be part of the annual repertoire’.  It has not happened because of convenience and conservativeness.”

Women have been forced to fight for recognition. In 1881, the French composer, singer, and pianist Augusta Holmes (1903-1847) won the first prize in the Prix de Paris competition. Camille Saint-Saëns who admired Holmes as a musician and as a woman was one of the judges who found her work worthy of the first prize. Nevertheless, he wrote patronizingly: “Women are so intriguing and amusing. When they seriously devote themselves to art, they are so preoccupied with making us forget the fact that they are women and proving their masculinity beyond all doubt, without understanding that excessive occupation with the subject exposes them as women”.

 

Saint-Saëns, says Zack, probably meant women who compose large scale dramatic, and/or grandiose music, using musical topics (topos) associated in Western culture with masculinity; galloping horses, hunting fanfares, army marches, instead of being ‘loyal’ to what was considered ‘feminine’; miniatures genre wise constructed on lyrical style, lamentation themes.   

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Do you feel at one with Saint-Saëns’s criticism of women who try to be more virile than men?

“Certainly not. Music is gender neutral."

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On her website Zack presents a list of works. I asked her to pick three of them.

Zack: "Fanny Mendelssohn cantatas, Clara Schumann early romances, Francesca Caccini’s opera  La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina (the Liberation of Ruggiero from the Island of Alcina). Also, I love the works of Sofia Gubaidulina, who is still with us, especially her Johannes Passion, and the works for Bayan."

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What is your attitude to the German nun Hildegard of Bingen?

“Admiration. I admire the rhetoric strategies she used to carve her status in the hegemonic society of the Middle Ages.”