Recall :
For a period of 180 yrs., give and take, we were inundated by what became, famous classical music composers. Why were they all men? Likewise, for artists.(painters, sculpturers,etc)
This is a well-intended question, please. Perhaps society demanded more of women to be home-based rather than creative?
Thank you.
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{ 6 comments }
you answered it yourself! much of early classical music was sacred (church based) in which it was a male only role to compose for the church… this trend continued as it was men only who were allowed to be creative ‘artists’ whilst the female role was restricted to being a housewife and mother… however don’t forget that women still had a massive part to play in classical music, secular music often was written about women and they were a key influence as the romantic era approached in the 19th century
Yep, it was men who wrote during that era. However there has been a bit of speculation on who wrote some of Bach’s songs. His wife, Anna Magdalena, may have written some of the songs that we attribute to Bach.
This is another slant on why most of the classical greats were men.Theory is that most had some degree of autism. check out this link.http://www.autism.org/savant.html Also autism strikes males about 4 times as often as females.
Society in Europe ( from which most of us white folk descend) for the last several hundred years was a male-dominated affair. There were a couple of women of influence around ( see Liz I and the various Maries of France and Isabellas of Spain, not to mention the monumental Maria Theresa of Austria) but for the most part, we weren’t given much room to say anything. This extended till the beginning of the 1800’s, when women began edging their was into the fine arts. Start by looking up Fanny Henschel, the sister of Felix Mendelssohn. She was the “first” to be rediscovered as a composer. Your search will take you up to the present date, where women’s compositions are being sought after and performed.
The quest for women’s identity still has a long way to go. Peace and patience go with you.
Nice question. All answers seem spot on, too. Women did have a secondary role for all the reasons stated in the answers. Can’t add much to their well researched ideas. I’ll give you a star, though.
Good question. Clara Schumann was a composer, but about one of the only ones. She was a genius, but I don’t think some ppl like her very much just because she was a composer. Curse them!