Music Teachers' Association of California®

"... a valuable resource for students and teachers, women and men, who wish to enlarge their understanding of women's contributions to classical new music." --Women & Music "... an important collection that should quickly find its way into courses on the music of our century.... This anthology offers a significant step toward our richer understanding of musical expressiveness in the late twentieth century." --Notes The creativity of women in contemporary art, literature, and general culture is well recognized, but their excellence in musical composition remains largely unrecognized. To remedy that oversight, this book brings together scores by 30 composers from around the world in a single, accessible collection encompassing concert and religious music as well as jazz, pop, experimental, and cross-over works. Each piece is introduced by a short biography of the composer, including the formative influences on her life, her role models, the obstacles she encountered, the recognition she has attained, bibliographic references, and discographies.

.."". will enlighten students of music history and serve as a source of programming ideas for performers."" -- Library Journal .."". a significant contribution to the literature about, and the music of, women composers."" -- American Music Teacher

A diverse repertoire of art songs for piano and voice The art song--a delicate and inspiring blend of music and poetry--has been performed by singers and pianists and appreciated by audiences around the world for more than two hundred years. While collections of art songs abound, this welcome volume and its accompanying compact discs make readily available the contributions of contemporary African American composers to the popular genre. Including thirty-nine pieces for voice and piano created since 1968 by eighteen artists, ANew Anthology of Art Songs by African American Composers navigates a varied musical terrain from classical European traditions to jazz and spirituals. With nearly half of the featured songs composed by women and with others by lesser-known and emerging composers, this important collection offers a diverse, representative sampling of African American art songs and works to secure the places of these songs and artists in the canon of contemporary American music. Selected by Jeanine Wagner and Margaret R. Simmons, prolific and celebrated performers who have presented recitals throughout the world featuring the art songs of African American composers, this dazzling new repertoire of twentieth-century music is cogently framed by a thorough introduction and substantial biographies of each composer. The compact discs feature piano tracks of all thirty-nine compositions. The featured composers are H. Leslie Adams, Mable Bailey, Charles S. Brown, Wallace McClain Cheatham, Adolphus Hailstork, Jacqueline B. Hairston, William H. Henderson, Jeraldine Saunders Herbison, Betty Jackson King, William Foster McDaniel, Undine Smith Moore, Byron Motley, Barbara Sherrill, Robert Owens, Nadine Shanti, Frederick Tillis, Dolores White, and Julius P. Williams.

This work represents a comprehensive historical overview of music created by women from the 9th to the 20th century. Each volume features 10-25 complete musical scores or complete movements from multi-movement compositions, many of which have been previously difficult to access. Expert scholars provide original essays about the composers, including biographical information, a discussion of the music in historical content, and critical analysis of each work. Entries also include a bibliography, a list of works by the composer and a discography. This first volume about composers born before 1600, covers music by women of the convent, women of nobility, and the trobaritz (women troubadors). The music is predominantly sacred, vocal and a capella.