Women Performing Music: The Emergence of American Women As Classical Instrumentalists and Conductors [Paperback]

Beth Abelson Macleod (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2000 | ISBN-10: 0786409045 | ISBN-13: 978-0786409044

This book explores the experiences of women from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who pursued careers as public performers, charting a new course in an era when women's musical activities were generally consigned to the parlor. Certain instruments had historically evolved as "appropriate for women," and the flamboyant personalities and extroverted emotionalism of Romantic virtuosos and conductors were the antithesis of those qualities traditionally admired in women. However, this work presents an unusual group of young women who nonetheless became noted virtuosos, studying abroad as teenagers and touring North America upon their return. Detailed profiles are given of three remarkable musicians from among that unusual group: Fannie Bloomfield-Zeisler (1863-1927)-virtuoso pianist, wife and mother; Ethel Leginska (1886-1970)-pianist, conductor, and 1920s "new woman"; and Antonia Brico (1902-1989)-conductor and transitional figure to the late twentieth century. A concluding chapter contrasts the experiences of women classical musicians in the late nineteenth and the late twentieth centuries. Included are a number of photographs and drawings which impart the perceptions of audiences and critics of the stage presence of these performers.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Beth Abelson Macleod is a reference librarian and fine arts bibliographer at Central Michigan University Libraries. She has music degrees from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Central Michigan University, and a library science degree from the University of Wisonsin-Madison. She has given papers on gender and music at a number of music and women's studies conferences and has published on the subject in the Journal of Social History.

Product Details

• Paperback: 205 pages
• Publisher: Mcfarland & Co Inc Pub (October 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786409045
• ISBN-13: 978-0786409044
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,054,411 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Betrayal of a librarian, September 28, 2010

By 

Davidson - See all my reviews

This review is from: Women Performing Music: The Emergence of American Women As Classical Instrumentalists and Conductors (Paperback)

Despite producing an exceptionally thoughtful and well-written book that deserves praise on many levels, its author, a professional librarian, has been betrayed by her publisher. It is, as advertised, a soft cover book. The cover is fine, the paper is bright and the printing is clear. So where's the betrayal? Well, the way the book is bound is so inadequate that the pages slip easily out and away from the book. It deserved to have been printed as a hard bound with much more secure pages. This was too important a book to have published it so poorly. Buy it at a reasonable price, handle it carefully and don't lend it to anybody!!