theses

ETD doctoral

Studies of American classical music have focused primarily on male composers, whereas studies of women composers have been scarce. Yet American classical music has also seen important contributions from notable women, many of whom have not yet received enough attention from musicologists. Because these composers have been understudied, their compositions remain hidden treasures of musical history. As Jane Bowers and Judith Tick have written: "The absence of women in the standard music histories is not due to their absence in the musical past. Rather, the questions so far asked by historians have tended to exclude them."

In particular, two American women composers of classical music whose careers spanned the late 19th and early 20th centuries produced remarkable music that is very little known, and they form the subject of this thesis: Clara Kathleen Rogers and Amy Beach. In a time when most women composers and performers remained in the venues of amateur music parlors and salons, Rogers and Beach had public professional careers. These two composers also had a special interest in songwriting, and both composed significant settings of texts by the English poet Robert Browning.

This thesis will discuss similarities and differences in musical styles of Rogers and Beach, addressing specifically Rogers’s First Series of Browning Songs and the Three Browning Songs by Beach. In addition, it will also examine women’s status as composers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. My goal is to understand the work of women composers during this time period and to rediscover song repertoires that will be valuable for present day singers.

D.M.A.

Includes bibliographical references

Text

doi:10.7282/t3-2rte-gx04

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