| Contents |
Music patronage as a "female-centered cultural process" / Ralph P. Locke and Cyrilla Barr -- Patronage-and women-in America's musical life : an overview of a changing scene / Ralph P. Locke and Cyrilla Barr -- Women and church organs : 1830s-1860s documents with commentary / Steven L. Pinel -- The "grand composers" of the present day : Betty Freeman discusses how she chooses and supports them / Ralph P. Locke -- Women as "keepers of culture" : music clubs, community concert series, and symphony orchestras / Linda Whitesitt -- "The facts of (music club) life" in the 1960s as seen by mother and daughter / Mary Natvig -- Living with music : Isabella Stewart Gardner / Ralph P. Locke -- Playing for Mrs. Gardner alone : the violinist Harrison Keller reminisces / Ralph P. Locke -- Premieres of Sibelius and others in the Connecticut Hills : Carl and Ellen Battell Stoeckel's Norfolk Music Festivals / Pamela J. Perry -- Maria Dehon helps Olga Samaroff and Leopold Stokowski / Geoffrey E. McGillen -- Jeannette Meyer Thurber (1850-1946) : music for a democracy / Emanuel Rubin -- Laura Langford and the Seidl Society : Wagner comes to Brooklyn / Joseph Horowitz -- A style of her own : the patronage of Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge / Cyrilla Barr -- Coolidge on gowns, dedications, and American musical chauvinism / Cyrilla Barr -- Mildred Bliss tells Nadia Boulanger to think of herself for once / Jeanice Brooks -- "As large as she can make it" : the role of Black women activists in music, 1880-1945 / Doris Evans McGinty -- Women patrons and crusaders for modernist music : New York in the 1920s / Carol J. Oja -- The power of social events : Aaron Copland's guest list for a post-concert reception given by Blanche Walton / Carol J. Oja -- Culture, feminism, and the sacred : Sophie Drinker's musical activism / Ruth A. Solie -- Music at the Drinkers' : Claribel Thomson and Alfred Mann recollect / Ralph P. Locke -- Reflections on art music in America, on stereotypes of the woman patron, and on cha(lle)nges in the present and future / Ralph P. Locke. |
| Abstract |
This wide-ranging collection brings together leading authorities on the social history of American art music to reveal the indispensable contribution that women have made to American musical life. Some chapters discuss collective endeavors, such as music clubs, Wagnerites, supporters of "modern music" in the 1920s, and activists in African American communities, while others focus on the work of a single, strikingly individual patron such as Isabella Stewart Gardner or Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. Primary sources such as private letters and autobiographies are utilized, and documentary vignettes scattered throughout the book bring to life important events and reminiscences. Among these are an interview with Betty Freeman, noted patron of avant-garde music, and advice from Mildred Bliss to Nadia Boulanger. Extensive opening and closing chapters provide conceptual and factual background on music in America and draw out the larger implications of women's patronage in the past, present, and future. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| LCCN | 97025716 |
| ISBN | 0520083954 (cloth : alk. paper) |
