Synopses & Reviews
This volume offers an introduction to the field of women, music, and culture, examining the implications of gender upon music performance. The presentation focuses on women from many different countries, cultures and historical periods--from the professional musician to the village preserver of traditional music and culture, from the young woman of the 19th century of hymnody tradition of the U.S. to the female tayu or chanter in the male dominated Gidayu narrative tradition of Japan.
Review
. . . Musical excerpts are quoted and some musical terminology is employed, yet the essays do not become so technical as to burden the non-musicological reader. Those essays which are more anthropological in outlook are similarly accessible to the non-anthropologist. Thus, these essays will appeal to a substantial audience of researchers in ethno-musicology, anthropology, and women's studies. Koskoff regards her work as an "introduction to the field of women, music, and culture," and, as such, it is an admirable contribution. The strength of the individual essays has combined with Koskoff's organizational and analytical clarity to produce a work of fine scholarship.Fontes Artis Musicae 36
About the Author
ELLEN KOSKOFF is Assistant Professor of Musicology at the Eastman School of Music.
Table of Contents
Illustrations
Preface
An Introduction to Women, Music, and Culture by Ellen Koskoff
From Singing to Lamenting: Women's Musical Role in a Greek Village by Susan Auerbach
Balkan Women as Preservers of Traditional Music and Culture by Patricia K. Shehan
"Ya Salio de la Mar": Judeo-Spanish Wedding Songs among Moroccan Jews in Canada by Judith R. Cohne
A Sociohistorical Perspective on Tunisian Women as Professional Musicians by L. JaFran Jones
Hazara Women in Afghanistan: Innovators and Preservers of a Musical Tradition by Hiromi Lorraine Sakata
Professional Women in Indian Music: The Death of the Courtesan Tradition by Jennifer Post
Identity and Individuality in an Ensemble Tradition: The Female Vocalist in Java by R. Anderson Sutton
Inversion and Conjuncture: Male and Female Performance among the Temiar of Peninsular Malaysia by Marina Roseman
Female Tayu in the Gidayu Narrative Tradition of Japan by A. Kimi Coaldrake
Musical Expression and Gender Indentity in the Myth and Ritual of the Kalapalo of Central Brazil by Ellen B. Basso
The Joyful Sound: Women in the Nineteenth-Century United States Hymnody Tradition by Esther Rothenbusch
Close Harmony: Early Jazz Styles in the Music of the New Orleans Boswell Sisters by Jane Hassinger
An Investigation into Women-Identified Music in the United States by Karen E. Petersen
The Sound of a Woman's Voice: Gender and Music in a New York Hasidic Community by Ellen Koskoff
Power and Gender in the Musical Experiences of Women by Carol E. Robertson
Index
About the Contributors