WOMEN-COMPOSERS: THE GENDER POLITICS OF THE TIME

Abstract

The article is devoted to an overview of the composing and performing art of women composers of the different countries and epochs. The state of female musical creativity of XVI-XIX centuries is analyzed with an emphasis on raising interest in this issue because of their high level of professional skills and the prominent role of cultural and educational activities in the musical life of their time. The conditions, oriented on actualization of motivational orientation of studying their composer heritage in the context of preparation of concert pianists and students of other performing faculties using all the resources of the learning process, are identified and substantiated. The purpose of the article is an attempt to analyze women's composer creativity, which is one of the least studied in musicology, to determine the performing, pedagogical and compositional principles of each, historical and practical significance, the problem of typology of their musical professionalism, the algorithm of acquaintance with the status of women and gender politics of that time, which are the basic concept of understanding their cultural and educational activities and determining a significant role in music culture at their time. The methodology of system analysis was applied, which combined the following methods: analytical (reconstruction of general picture of vital and creative way of not popular women-composers of different countries and epochs on the basis of articles, explanatory messages to musical collections and resources of the internet); comparative (for the analysis of their composer's work with the aim of lineation of the personal interest by this theme for lack of the proper attention to this division of musicology), observation and self-observation method (own pedagogical analysis and experiment : guidance of the creative project «The not-popular women-composers» from 2011, in the context of which – introduction in the educational process of students and master's degrees in the concertmaster class of the Lviv Mykola Lysenko National Music Academy, the Department of Music of the J.Dlugosza University (course «Warsztaty Artystyczne», studt «zespόł kameralny», Poland, Częstochowa) of work of these composers and implementation them on the stage. The need to review the attitude to this problem was stated. Based on the argumentation, the cultural and educational activities of women composers have been rethought and their important role in the musical culture of their time has been identified. An analysis of their creative heritage is made, which can be a material for introducing into the training course of the concertmaster class, as well as solo and chamber singing classes, instrumental classes of music institutions of secondary and higher education with the purpose of expanding worldviews, enriching the repertoire of performers.