In recent years, musical compositions by women have increasingly been included and discussed in concert programmes, commercial recordings, radio broadcasts and social media. The focus of these efforts has been, however, primarily on vocal music, depite the fact that many women were and are active in orchestral composition. It is often argued that there are no “good” symphonies by female composers or that female composers have hardly written
any music for orchestra at all, claims which can easily be disputed. But, scores for orchestral works by female composers can be difficult to obtain and their performance is associated, whether fairly or not, with too great a financial risk.
This conference addresses orchestral music by female composers on several fronts, in order to better understand its place in aesthetic debates and concert programming today, as well as to pave a way for paths forward in both branches. To do so, it focuses on the analysis of this music, its socio-cultural contexts, its signifiance for music history, and its role in musical life today. To insure a breath of perspectives, we invite contributions on music composed between the 18th and 21st centuries.
We invite submissions on the following topics:
- Biographical approaches: individual life circumstances of female composers and the
conditions that have influenced and continue to influence the production of orchestral
compositions (including training and professionalisation, conducting and experience
with orchestras, networks in the field of concert events, agencies, and publishers)
- Music-analytical studies in the sense of technical, stylistic, and genre-historical analyses and classifications
- Reception and impact of orchestral works by female composers, discourses and narratives of music and national historiography, evaluations and (prejudices) judgements
- Orchestral compositions by women and canon formation (e.g. teaching traditions, concert programmes, cultural differences, and cultural change)
- Self-positioning of female composers with regard to their orchestral works (e.g. conformism vs. originality
- Traces of symphonic music by women and academic literature
- Strategies for strengthening orchestral compositions by women in concert life
The thematic proposals can refer to international female composers and their orchestral works from the 18th to 21st centuries. Interdisciplinary, feminist, and gender-theoretical approaches as well as different musicological, music analytical and digital approaches are expressly encouraged.
We look forward to receiving your presentation title, abstract (max. 300 words) and short biography (max. 150 words) in either German or English by 31 May 2024 to the following e-mail address: orchestermusik2024@kug.ac.at. The papers will be selected in June 2024. The conference languages are German and English. A maximum of 25 minutes presentation time and ten minutes for questions is allowed for the presentation (including audio examples). A publication of the contributions is planned as part of the Studien zur Wertungsforschung.