By George Chambers "Sometimes in the past when I was going to perform a piece again I would listen to old recordings and try to reproduce the material. This time I realized that carrying around old information, trying to get everything in, and still be in the moment just doesn't work." Meredith Monk The compositional… Continue reading Finding an inner voice through outer expression in the music of Meredith Monk
The 1990s, some might agree, were something of a golden age for feminist rock music – the emergence of the ‘riot grrl’ genre spear-headed by musicians such as Kathleen Hannah of Bikini Kill symbolised something of a perfect marriage between the anger and energy of punk and the D.I.Y. aesthetic of the grunge movement. Sadly,… Continue reading Amanda Palmer and the ‘Rebellyon’: Sexism in the Music Industry
By Kate Kingsbury Grace Jones has gained international fame both within the music industry and on screen due to her androgynous image which challenges gender stereotypes and questioning of racial norms. It has been difficult for women in the music and cinematographic industries to escape the strait-jackets of normative gender roles, yet they- more than… Continue reading A Homage to Grace Jones: Icon of Incoherence
By Marissa Pueschel Two of the most outstanding female composers of the nineteenth century were Felix Mendelssohn's sister Fanny Hensel and Robert Schumann's wife Clara. While their talents were respected by their male relatives, the two women responded to the challenges of breaking into the male-dominated world of music in different ways. While Hensel found… Continue reading From Private to Public: The Musical Lives of Fanny Hensel and Clara Schumann
