Music and Gender - Softcover

"This collection of essays seeks to define the relationships of gender, music, and society... A detailed index and biographical sketches of the several author contributors are included in this fine work... Highly recommended." -- Multicultural Review ADVANCE PRAISE "This stimulating collection explores the many ways gender, as a dynamic and fluid system, informs and transforms what we call music. The individual authors present wide-ranging examples of self-reflexive scholarship that will provide models for future work in the field. A fascinating collection not to be missed by anyone who cares about the future of music scholarship in this new century." -- Susan C. Cook, editor of Cecilia Reclaimed: Feminist Perspectives on Gender and Music

Through the experiences of performers, composers, and ethnomusicologists working in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and North America, Music and Gender explores how the uses and descriptions of music shift in response to rapid political, economic, or technological change. A cross-section of case studies from the Central African Republic, Finland, and Turkey addresses issues of how performance reflects gender and furthers other social goals, such as negotiating identity and transforming consciousness. Articles on Croatian and Serbian popular music and on the changing circumstances of women musicians in war-torn Ethiopia and post-Soviet Estonia consider the fate of fragile constructions of gender and nationhood in times of war or crisis. Other essays consider the relationship of gender to digital sound technology--in terms of access to the field, interactions among musicians, and aesthetic decisions--and gender issues in writing the musical lives of women composers and performers. Articulating a theoretical agenda that encompasses perspectives from vastly different musical cultures, this important collection shows how music can help bridge the radical transformations of individuals, groups, and nations.