Women and Music in Cross-Cultural Perspective

(Hardback)

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Description

Musical performance, like all aspects of culture, is profoundly influenced by issues of sexuality and gender-related behaviours. 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, societies and historical periods, from the professional, urban musician to the village preserver of traditional music and culture, from the young woman of the nineteenth-century hymnody tradition of the United States to the female tayu or "chanter" in the male-dominated Gidayu narrative tradition of Japan.

Reviews

. . . 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
." . . 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

Author Bio

ELLEN KOSKOFF is Assistant Professor of Musicology at the Eastman School of Music.