Music, Gender, and Sexuality Studies: A Teacher's Guide

140 Pages·2022·6.235 MB·English

by  Jacqueline Warwick

Music, Gender, and Sexuality
Studies
Music, Gender, and Sexuality Studies: A Teacher’s Guide serves as a
guide to the professor tasked with teaching music to undergraduates,
with a focus on gender. Although the notion of feminist approaches in
musicology was once greeted with scorn, the last 40 years have seen a
seismic shift across music studies, to the point that classes on women
and music are now commonplace in most undergraduate music pro-
gram. The goal of this book is to give the instructor some tools and
strategies that will build confidence in approaching music as it relates
to gender and sexuality, and to offer some advice on how to make the
class rewarding for all.
The book is organized into four broad sections, plus an introduc-
tion outlining how to use the book and how the teaching of music,
gender, and sexuality can be rewarding. Each section – Composition,
Support, Performance, and Audience – includes possible themes for
study and examples of music that can illuminate those themes, allow-
ing the instructor to shape the course according to their own prefer-
ence for classical, jazz, or popular styles. The author offers a practical
guide to building syllabi that can fit the instructor’s interests and the
priorities of the institution, crafting assignments that will engage and
inspire students, choosing repertoire from a range of styles and genres,
and maintaining a focus on how music shapes gender, and how gender
shapes music.
Jacqueline Warwick is a Professor of Musicology and Gender &
Women’s Studies at Dalhousie University in Canada.
Modern Musicology and the College Classroom
Series Editor: James A. Davis, SUNY Fredonia
Modern Musicology and the College Classroom is a series of profes-
sional titles for current and future college instructors of musicology in
its broadest definition—encompassing music history, ethnomusicol-
ogy, music theory, and music courses for all majors. Volumes feature
a basic introduction to a significant field of current scholarship, a dis-
cussion of how the topic impacts pedagogical methodology and mate-
rials, and pragmatic suggestions for incorporating these ideas directly
into the classroom.
Listening Across Borders
Musicology in the Global Classroom
Edited by James A. Davis and Christopher Lynch
Teaching Electronic Music
Cultural, Creative, and Analytical Perspectives
Edited by Blake Stevens
Race and Gender in the Western Music History Survey
A Teacher’s Guide
Horace J. Maxile, Jr. and Kristen M. Turner
Music, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
A Teacher’s Guide
Jacqueline Warwick
Music, Gender, and Sexuality
Studies
A Teacher’s Guide
Jacqueline Warwick
First published 2023
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
and by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an
informa business
© 2023 Taylor & Francis
The right of Jacqueline Warwick to be identified as author of
this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and
78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be
trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this title has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-367-48741-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-32844-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-04265-5 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003042655
Typeset in Times New Roman
by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
For Susan McClary, with love and thanks.

Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
Rationale 3
Structure 4
Sample Lesson One 6
What Does Music Have to Do with Gender or
Sexuality? 6
Marked and Unmarked Identities 7
Mainstream Musical Clichés of Gender 8
Reflections and Connections: How Are Sounds
Gendered? 11
Notes 11
Further Reading 12
1 Networks 13
Suggested Topics 15
Sample Lesson Two 16
Salonnières 16
Paris Salons and the Authority of the Amateur 16
Pauline Viardot and French Romanticism 19
The Musical Utopia of Nadezhda von Meck 20
Reflections and Connections: Groupies and Rock
Culture 21
Sample Lesson Three 23
African-American Women’s Networks in the 1930s 23
Florence Price, Estelle, and Margaret Bonds 24
viii Contents
Marian Anderson and the Lincoln Memorial
Concert 25
Reflections and Connections: Women’s Musical
Networks in Other Regions 26
Sample Lesson Four 27
Womyn’s Music Networks 27
Maxine Feldman, Alix Dobkin, and the Birth of
Women’s Music 28
Music and Lesbian Utopias 30
The Michigan Women’s Music Festival 31
Reflections and Connections: The Emergence of
TERF Rhetoric 33
Discussion/Assignment Questions 34
Notes 35
Further Reading 37
2 Composition 38
Suggested Topics 38
Sample Lesson Five 39
Symphonie Fantastique: Madness and
Masculinity 39
How Does Wordless Music Tell Stories? 40
Hector Berlioz: Madness, Music, and Misogyny 41
Harriet Smithson, Obsession, and the Idée Fixe 43
Reflections and Connections: Echoes of Music and
Madness 46
Sample Lesson Six 46
Blues Queens and Their Inheritors 46
The Blues as Compositional Practice 47
Bessie Smith, Empress of the Blues 49
Ma Rainey and Outspoken Queerness 51
Gladys Bentley, Harlem, and the Pansy Craze 52
Reflections and Connections: Musical Heirs of the
Blues Queens 53
Sample Lesson Seven 54
Motherhood 54
Birth: A Universal Theme? 55
Joni Mitchell, “Little Green” 56
Contents ix
Unwed Mothers and Magdalene Laundries 58
Sinéad O’Connor and Lost Pregnancy 60
Björk and the Corporeality of Mothering 61
Reflections and Connections: Shifting Attitudes
Toward Motherhood 62
Discussion/Assignment Questions 63
Notes 64
Further Reading 66
3 Performance 68
Suggested Topics 69
Sample Lesson Eight 70
Gender-bending Voices 70
Castrati 70
Travesti 73
Pantomime Dames and Principal Boys 75
Voices in Transition 76
Reflections and Connections: Voicing Non-Binary
Identities 77
Sample Lesson Nine 78
Swan Lake 78
Spectacle and Scopophilia 79
Swan Lake: Story, Music, and Movement 80
Swan Lake and Girl Culture 82
Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake 83
Connections and Reflections: Billy Elliot 84
Sample Lesson Ten 85
Disney Musicals and Compulsory Heterosexuality 85
Once Upon a Time: Snow White and the First Disney
Princesses 87
Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty 88
Ariel and the Disney Renaissance 90
Ideologies of Romance 91
Disney Princesses Grappling with Diversity 92
Reflections and Connections: Elsa and Anna 94
Discussion and Assignments Questions 95
Notes 95
Further Reading 98