Music Is Woman

Abstract

The popular culture that manifests itself in the new media, above all the cinema, has a distinct character. In America, the twentieth century saw the feminization of products for the emerging mass of consumers.¹ Debates arose in different environments on the topic since the fear of a radical change began to spread. For example, scholar Gavin James Campbell emphasizes the substantial difference between the principles of masculinity and femininity that are cultivated in music more than in any other cultural context. He argues that music became one medium by which men and women articulated their anxieties about changing gender roles. He goes as far as to make qualitative judgments of the great composers, such as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin, according to the degree of masculinity expressed in their works. The debate touched on topics associated with the battle of the sexes, using arguments that were very advanced for those years. Included in the discussion was the very role of the professional female musician; some of them believed that female musicians should not confine themselves to the performances of music written solely by men but, as the pianist Fanny Bloomfield-Zeisler had already written in 1891, should inspire women to compose music not simply in imitation but based on their their own musical sensibilities.²