{"id":1004,"date":"2016-10-10T08:01:49","date_gmt":"2016-10-10T12:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/?p=1004"},"modified":"2016-10-10T08:01:49","modified_gmt":"2016-10-10T12:01:49","slug":"music-by-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/2016\/10\/music-by-women.html","title":{"rendered":"Music by Women"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/woman-37613_1280.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1005\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/woman-37613_1280-286x300.png\" alt=\"woman-37613_1280\" width=\"286\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/woman-37613_1280-286x300.png 286w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/woman-37613_1280-768x805.png 768w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/woman-37613_1280-977x1024.png 977w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/woman-37613_1280.png 1221w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 286px) 100vw, 286px\" \/><\/a>Saw a very nice concert this past week by the <strong>Lumina Duo<\/strong> \u2013 oboist Merideth Hite-Estevez and pianist Jani Parsons.\u00a0 The program was all music by women from the 12<sup>th<\/sup> century to the present.\u00a0 Great to have a program where the women aren\u2019t presented as token reps for their sex, where the performance is just about them.\u00a0 The performers took the opportunity to tell each composer\u2019s story, and a fascinating cross-generational narrative emerged.<\/p>\n<p>A number of highlights to mention.\u00a0 The arrangement of Hildegard von Bingen\u2019s <em>O vis aeternitatis<\/em> featured a couple of e-bows used to set the piano strings in motion, creating an elusive drone reminiscent of an organ tone but with the special characteristics inherent with a vibrating string.\u00a0 Margaret Bonds\u2019s <em>To a Brown Girl, Dead<\/em>, composed about sixty years ago, but possibly even more poignant in our time, was pretty much perfect: each harmony, each note given exactly the right weight and space.<\/p>\n<p>If I were a music critic I might feel obliged to comment on each piece, but I\u2019m not, so I don\u2019t.\u00a0 I will say that there were no weak spots on the program, no pieces that were included just to check off a name or a genre.\u00a0 These were all strong compositions, some with bold power, some a bit more on the sneaky side.<\/p>\n<p>The program notes asked the question that we all have to ponder about the number of women who could have been very successful composers if they had been given opportunities or encouragement.\u00a0 I\u2019d like to frame the question from the opposite direction, though: imagine if Beethoven had been required to marry and serve the bidding of a spouse at the age of 25, about the time he was working on his first piano sonata.\u00a0 Would we have heard anything further from him?<\/p>\n<p>Here is the Lumina Duo program I heard:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Hildegard von Bingen: <em>O vis aeternitatis<\/em><br \/>\nRebecca Clarke: <em>Viola Sonata<\/em><br \/>\nTina Nicholson: <em>Moments from Women<\/em><br \/>\nAlex Shapiro: <em>Spark<\/em><br \/>\nThea Musgrave: <em>Night Windows<\/em><br \/>\nClara Schumann: <em>Der Mond kommt still gegangen<\/em><br \/>\nMargaret Bonds: <em>To a Brown Girl, Dead<\/em><br \/>\nAlex Temple: <em>Locations and Times<\/em><br \/>\nLili Boulanger: <em>Nocturno<\/em><br \/>\nMadeleine Dring: <em>Italian Dance<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saw a very nice concert this past week by the Lumina Duo \u2013 oboist Merideth Hite-Estevez and pianist Jani Parsons.\u00a0 The program was all music by women from the 12th century to the present.\u00a0 Great to have a program where the women aren\u2019t presented as token reps for their sex, where the performance is just [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1004","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1004"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1006,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004\/revisions\/1006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}