Did you ever wonder what the final dying words were of famous composers? A writer for the online music newsletter Interlude, wondered.
But she left out .... women!
I guess women composers don't die? Or don't say any words when expiring?
As it seems in the music world, "the Greats" are always men....and then some day - oops! - we may or may not get around to women. However, I doubt that research in musicology can uncover any such words said by women, but perhaps that's worth an effort to find out?
And no, the Virginia Slims cigarette commercial was neither iconic nor pespicacious in 1969 when it comes to women in the music world. (We shall set aside for now, the wisdom of promoting cigarettes...)
The company's use of the infantalizing term "baby" for grown women in their commercial surprised me at the time and was insulting, moreso today than "back in the day" at the end of the 60s. After all Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, the seminal feminist text that fomented an agonizingly slow revolution regarding advancement of women's role in US society, came out six years earlier in 1963, and yet, there we were in 1969 still being called "baby."
Not long ago a good friend innocently and perhaps unwittingly used the term "chick" for a woman, and I about fainted. "Chick", "fox", and other terms for animals when applied to women are demeaning. Not to mention three examples I have recently found wherein men pontificate on this or that and use a visual or a word that refers to a sexual body part or hygiene product such as a sanitary pad that are known to be particular to women.
Why is an item of all women's normal physical functioning such a threat to some men so that they have to use it to demean an idea or a person, typically another man-person?
So the worst thing a man can be or be called by another man, is a female accoutrement? Can't they use their imagination in less misogynist and more creative ways?
For all the limitations and legitimate critiques of Friedan's book (critiques with which I concur, namely that the book dealt mainly with enlightening society about and urging change to white, middle class women's roles), that single book changed my life for the better. That "better" also included my mom's life and that of many, many other American women, even if it was only a small start on our way to social and gender enlightenment, but with a lot more work to be done.
So today into my mail box along came the Interlude article on great musical men composers' last words -- and also by way of serendipity - soprano Gabriella De Laccio's shocking new 23-24 report on world-wide orchestral leaders, focused on the status of women.
Still appalling this year:
92.5% of the repertoire was composed by men, as played by over100 orchestras surveyed worldwide.
Of the chief conductors or music directors of those orchestras, 89.9% were men and only 10.1% were women
Someone who has been uninformed about how retarded the music world actually is, might be inclined to ask, "so what?"
De Laccio puts her finger squarely on the answers to "so what?", summarized here:
"These statistics highlight the persistent gender imbalance at the highest levels of orchestral leadership. The lack of female representation in such influential roles perpetuates a cycle of inequality and deprives the industry of diverse perspectives crucial for innovation and cultural richness."
With my former lawyer's hat on I might also deign to mention the word "fairness"?
I wonder how many of my blog's readers, certainly a modest number but mighty in our shared passion for music and fairness, have written the San Francisco President of our Symphony or our CEO to strongly urge them to finally hire a woman for the coming 25-26 season and beyond. (I held back from saying "demand," but you know that was what I meant.)
I mean a permanent music director, not just a nod to hiring a woman guest conductor from time to time.
I wonder how many empathetic women -- and men -- allies have written their own city's symphony, philharmonic, or even modest-sized chamber group composed principally of men, urging them to get with it and hire more women?
Values un-enacted, are not values at all.
Behavior tells what one truly believes and values.
"...Women are not a minority. They are more than half the population. The purpose of these exercises is to reach the point where special schemes, courses, competitions, discussions, and reports are no longer needed (in music), because gender equality is a given. Some things are looking up – but there’s still a long way to go.”
There is still time to write to the San Francisco Symphony President and carbon our CEO Matt Spivey, here:
Ms. Priscilla B. Geeslin, President, SF Symphony
San Francisco Symphony
201 Van Ness Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94102
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How can I help you achieve more representation of women in musical selections and music directorships in your city? Need a letter or call to followup yours? I'm more than willing!
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*N.B. I am recently experimenting with AI creating blog images and when three times I asked it to create an image of a "woman conductor of an orchestra," Mr. AI came up with -- only white women! I had to specifically ask it to create an image of a "Black" woman conductor, and it was totally stumped when I asked it to come up with a Mexican or Latin woman conductor. Why is it that AI thinks that the "norm" is white women? I'm unsure what those two items are that our conductor is holding, so there is yet work to be done with AI's accuracy for sure! (Maybe she is going to play her violin and conduct at the same time? YES, something similar has been done by one supremely qualified woman conductor! And is she holding a sling-shot baton with a petite rock to aim at errant musicians in her orchestra? - ROTFLMAO!) At least it's a "start"?
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