The Role of American Women in Music
“It does not seem that woman will ever originate music in its fullest and grandest harmonic forms,” George Upton wrote in 1880. “She will always be the recipient and interpreter, but there is little hope that she will be the creator.”5 This statement, though made in the late 19th century, reflected public opinion on the prospects of women composers.
Before 1776, women were permitted to sing in church. By the beginning of the 1800s, women were allowed to be church organists. The 1800s saw a rise of female musicians, with many notable pianists and performers being women, including those as famous Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn. By the end of the 19th century, female composers were beginning to gradually gain recognition as professional musicians despite the odds, such as Amy Cheney Beach, Margaret Ruthven Lang, Helen Hood, and Helen Hopekirk.8 These composers went on to encourage future generations of composers, such as Mabel Wheeler Daniels and Mary Carlisle Howe.
Mary Howe and Women in Music
Though Howe was not an avowed feminist – indeed, she admitted the opposite in a 1952 interview with the Washington Post, declaring that she was “not a feminist.”9 She noted in the same interview, however, that she “considered it a handicap to be a woman when [she] started composing…[and thought she] would have gotten along faster if [she’d] been a man.”
Nonetheless, Howe used her position in high society to affect change for the role of women in music. In 1941, she founded the National Symphony Orchestra’s women’s committee with 130 other women; it grew to 800 in 1949, and continued to gain new members.6 In 1945, Howe attended the Biennial Conference of Women’s Committees of Symphony Orchestras, an opportunity for various symphony orchestras’ women’s committees to engage in dialogues. Howe went on to champion government support for symphony orchestras after paying a visit to the Swedish National Orchestra in 1947 with her husband and being impressed by funding for their recording equipment, library, studios, and salaried musicians.7 She campaigned heavily for the NSO, raising money, selling subscriptions, and undertaking necessary tasks to promote the orchestra. Her efforts as an advocate for classical music were influential, and public performances of her solo, chamber, and orchestra music across the country inspired began to shift perception of composers.6
