Maestra

Beethoven, Chopin, Mozart, Debussy. When people think of classical music names such as these immediately spring to mind. But what role have women had in shaping what we know as classical music today? And why don't we know about them? In Maestra, feminist musicologist Laura Hamer presents a fresh new history of classical music told through the women who made it. Maestra surveys the contributions of women composers to every major classical music period from the Middle Ages to the present, highlighting their impact on the musical canon. Case studies of women composers from each classical music era - including Hildegard von Bingen, Clara Schumann, Fanny Hensel, Delia Derbyshire, and Judith Weir - are presented alongside detailed considerations of the music which they wrote, the opportunities and social barriers which they encountered, and the institutions which they worked within. Full of remarkable accounts of women who pushed the boundaries of creativity and social expectation, this illuminating book reveals the true story of classical music for the very first time.