Stereotype Threat: As Applied to Music

Every time I read articles about the gender disparity in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math), I immediately apply everything I'm reading to music, particularly our little field of composition. This story from NPR about "stereotype threat" seemed very relevant to me and I couldn't help thinking it goes on in music all the time. The gist of it is that when women think about the stereotype of women not being as good as men in the STEM fields (or composition), they actually sound less competent when talking about their work because they're using brainpower worrying about the stereotype. But you should read (or listen to) the full article to get the whole (very interesting) explanation about the study. The conclusion of the scientists who conducted the study: "In order to boost the numbers of women who choose to go into those fields, you have to boost the number of women who are in those fields."

The Ethical Elephant

During my junior year of college, one of the full-time faculty members sat all four(!) music majors down and advised us about the future. Of course, we were all nervous about our prospects for continuing on, finding a job, making a living (unfortunately finding a job is not synonymous with making a living), etc. His advice certainly did not mitigate this fear. Instead, he warned, "Don't go to grad school unless you absolutely have to. It's just not worth it. It's a lot of money and it's almost impossible to get a professorship these days." I remember that at the time, in my youthful innocence and idealism, I felt slightly resentful of this comment. What did he mean there weren't jobs?! Surely if I worked really hard and wrote good music I would be able to get a job somewhere!

Looking back, I'm impressed that my professor was actually willing to talk about something that so many others in academia tend to avoid. I now realize exactly what motivated my professor to give this speech and I'm much more appreciative of his honesty and integrity. What motivated him was a deep sense of moral obligation--not to his field, but to his students. The academic job market is pretty brutal (especially in this economy) and in many ways his assessment of the situation is accurate. Occasionally you will hear someone refer to the academic job market as a Ponzi scheme. To be fair, this is an exaggeration and an oversimplification. Many graduate students do know what they are getting into (in terms of student loans, job prospects, etc.). Many are happy just to further their education in the hope that they will be able to make it work one way or another, and graduate schools should not be blamed for accepting these students. That said, the number of graduating doctoral students far outstrips the number of available academic teaching jobs. It is a shame to see so many individuals--individuals who may be unaware of all of the details--leaving school potentially with mountains of debt and few financial opportunities.

Keeping the Programming Fresh: NOI's "New Lights"

Last week, I attended the National Orchestral Institute's "New Lights" concert at the University of Maryland. The concert featured works by Bach, Cage, Pärt, and Moravec, as well as improvisational interludes—improvisations that were performed both by the performers and by the audience members. The concert was seamless with each piece fading into the next and ran for a manageable 45-minute stretch. It was, without a doubt, one of the most effective ways of freshening up programming that I've witnessed in a long time.

Orchestra Readings as Antithetical to Risk-Taking

Too often we tend to play it safe when we compose. Sometimes we do this accidentally--we may have discovered several techniques or strategies that we know will "work" and we rely on these while expanding our ideas somewhat conservatively. Alexandra Gardner recently wrote an excellent article for NewMusicBox in which she called on all of us to be willing to take greater risks and to accept greater challenges, with the idea that our compositional skills will grow in leaps and bounds if we do so.

I absolutely agree with the importance of risk-taking--it is, I think, one of the most necessary aspects of compositional education and growth. Sometimes I worry, however, that our institutions, ensembles, and pedagogical tactics operate in ways that are actually antithetical to risk-taking.

Summer Hiatus

We just wanted to write a quick note letting you all know that we are going on a bit of a blogging hiatus this summer. Both Sarah and I have had a lot going on in our respective lives recently and have been somewhat overwhelmed with deadlines, projects, life events, etc. We may post from time to time over the summer, but we want to apologize in advance for the infrequent nature of the posts. We will be back soon with some new posts! Enjoy your summer!

Best wishes,

Sarah & Natalie

March/April Birthdays!

Due to our crazy schedules as of late (not to mention being distracted by all the gender-related hoopla!), Sarah and I neglected to get the March birthdays posted. Sorry!

Happy Belated Birthday to Pierre Boulez and Tristan Murail and Happy Birthday to two composers born in April--Chen Yi and Augusta Read Thomas! As always, these birthday posts offer only a small sample of living composers, but we hope it will provide some new listening experiences for everyone.

An excerpt from Boulez's Rituel:

An excerpt from Murail's Desintegrations:

Chen's Duo Ye


Thomas's Rush

The "Woman Composer" Revisited

In response to all the discussion on NewMusicBox recently about women composers, Natalie wrote a great post about affirmative action, women composers, and the new music scene in general. I'd like to focus on some of the points brought up in Amy Beth Kirsten's article. (I'd recommend reading the comments too- some of them are quite illuminating and make really interesting arguments, both agreeing and disagreeing with what I'm about to say.)

Kirsten's main argument is that we are living in a post-gender world. I respectfully disagree. As we've talked about many, many times on this blog before, until there are equal numbers of men and women studying composition, graduating from composition programs, being programmed on concerts, obtaining jobs in the field (whether in academia or not, including residencies, commissions, etc), we are certainly not living in a post-gender world. The new music world is absolutely getting better with regard to the number of female composers, but we are making progress at a snail's pace. Just because we're moving toward a goal does not mean we are anywhere near it. And I don't think anyone can argue that there are equal numbers of male and female composers doing all these thing-- so why are people continuing to argue that gender doesn't matter?