"Affirmative Action" from a Different Angle

There has been a lot of chatter recently on NewMusicBox regarding the programming of female composers and whether or not an "affirmative action" approach is necessary. Amy Beth Kirsten's thoughtful and optimistic article on the state of gender in the composition world sparked an interesting debate about the subject of programming (with Kirsten making the argument that an affirmative action approach is no longer necessary). I disagree with this, but at first I did agree with Kirsten's idea that programming more new music in general would solve the gender disparity. On second thought, however, I just don't think this is true, especially since there are new music ensembles that don't program female composers in proportion to the demographic. Now, please bear with me because I admit this may be a bit of a kooky metaphorical argument for affirmative action, but here goes...

New music is underrepresented, right? I think we all can get behind that. We all can agree that orchestras and other traditional ensembles, for the most part, do not program nearly enough new music to satisfy the needs and talents of the contemporary composition scene. Furthermore, nobody in our community would say that the lack of representation of new music is due to a lack of quality compositions. We all know that the programming needs of orchestras and other groups are more complex than that. Presumably, therefore, new music is under-programmed for other reasons. Perhaps it would help to imagine "new music" as its own minority group in terms of general "classical" programming.

More Discussion About Women Composers (or the Lack Thereof)

I am very excited to share this fantastic article (and comments) from NewMusicBox by David Smooke. I really don't have anything to add to it because it eloquently discusses many of the issues that we've talked about on this blog in the past: about the appalling lack of women in the field of composition, both in sheer numbers and in performances and programming, and why, the gender make-up of competition winners, confidence issues in the world of composition as they relate to gender, etc. It even has statistics... and pie charts!!

It's really nice to know that people are talking about this important issue. Let's keep it up!

- Posted by Sarah

Happy February Birthdays!

Happy birthday to John Adams, John Corigliano, and Christopher Rouse!

John Adams's Chamber Symphony (Mvt. 1)


John Corigliano's Circus Maximus


Christopher Rouse's Gorgon 

Goodbye, New Music in the Media

Dear Alphabet Soup Readers,

We have decided to take down our page "New Music in the Media." While we feel it is very important to discuss new music issues raised in the news, we have decided that if we feel an article or event is noteworthy enough to post and/or discuss on this blog, we will do so on the main page so we can actually have a discussion about it. 

Thanks for your continued readership!

- Natalie & Sarah

I Have Confidence in Sunshine, I Have Confidence in Rain

A year ago I asked the question "Where Are the Female Composers?" and attempted to answer it by briefly touching on the issue of an institutionalized gender gap, among other topics. Sarah addressed the frustrating discrepancies between the male/female demographics in the composition world and the winners of awards in "Competitions and Gender: What's Up with That?" I still feel mostly the same way as I did last year regarding these topics. However, one highly important aspect of the gender gap was left out of our discussion last year: the issue of confidence.



For the most part, I find (in my limited experience) that women are generally unwilling to discuss confidence issues when addressing the gender gap, especially in mixed-gender company. I think we all feel, to a certain extent, that admitting to a lack of confidence or having any kind of self-doubt displays a weakness that can only be harmful to us in this brash, networking, market-driven world.

Cutting Arts Funding... Again

While politicians are almost always cutting or threatening to cut funding for the arts, and already have to a large extent, this article seemed even more extreme to me than what is usually discussed. The suggestion to cut national arts funding in half when the budget is so small already seems like hitting artists when they're already down. The article is a little old but certainly relevant in light of the Republican primaries and upcoming (ish) election.

Posted by Sarah

Our Compositional Core

I recently participated in the Atlanta Opera's 24 Hour Opera Project- a crazy adventure in which mini-operas were written, rehearsed, and performed in- yes, you guessed it- 24 hours. The lyricist (who I had never met before) and I had twelve hours, from 6pm to 6am, to come up with an idea and write both the libretto and music for an entire 10 minute opera. It was exhausting and exhilarating. While many people think these types of 24 hour composing challenges are pretty neat, I would hazard a guess that the projects (and compositions) are generally looked upon as fun and frivolous- never as serious works of art. For the most part, yes, this is a fun event (although very stressful at times!) and a composer is generally not going to write her magnum opus. But I don't think these challenges are frivolous. I actually think they're quite useful to participate in as composers for a variety of reasons, besides the obvious wonderful outcome of having an almost instantaneous performance of your music.