 Georgia Kelly |
 Diamanda Galas |
INNOVATIVE WOMEN COMPOSERS: A SILENT MINORITY? (1)
By: Montse Andreu
Georgia Kelly |
Diamanda Galas |
And, who are these women, who are the women in this "silent minority", whose names so often escape our minds? We can certainly name some who will surely be widely known by the readers: the versatile Laurie Anderson, who, having worked in the electronic music fields, is far more famous for her pop works; Wendy / Walter Carlos and her (formerly his) prolific career; Suzanne Ciani, who has been said to be "The Chopin of the nineties", nowadays more popular for her current work as a sensitive, romantic, skilled pianist, rather than her expertise in the technical skills and a wide experience with the electronic instruments that she so wonderfully showed in the first stages of her career; Constance Demby, the author of the Novus Magnificat, which sold more than a hundred thousand units in a record time after its release, who defines her music as "symphonic space contemporay classical music"; Enya, the delightful singer and composer of Celtic roots; Diamanda Galas, the controversial, countercultural, "accursed" artist, one of whose works was awarded the Ars Electronica 1986 prize during that festival in Austria; Georgia Kelly, an experienced harpist and composer whose music has relaxing, therapeutic effects on the listener; the American composer Pauline Oliveros, a pioneer in electronic experimentation in music, born in 1932; the also awarded woman composer in the Ars Electronica festival in 1989, Kaija Saariaho, of a Finnish origin, who has settled in France, a great specialist in electronic and computer music; Fiorella Terenzi, the gorgeous astronomer who became famous with her "music of the galaxies", which she obtained through her scientific work, in a skilled combination with her musical habilities... All these charismatic women are dealt with in detail, in several monographic articles within Amazing Sounds.
Yet, together with these artists who have become fairly well known all over the world, there are others who perhaps have not achieved fame in the same scale. And this is the objective I have here: to make some of these names that hide a considerable talent and a dedication often silenced by the media - perhaps because they are taken to be uncommercial, or perhaps because they have chosen very minoritary aspects in the field of music in our days - known to the interested readers. In successive chapters the musical trajectory of some of these women composers from different nationalities and styles is detailed, since it is my belief that they deserve to have a place in the annals of the history of music in our days. Given the diversity of styles that constitute the alternative musics and the difficulty to classify them according to labels, besides the fact that the latter are very relative indeed, and also as many of these women have entered different fields sometimes even fusing or merging styles, I have chosen to classify then in an alphabetical order, so as to create a sort of dictionary of women composers in the alternative musics.
ESPERANZA ABAD:
Esperanza Abad, a singer born in Toledo
(Spain), completed her musical studies at the Conservatorio de Música y Arte Dramático
in Madrid, and later devoted her time to musical research. Co-founder of CANON and also of
LIM, she specialized in the avantgarde musics, and she has performed with several
avantgarde musicians both in Spain and abroad. She is the co-author, together with José
Iges, of the composition Despedida que no despide, a sort of requiem
written as a homage to Agustín Millares Sall, a poet from the Canary
Islands, as well as Ritual, a composition in three parts written by herself for
one of her own performances, a most remarkable event because of its open, aesthetic
character, in which the composer relates in an imaginative, technically perfect way,
voice, dramatization and electronics, with outstanding results.
Esperanza Abad has developed a wide task of research in the field of the vocal and musical forms of different trends. Among her performances mention must be made of "La Sangre Del Tiempo", "La Leyenda de los Baños de Argel", "Athelier Lirique del Rhin", "Le Dernier Combat de Tancredo et Clorinde", etc. As a singer she has performed a wide range of works from national as well as foreign authors, many of whom have dedicated their works to her. Esperanza Abad has likewise composed other works of New Music and has participated in numerous festivals in Spain and overseas. She has also developed a wide range of pedagogical activities in seminars and conferences. Her music has been released under different labels, among them RCA, EMEG-EDIGSA and RNE.
KEIKO ABE:
This Japanese composer has completed her musical
education at the Tokyo Gakugei University, specializing in contemporary music. Among her
works mention must be made of Marima (1972), and Michi, filed at The
Resource Center for Japanese Music.
KRISTI A. ALLIK:
C anadian composer born in Toronto, she has received her
musical education at the University of Southern California, Princeton University and the
University of Toronto, tutored by such prestigious professors as John Weinzweig,
James Hopkins, Frederick Leseman, Lothar Klein, Oskar Morawetz and Milton
Babbit, specializing in electronic music, as she feels deeply attracted by
unusual sounds. No wonder a great deal of her work has mostly been devoted to the
electroacoustic sound, as the artist has chosen to explore the timbric possibilities that
this has to offer to her musical creativity. Experimentation in this terrain has led her
to combining her music with other media of artistic expression, which has meant for her
the creation of diverse interactive works, and even the composition of an opera.
Furthermore, Allik has participated in several theatrical productions. In
her works, Allik intends to awaken the interest of the general audience
in art. Among the several commissions and awards she has received from well known
institutions, mention must be made of the following: Canada Council grants, Ontario Arts
Council grants, a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship, a Chalmers Foundation Award, the Federation
of University Women Award and the Irving G. Mills Award. Currently a member of the Faculty
at Queen's University School of Music, she is a professor of composition, musical theory
and computer music there. Also, she is a member of several institutions, among them CAPAC
and the Canadian League of Composers. Her works have been performed in Europe, the USA and
Canada. Among them mention must be made of the following:
Music Theatre and Multi-media:
Orchestra:
Orchestra with Soloist(s):
Chamber:
Keyboards:
Electroacoustic:
(Next Chapter: MARYANNE AMACHER, BETH ANDERSON, RUTH ANDERSON)
