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Clara Schumann
Clara Schumann: one of those whose name turns up ‘with great regularity’. Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis
Clara Schumann: one of those whose name turns up ‘with great regularity’. Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis

We need a bigger shift in attitudes to female composers after Radio 3’s focus

This article is more than 9 years old

Jessica Duchen (Why haven’t you heard of Mozart’s sister?, 28 February) adopts the sexist dismissal of historical female composers herself when she claims that the music of Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann is “enjoyable, yet perhaps underdeveloped”. Quite aside from the question of what that might mean, and whether it is true, few musicians would think twice about programming “underdeveloped” works by male composers. Once a composer has reached the rank of “genius” (and the historical and ideological processes by which this comes about have been well-documented by musicologists), performers become less discriminating, and plenty of works by Mozart, Beethoven, Robert Schumann et al are played even when they are clearly not masterpieces. In contrast, the many fine works by female composers struggle to make it on to programmes, or to be recorded or published.

While the forthcoming Radio 3 focus on female composers is welcome, similar attention in the past has rapidly faded; it seems the controllers think “we did women last month”, and then feel free to ignore them again. There needs to be much more of a shift in attitudes among those in the classical music world, and a commitment to playing and teaching the works of women regularly whether they are “underdeveloped” or not; this needs to extend to historical composers, as contemporary music has its own problems in getting performed, whoever it’s written by.
Claire Taylor-Jay
Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire

Jessica Duchen is admirably optimistic about a potentially more balanced musical world. But I can’t help noticing that a few female names turn up with great regularity: Hildegard of Bingen, Fanny Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann and Ethel Smyth. We all copy current fashions, but music is an innovative art, and maybe it’s time to break new ground. Looking at what one might call the next level of composers, there are Marianne Martinez, Louise Farrenc, Cécile Chaminade and Germaine Tailleferre. And we could even continue beyond them, to Pauline Viardot, Grażyna Bacewicz, Ruth Crawford Seeger and Louise Talma. In broadcasting these composers, Radio 3 could be introducing its audience to some wonderful fresh discoveries.
Diana Ambache
Vientiane, Laos

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