Title:  Aria  Senza  Accompagnamento:  A  Woman  Behind  the  Theory  
 
Author(s):  Roberta  Lamb  
 
Source:  Lamb,  R.  (1993-­‐1994).  Aria  senza  accompagnamento:  A  
woman  behind  the  theory.  The  Quarterly,  4-­5(5-­‐1),  pp.  5-­‐20.  
(Reprinted  with  permission  in  Visions  of  Research  in  Music  
Education,  16(5),  Autumn,  2010).  Retrieved  from  http://www-­
usr.rider.edu/~vrme/  
 

It   is   with   pleasure   that   we   inaugurate   the   reprint   of   the   entire   seven   volumes   of   The  
Quarterly   Journal   of   Music   Teaching   and   Learning.     The   journal   began   in   1990   as   The  
Quarterly.     In   1992,   with   volume   3,   the   name   changed   to   The   Quarterly   Journal   of   Music  
Teaching  and  Learning  and  continued  until  1997.    The  journal  contained  articles  on  issues  
that  were  timely  when  they  appeared  and  are  now  important  for  their  historical  relevance.    
For   many   authors,   it   was   their   first   major   publication.     Visions   of   Research   in   Music  
Education   will   publish   facsimiles   of   each   issue   as   it   originally   appeared.     Each   article   will   be  
a  separate  pdf  file.    Jason  D.  Vodicka  has  accepted  my  invitation  to  serve  as  guest  editor  for  
the   reprint   project   and   will   compose   a   new   editorial   to   introduce   each   volume.     Chad  
Keilman  is  the  production  manager.    I  express  deepest  thanks  to  Richard  Colwell  for  granting  
VRME  permission  to  re-­publish  The  Quarterly  in  online  format.    He  has  graciously  prepared  
an  introduction  to  the  reprint  series.  
Aria Senza Accornpagnarnento:
A ~Ofl1an Behind The Theory

By Roberta Larrrb
Queen's University, Kingston, Canada

ystarting point for feminist analyses 1989-90 thinking (and therefore some of this

M of music education was to consider

the addition of women to the con-
tent of music teaching and leaming.! how-
aria seems either dated or problematic to
me), I feel it is important for this piece to be
read by a larger population almost-as-origi-
ever, I soon found that project to be lacking, nally-written because little or no feminist
both in theoretical substance and as a means theory has heretofore been published in mu-
for conceptualizing change. Being a feminist sic education journals. The general field of
musician, I wondered about how we teach as education and the specific discipline of musi-
well as what we teach.f This lead me into cology have been more willing to interact
considerations of feminist criticisms and with feminist theory in music education than
theories in relation to music and music edu- has music education itself.
cation. As I wrote this article, it became the Overture
second of four studies in feminist criticism of "What would happen if one woman told
music education. The first, "Medusa's Aria," the truth about her life? The world would
is an allegorical, intertextual work cast as a split open.,,6 This line from Muriel Rukey-
reader's theatre of diverse voices.3 The third, ser's poem, "Kathe Kollwitz," is posted in my
"Aria d'entrata'< focused primarily on unac- office on the noteboard above my desk.
knowledged political struggles within music Sometimes the counterpoint interrupts.
education. The fourth, "Tone deaf/sympho- Sometimes the sounds become silence.
nies singing: Sketches for a musicale,") en- Sometimes the visual images fade out. I
gages and deploys postmodern feminist theo- want to write fiction-theory with music, as
ries with a multi-vocal, multi-disciplinary cri- icole Brossard? does with words. "Aria" is
tique in a musical-poetic form. a performance piece, a fiction, an imaginary.
I mention these other studies to place the Fictive, it may become real. This is the
present article in a chronological context. scene: Aria senza accompagnamento origi-
While my 1993 thinking is different from my nates in 18th-century opera as an aria sung

About This Article: Roberta Lamb is Assistant The phrase "A Woman Behind The Theory" draws
Professor, School of Music, past co-coordinator of on French feminist critiques of Lacan, particularly his
the Women's Studies Programme, Queen's Univer- contention that Woman does not exist as subject but
sity, Kingston, Ontario, and a founding member of as a reflection of or in relation to Man. As one among
Gender Research in Music Education (GRlME). Her several essays by French feminist critics, Julia Kris-
research is in feminist theories and music education, teva's "Stabat Mater" has influenced me, particularly
and women in music, with particular concerns for in relation to the multiple-voiced text and the musical
issues of difference in music education. references within the text (although in Kristeva's
Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the essay, such reference relates more to religious ritual
1990 Bergamo Conference on Curriculum Theory than music). See J. Kristeva, "Stabat Mater," origi-
and Classroom Practice, Dayton, Ohio, and in a nally "Herethique de l'amour" (Tel Quel, 74, hiver,
Queen's University Critical Theory Seminar, Febru- 30-49) in Histoires de l'amour(Paris: Denoel, 1983),
ary, 1991. Many thanks to Deborah Britzman, 225-247; "Stabat Mater" is published in English in The
Elizabeth Ellsworth, Keith Louise Fulton, Gayle Female Body in Western Culture, ed. S. R. Suleiman
MacDonald, Judy Springer and Elizabeth Wood for (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1956).
their helpful comments.

Volume IV, Number 4/ Volume V; Number 1 5

without any instrumental accompaniment; aesthetic education/music education. The pro-
such arias are rare (as is feminist theory in cess of asking and the struggle of considering
music education). A picture of theory. A these four questions situate this paper.
metaphor for music. Too much silence: last Ideally, as a feminist experiment in theory,
Tango with Music Education.f Too much where theory follows practice follows
silence. theory.? this would be performance art com-
I began this exploration in theory by ask- plete with video, synthesizers, musicians, and
ing: What does it matter to a feminist teach- dancers. Some of you would be participants,
ing music that gender is not a factor in aes- adding to the multi-media event as it pro-
thetic education/music education theory? If gressed, breaking down the separation be-
music reflects the culture in which it is cre- tween audience and performer, creating a
ated, is it possible that elements of power, new form of theory in music and the arts and
dominance and violence appear in the music in education. But today it is only a model,
we teach? And, if so, how does one address an imaginary, a fiction of what is.
these issues within music? Does the patriar- What you will read approaches bitextual-v
chal music we teach have the capacity to be fiction-theory (not unlike contrapuntal ra-
harmful to human well-being? Can we rec- dioll): the Show and the Text. The Text is
oncile the beauty of the learned music we the leap, hurtling through fundamental ques-
teach with its elitist, racist, sexist and tions to music and music education. The
heterosexist messages? The focus always re- Show enacts the kind of feminist aesthetic/
turned to the first question: "What does it practice/theory/music called for and engaged
matter?" Consequently, this exploration re- in The Text. Now, let the show begin!
flects on my experiences as a feminist teaching

The Show The Text

Thematic Motives Variations on the Theme
Variation 1. What does it matter?
This is a noisy text where too many things are
happening at once. It is a disturbing text, not
only a challenge to the status quo, but a
1. "Oh, music, sweet music, thy window into women's experience in music, a
window into the meanings of being a feminist
praises W'e sing!" That familiar open-
in music education. The noise is necessary to
ing phrase of a traditional canon re-
interrupt the transmission of music (heard only
plays in my head. I hear it in four
as exaltation of the human spirit, only as
parts, full chorus, rich with the ma- aesthetic experience) so that the window can
ture vocal sonorities. I hear it clear be opened. The noise is also the violence as
and reedy, sung by elementary experienced behind the closed window that is
school children. I hear it in my o'wn aesthetic education in music. The noise is the
body, resonating through my chest, scream that is not heard but just seen by those
my throat, my head. I feel the air, who have experienced it, the furtive glances of
the vocal chords vibrating. Again, in recognition exchanged in the faculty lounge, at
my ear, close behind that ode to mu- coffee break, during conferences, whispered
sic clamor phrases from Mozart op- over the phone - long-distance - from behind
locked doors, only to be interrupted by the
eras, Bach suites, Beethoven sympho-
glass rattle as the window is slammed shut,
nies, Debussy, Stravinsky, Schubert,
once again. Aria senza accompagnamento.
Tchaikovsky, Copland, Bartok,
The retelling of this noisy story in this text is
Schoenberg. I long to pick up my violence once again.
flute and play. I cannot.

6 The Quarterly Journal of Music Teaching and Learning

 This song is without accorrrparrf- Noise is the outside world intruding into the
rnemt (aria senza aooorrrp.ag- domain of music. 12 It is the violence of Oka, 13
riarnerrto), Video-play to video- of Kent State,14 of the Montreal murders.l> of
pause. Too rrrucfr silence. Lights
the 100 Canadian women killed by their spouses
in their homes each year,16 of women students
fade out.
harassed in their music lessons, of sexist stories
told in the name of music history, of the
exclusion of all women and non-whitel? men
from the musical canon, of "objective" aesthetic
principles defined in terms of masculinity. The
noise is a heretofore unnamed violence. Music,
with all its rules, has inflicted pain, permanent
2. The second video represents an
damage--and primarily on women. I cannot
almost anarchist vision of music as a
play the flute (or any other instrument) because
political economy: of what music has made me feel. The violence
of noise is the family secret that is never told.
Noise is the silence that resounds when the
First, that noise is violence: it disturbs. outside world's intrusions are noted.
To make noise is to interrupt a trans- Noise is the conflict between what has been
mission, to disconnect, to kill. It is a learned and what has been experienced. It is
simulacrum of murder. the anxiety encountered when learned theories
of aesthetic education are unpacked to disclose
ignorance of a raft of Other experience. Noise
is all these disparate aspects of music impinging
on the theoretical basis of aesthetic/music edu-
cation. What was once logical and intellectu-
ally solid begins to waver:
Aesthetic experience is involvement with ex-
pressive qualities rather than with symbolic
Second, that music is a channel- designation... One's attitude in aesthetic expe-
ization of noise, and therefore a rience is to regard a thing as an expressive form
rather than a symbol, to be interested in the
simulacrum of sacrifice. It is thus a
thing as an expressive form rather than a sym-
sublimation and exacerbation of the
bol.J?
imaginary, at the same time as the
What does it mean when the signs and
creation of social order and political
symbols so central to the experience of the
integration. IS
artwork purposely are ignored? Is it not arro-
gance to assume that significance is found only
in the "expressive qualities," or the structural
qualities that appear to be intrinsic to the
artwork? And how can it be that these qualities
are not influenced by the cultural values sur-
rounding music's creation? McClary has stated
that it is not possible for many of her female
students to experience aesthetically the expres-
sive or structural qualities of music signifying
Aria senza accorrrpagrrarnerrto, rape and mutilation of women.e'! Surely we
Video to pause. Too rrrucb, silence. cannot say that the perceptions of these young
women are incorrect! And yet, according to the
Lights fade out.
proponents of aesthetic education, it is not
appropriate to be interested in de mystifying the
symbol of rape in music, because the symbol is
deemed expressively insignificant.

Volume IV, Number 4/ Volume V, Number 1 7

 The noisy conflict between what is learned
and what is being uncovered slips into my
3. The next video clip in this fictive classroom, too. Music students often enter my
performance is a still-life from aes- classes making statements like, "Music is a
thetic education theory: universal language;" "Quality music is the mu-
sic you like the best;" "Music makes me feel ..."
In the past I've always involved them in discus-
Aesthetic experience is involvement
with expressive qualities rather than sions of aesthetic education theory such that we
with symbolic designations. ... One's eventually resolve an agreement that although
attitude in aesthetic experience is to music exists universally, music is not a lan-
regard a thing as an expressive form guage because the semantic content is not
rather than a symbol, ... to be inter- precise, and where it can be determined it may
ested in the thing as an expressive differ by culture; that music does not have the
form rather than a symbol. The "aes- power to enforce any particular feeling or
thetic attitude" is consciously culti- emotion, but individuals respond to music in
vated by the elaborate social behav- individual ways; and that objective aesthetic
iors surrounding museurns, concert
criteria derived from structural and expressive
halls, and theaters, helping to put
artistic principles rather than subjective per-
people into a frame of mind that en-
courages aesthetic experience to take sonal choice determine musical quality. The
place.21 noise rumbling around beneath the floor of my
classroom wonders if these students unwit-
tingly are closer to reality that I am. I cannot
teach as I have taught before, and yet I have
nothing solid to replace it.22 This is noise. Aria
senza accompagnamento.

Variation 2. Masculinist messages of

power, dominance, violence, and beauty.
Attali's idea of provoking disorder or creating
a problem in order to solve it is very close to
many of the rules of musical composition.
Music in the Western world is a conflict be-
Aria senza accompagnamento. tween dissonance and consonance, and with
Video to pause. Too much silence. few historical exceptions, dissonance always
Lights fade out.
resolves into consonance. The definitions of
what constitutes dissonance change, but in the
end the successful musical piece must resolve
the tension of dissonance and consonance.
Feminist musicologists now present evidence
that these structural tenets of music resemble
male heterosexualiry.e> As but one example,
the classical paradigm of sonata-allegro dem-
4. The fourth video returns to the
onstrates this concept: the principal first theme
images of music as political economy:
is strong and active (called masculine within my
memory); the secondary theme more subtle,
-music is a tool of power: of ritual
lyrical, expressive (called feminine); good com-
power when it is a question of mak-
ing people forget the fear of violence; positional practice requires constant move-
of representative power when it is a ment toward a climax and resolution of the
question of making them believe in secondary theme subordinate to the principal
order and harmoriy, and of bureau- theme24 Consequently, it is quite possible to
cratic power when it is a question of see music as:
silencing those who oppose it. The only one of the arts that has remained

8 The Quarterly Journal of Music Teaching and Learning

 largelyuntouched by ... redefinitionsofmethod
and subjectmatter in its academicdiscipline...
For the most part, the discourse of musical
scholarship clings stubbornly to a reliance on
positivismin historicalresearch and formalism
Thus music localizes and specifies in theory and criticism,with primary attention
power, because it marks and regi- stillfocused almostexclusivelyon the canon26
merus the rare noises that cultures, in This reliance on positivism and a distinctively
their normalization of behavior see fit male heterosexual paradigm is even more ap-
to authorizc.x>
parent in music education, where women have
no voice in aesthetic education and music
education theory.
Traditionally, the secondary music education
faculty (91 percent male) teach such courses as
"Foundations of Music Education," wherein
particular theories of education are taught.e? It
is highly unusual for the aesthetics or founda-
tions course to be assigned to faculty whose
specialty is early childhood (68 percent female)
or elementary music education (50 percent
female); therefore, it is unlikely that women
have the opportunity to teach these courses.
The texts used in related courses are all written
by men, with the exception of Susanne
Aria senza acco1llpagna1llento. Langer's, 28 whose writing cannot be considered
Video to pause. Too rrrucfr silence. woman-centered. Since the majority of school
Light fade out. music teachers are women, who have no voice
(or audience) within these theories, other than
5. In a brief clip, listen to the voice that which we express indirectly, hidden (em-
of literary/music critic Catherine bodied) in our practice, the bureaucratic power
Clement: effectively silences us. The very tools that lead
us to believe in the order and harmony of music
(T)he music develops language, gives
contribute to silence.
it dialect, thwarts or reinforces it.
While traditional scholarship in music has
Conscious and unconscious: The
words are aligned with the legible, actively repudiated the possibility that musical
rational side of a conscious discourse, qualities are influenced by the cultural values
and the rnusic is the unconscious of surrounding music's creation, those who first
the text, that which gives it depth of critiqued music's values were not musicolo-
field and relief, that which attributes a gists, were not members of music's bureau-
past to the text, a mernory, ... en- cracy; rather, these first critical voices (musical
chanted uriconscfousriess.v-? amateurs) originate in French literary theory.
Roland Barthes sees musical experience as
"solitary intimacy," that of "the child who has no
Aria senza acoorrrp.agrrarrrerrto,
Video to pause. Too rrrucb, silence. other link than to the Mother"30 such that:
Lights fade out. in music, a field of signifying and not a system
of signs, the referent is unforgettable,for here
the referent is the body. The body passes into
music without any relay but the signifler.c!
6. Fast forward so quickly through
More recently Jacques Attali identifies music
the sixth video that it blurs. More
with violence and power, where music "is ... a
violence. More noise. A "Whirlof
sublimation, and exacerbation of the imaginary,
sound and a flurry of movernent into
at the same time as [it is] the creation of social
a university classroom "Where the pro-
order and political integration. "32
fessor is stating:

Volume IV; Number 4/ Volume V; Number 1 9

 Variation 3. Can we reconcile the beauty
of the learned music we teach with its
elitist, racist, sexist and heterosexist mes-
sages?
Many of my female students have The rare noises of the culture remain rarefied,
trouble listening passively to uncommon, thin in density, highly valued,
{Babbitt's} Philornel as yet another in- privileged, prized, and authorized in order to
stance of serial and electronic manipu- count as music. The distinction between popu-
lation: They have difficulty achieving lar music and art music is maintained, and the
the kind of objective intellectual atti- canon is preserved through aesthetic/music
tude that 'wou ld permit them to focus education. Popular music and "ethnic" music
on considerations of sterile cornposi- may often be a part of that education, but they
tional technique. For most vvomen,
are a clearly marked and regimented small part.
rape and mutilation are not mundane
The regiment of the canon puts Other musics
banalities that can conveniently be
bracketed for the sake of art: espe- into a particular order, forcing a uniformity that
cially an art that attaches prestige to emphasizes a duality between cultures to nor-
the celebration of such violence.33 malize musical art experience within
Aria senza accompagnamento. phallogocentric-+ discourse: There is no au-
Video to pause. Too much silence. thentic room for the Others. The keepers of the
Lights fade out. canon mark Other musics to determine their
grade, to keep score, to make a visible/audible
impression on behavior, to ensure that proper
registration and the names of Rare Noises are
perpetuated. Music engraved in this registry is
authorized, sanctioned by the law of those who
hold the right and power to command, and
properly authored by creators and composers.
The feminine ending - creatrix, compo.scrc.s.s-
is considered disparaging. This registry is then
inscribed on the bodies of music teachers.
Now musicologist Susan McClary suggests
music is so closely identified with the uncon-
scious in our cultural myths that perhaps critical
deconstruction of music is the last straw: Do
7. "(M)usic's beauty is often over- not disturb those archetypal myths. Criticize
vvhelming, its formal order magiste- anything else, but leave music alone.J>
rial. But the structures graphed by While the disorder is provoked and the
theorists and the beauty celebrated by problem solved within the musical content of
aestheticians are often stained 'with music education, it is through the educational
such things as violence, misogyny, process that the bureaucratic power emphati-
cally silences those who oppose it. All refer-
and racism. And perhaps more dis-
ences to any sign of the body are removed from
turbing still to those 'who 'would
school music; hence the sterility of much music
present music as autoriomous and in-
education. Even the presentation of the cultural
vulnerable, it also frequently betrays myths is watered down, not for the sake of
". fear - fear of weomen, fear of the pedagogy, but for hygienic reasons (witness
body."36 the whitewashing of jazz before it entered the
school music curriculum and the airbrushing of
Wagner.). The body, especially the female
body is denied, with dangerous consequences.
Many silenced music teachers continue to teach

10 The Quarterly Journal of Music Teaching and Learning

 Aria senza accorrrpagriarneriro. as they were taught, to uncomfortably ignore
Video to pause. Too much silence. those whose outbursts dare interrupt the myths,
Lights fade out. to appear to believe that all is well that sounds
harmonious.

Variation 4. Reconciling the messages?

According to aesthetic education theory, per-
formance is only one aspect of music educa-
tion,37 but in spite of 20 years of claiming
aesthetic education as the philosophy behind
music education, the practice of music educa-
tion remains performance-based. In an unend-
ing cycle, music students go to university music
schools and conservatories wanting to become
8. To see the eighth video, "Walk
performers, often unaware of the damage they
dcrwn the hallway and sit in the back may be doing to themselves. Music schools
ro'w of another music classrciorn, emphasize performance skills, producing pro-
"Where another professor speaks fessionally trained music teachers who then
about music education as aesthetic teach a performance-centered curriculum in
education: the same manner in which they were taught.
...teachers must use musical works The cycle of obsessive performance is repeated
which are capable of being aestheti- through these teachers we graduate from our
cally perceived and reacted to by the university music schools. The one broadening
particular students with whorn. they aspect of aesthetic education theory for the
are working ... music curriculum, that is, music is more than
...teaching and learning must be ar-
performance, has had limited influence on
ranged so that aesthetic experiencing
actual educational practice.
is central and other learnings playa
supporting role ... Where aesthetic education theory could open
...attention should be focused on that up music to include greater exposure to a wide
which, if perceived, can arouse aes- range of musical experiences, including music
thetic reaction. The conditions of criticism and composition, and provide a means
sound which are expressive can be of questioning the dominance of performance
revealed to students of all ages. The as the pre-eminent musical experience, it has
responsibility of music education, at failed.38 At the same time, aesthetic education
every level and in every part of the theory has placed the teacher at the centre of
program, is to reveal more fully the the learning process as the arbiter of artistic
musical conditions which should be
quality, the one to provide the exemplars that
perceived and felt. The qualities of
delineate fine art in opposition to popular art,
sound which make sound expres-
sive-m.elody, harmony, rhythm, tone that further delineate Great Art within fine art,
color, texture, form- are the objec- thus maintaining the elite structure of art. It is
tive "data" with which music teachers the teacher who sets the stage for the ritual. The
systematically deal. Illuminating these teacher is the one who cultivates aesthetic
"data" in rnusical settings is the task of attitudes through appropriate social behavior,
musical teaching.39 not the one who questions the potential vio-
lence behind the spectators' applause, that
applause which can encourage, even demands,
the musician's addiction to ever more perfect
performance.w \'(There the teacher's role fo-
cuses less on expertise and being the exem-
plary director of music and more on question-
ing criticism and cooperative research, it might
be that the addiction to performance would not

Volume IV, Number 4/ Volume V, Number 1 11

 pass unnoticed and other musical experiences,
Aria senza accorrrpagriarnerrto, such as composition and criticism, could be-
Video to pause. Too rrrucfr silence.
come equal participants in music education.
Lights fade out.
Variation 5. Gender is not a factor?
9. Gender is a major player in the
Reimer's definition of aesthetic/music educa-
politics of aesthetic education, espe-
tion focuses on "arouseling] aesthetic reaction"
cially when the characteristics found
through the expressive "qualities of sound"
in music as gendered discourse are
which are the "objective data" to be illuminated
identified:
systematically by the music teacher. But who
The charge that musicians ... are "ef- is being aroused? And what can it mean to be
feminate" goes back as far as re- aroused by objectivityi+l Not only does this
corded documentation about music, definition limit music education to the replica-
and music's association with the body tion of the musical canon, thereby maintaining
... and with subjectivity have led to its music as the channelization of noise and cel-
being relegated in many historical pe- ebration of violation, but it also points to the
riods to the 'feminine' realm. Male politics of the patriarchal aesthetic. It prevents
musicians have retaliated in a number composition - "a new way of making music,"
of ways: by defining music as the according to Jacques Attali - where "differences
most ideal (that is, the least physical)
are perpetually called into question. Composi-
of the arts; by insisting emphatically
tion is inscribed, not in a repetitive world, but
loril its 'rational' dimension; by laying
claim to such presumably masculine in the permanent fragility of meaning ..."42
virtues as objectivity, universality, and The historic denial of gendered discourse in
transcendence; by prohibiting actual music has another counterpart in the justifica-
female participation altogether.O tion of music as a science as well as an alt.
Adding to the positivistic definitions of music,
which are always already gendered, and the
musical canon, whose ideology constructs a
notion of masculinity, the scientific rationaliza-
tion of music permeates every music program
within educational institutions of all kinds and
for all ages with its need to identify music
systematically through objectivity and data.
The music education bureaucracy has a two-
fold task: to maintain that music teaching is a
science and to maintain the masculinist defini-
Aria senza accolDpagnalDento. tion of music as rational, objective, and tran-
Video to pause. Too rrrucfi silence. scendent.
Lights fade out.
The authority of music education reveals
what should be perceived and felt through
objective data of the musical canon. The
rational objectivity of the data is defined to
eliminate the body, the emotional, the subjec-
tive experience, the politically located life in
society and, therefore, silence those who are
not privy to the canon. The rational concepts
control what is to be learned musically. The
objective data of aesthetic experience allow no
space for other learnings, except on the occa-
sion they support the aesthetic. By denying the
sublimation into this rational imaginary of all in
10. It is 1990, a late-summer day in
music that is embodied and subjective, the

12 The Quarterly Journal of Music Teaching and Learning

the hallway of a school of music. A sacrifice continues in celebration of masculinist
young student, Sarah, leans against aesthetics. This sublimation, in addition to
the door outside her practice room, disavowing sensuality, denies the anti-woman
flute in hand. She wonders how it violence of the expressive qualities of sound
will be possible to realize her dream found in many great musical works.v' Such
of becoming a professional musician qualities cannot be treated as objective data in
a classroom. To do so repeats the violence
if she continues to follow the direc-
students (and teacher) may have experienced.
tion of her political awareness and
Historically, the concepts of aesthetic educa-
commitment: "How can I reconcile
tion developed during the 1960s, a time when
music with the army at Oka?" In the educational reform was, in part, effected by
background of this scene, if I look teacher-proof curricula. This means that "a
carefully, I see my shadow, 20 years largely male academic body of consultants and
earlier, with a similar thought ... developers [intervened] at the level of practice
"when the ational Guard is at Kent into the work of a largely female workforce.r+>
State?" Packaged kits, complete with musical record-
ings and films, teacher scripts, and pre- and
posttests were created to guarantee the appro-
priate focus and attention by the music teacher
to encourage aesthetic response in the students
Aria senza acconapagraarnerito,
Video to pause. Too rnucb, silence. to pre-selected music. Often this gendered
Lights fade out. division of labor led to situations in schools
"where male administrators and department
chairmen dominate female teaching staffs, who,
secretive and competitive, vie for their fathers'
approval while at the same time disregarding
the rational schemes and programs that ema-
nate from the central office in favor of a more
contextual, idiosyncratic curriculum of their
own.,,46 The risks of breaking away from the
11. I fashion the eleventh video Authorized Registry of Music, from the given
clip from my journal, from an entry text are great; however, it may be possible for
written late on that terrible winter the idiosyncratic curriculum in music to be
night: quite creative, perhaps more expressive and
artistic than the model provided. The concept
6 Dec 89 of composition, as a new way of making music,
I can't go to concerts any more. It's incipient, "inscribed, in the permanent fragility
too painful. of meaning," requires local knowledge and the
The seats are uncomfortable, integration of culture into production and the
My back aches. availability of resources.ff
It's not easy for rric to breathe.
Variation 6. The harm of patriarchal
The music starts ... It's all wrong! The
music.
music is not perfect. I hear how it
should sound. I hear the music but Musicians directly experience the violence of
not from the stage. My back hurts music; yet, we have forgotten; we do not fear
more. There is no comfort in any po- this violence; only recently have we begun to
sition. I listen harder. Then I am cry- name it. In 1986, the international Conference
ing. I can't hold back the tears. My of Symphony and Opera Musicians determined
eyes brim and overflow. that 82 percent of its membership experienced
I have avoided going to concerts medical problems related to musical perfor-
this year. I always have reasons for
mance, and 76 percent listed at least one
not going, but the truth is I cannot go
problem with performance.49 In three different
any more. Music hurts. And know-

Volume IV, Number 4/ Volume V, Number 1 13

 ing I'll never play, never perform studies of student musicians, up to 49 percent
again-Music hurt me47 Playing flute reported overuse syndromes.50
for 26 years has disabled me. I hurt
Studies of symphony orchestra musicians
when I open doors. I hurt when I sit.
I hurt when I stand, when I walk, and secondary school musicians indicate that
when I carry things. I'm weak. I women are more commonly affected by injury
have to ask for help. And I hurt than rnen.>! This is especially true of women
when I write. How can I work?? between 15 and 25, an age when women would
Music hurts me. How can I teach it? be either completing their professional training
How can I teach people about teach- or beginning their careers.V It is not known
ing music? Music is my whole life; it's whether those women who do experience
everything that has meaning, crum- injuries in the second decade recover and
bling, the life squeezed out of it in
continue their musical careers or change their
pain. Everything is gone.
career plans. If these women leave music this
may partially explain why there appear to be no
significant differences in injury rate by sex in
the third decade, with men experiencing a
slightly higher injury rate in the fourth.
Aria senza accofilpagnafilento. Music-medicine specialist John Chong ob-
Video to pause. Too rnucb. silence. serves that:
Lights fade out. Injuries are inevitable in the sense that the
industry of performing arts ... is predicated by
occupational Darwinism and survival of the
fittest. Whenever you have an industrial sector
12. Another sound-picture, a sar- that works on piece-work there will be inju-
donic video loop simultaneous with ries.53 Some orchestra pits are sweat shops.
the concert scene, replays through Players strip down and put [damp] towels around
their necks, it'S so hot. And some play with ear
my body. Now flashing onto the
plugs. If people were working like that in an
walls. Again it is December; again it
industry, it would be closed down.54
is painful.
Medical research documents the obsessive
commitment musicians have to their art, their
Another university classroom. Now
willingness to perform in pain, even the belief
we hear weapon fire. The men to
that the pain is caused by insufficient practice
this side; the women to that side.
so that they practice more when in pain. Many
SCl"earnS- but we're not feminists!!:
of the medical journal reports'i> conclude with
pedagogical concerns similar to Alan
The game of music thus resembles
Lockwood's statement:
the game of power: monopolize the
Medical injuries related to music making are an
right to violence; provoke anxiety and
important problem that is likely to have impli-
then provide a feeling of security;
cations even during the early phases of musical
provoke disorder; create a problem in
training. It is the unusual musician who does
order to solve it.
not begin his or her career as a child. This phase
The hypotheses of noise as murder
of music making has received little scrutiny. In
and rnusic as sacrifice are not easy to
my own survey, almost half of a group of high
accept. They imply that music func-
school-aged musicians reported symptoms of
tions like sacrifice; that listening to
overuse injury .... Among all respondents, nearly
noise is a little like getting killed; that
80 percent indicated that pain was acceptable in
listening to music is to attend a ritual
their attempts to overcome technical problems.
murder, with all the danger, guilt, but
This high incidence of problems and the preva-
also reassurance that goes along with
lence of the "no pain, no gain" philosophy
that; that applauding is a confirma-
strongly suggest that changes are needed in the
tion, after the channelization of the
teaching of music.z?
violence, that the spectators of the
sacrifice could potentially resume It is clear that all manner of musicians -
practicing the essential violence. 56 teachers and performers - have forgotten the

14 Tbe Quarterly Journal of Music Teaching and Learning

 fear of violence in music as we engage in
musical practice.

Variation 7. Gender, power, dominance,

violence, beauty, and music - What does it
matter?
This is the order and security of music educa-
tion. Women are better represented numeri-
cally than in many disciplines, forming the
majority of students 58 and the majority of
teachers of children. 59 In the university faculty,
women do not represent the population as they
Aria senza accolllpagnalllento.
should,60 but overall in music the numbers
Video to pause. Too rrrucfr silence.
appear more encouraging than in other fields,
Lights fade out.
with the exception that there are now fewer
women professors in music education than
there were ten years ag061 Feminism has had
little impact on music.v-'
Although as women in schools of music we
may appear to believe in the order and har-
mony of the musical world as it has been
constructed around us, this is because to do so
may be, at times, the only option. The point is
13. From ritual murder to the es- that women have been part of music, but not
sential violence in my life as a musi- authentically as women, only in those ways the
cian, this clip comes from another institutions controlling music (church, royalty/
journal entry: state and university), only in those ways the
fathers have authorized. In music it is as
21 Jan 90 Catharine MacKinnon says, "Maledominance is
Breathing, slowly, rhythmically slow- sexual. Meaning: Men in particular, if not men
ing, slowing, My eyes close. alone, sexualize hierarchy.w>
The spasms come out to me as a The hierarchy of music permits women's
scream- participation primarily as the archetypal male
I see it behind my eyes- fantasy: virgin/whore. For many of us, accept-
Like Munch's painting, but disembod- ing the fantasy preserves harmony and secu-
ied, no context, floating in the dark-
rity.64 Yet there is silent anxiety and isolation,
ness under my eyelids
as well as resistance. As an example: some of
Orange and yellow pain floating in
this anxiety can be traced through the image of
black, purple blackness.
The pain has a face but no hands are the opera diva, a woman of great privilege in
held up to it, no bridge in the back- music. Like bell hooks' grandmother ("who
ground talked endlessly [she] was an example of the
There is no background! woman we were not to become. Somehow her
The pain throws itself through the mere love of words, speech, her willingness to
darkness. fight back, talk back, had stolen male privilege
from my grandfather"), the diva is on the verge
The thick darkness resists, then gives of singing too much. Should she overstep her
tl.e pain room to scream to move
position, she is belittled, a whore. To quote
Tlie pain has a face yellow and or-
hooks again, "It is as though the very act of
ange but no eyes
The pain is all head and mouth no speech, wherein a woman talks to a man,
ears carries embedded in that gesture a challenge, a
The mouth is open so wide- it ex- threat to male dornination.w>
pands over the whole head so the A woman teaching aesthetic/music educa-

Volume IV; Number 4/ Volume V; Number 1 15

 scalp wrinkles back up over the tion is required by the discipline to be silent as
crown of the head a woman. As we women teaching music are
The tongue the tonsils-
inscribed with the Authorized Registry, we are
The scream races through my body
expected to not challenge the status quo, even
surrounded by the wind of my breath
The scream is out! enveloped by as we publicly appear to be successful divas in
purple blackness full voice. Being a woman precludes the poss-
Through the mouth of my pain I fi- ibility of speaking/singing/composing educa-
nally see it and feel it tional theory as a woman while within the
Infinite- bounds of the musical discipline.66 Our back-
A narrow chimney talk is tentative, fearful, placatingly soft-spo-
A needle-like crevasse ken. This is the seldom-heard aria senza
So deep into my shoulder accompagnamento.
So deep through my armpit
Another silent anxiety is the family secret,
known but never acknowledged. On one level
So deep it comes out the other side
The pain it is the inequities found in any discipline, the
I crv=the pain has no eyes for crying status issues identified in the statistics of who
only a mouth to scream but I don't works where. On another level is the harass-
hear it ment of women that becomes specific to music:
I feel it the talented young woman in the master's
I see it studio who endures sexual harassment and
My fingers surround the pain, soothe abuse in order to earn a privileged chance to
her
attain musical success. The harassment is felt in
Sobs shaking the length and breadth
the absolute denial that such abuse occurs and
of my physical being
But my fingers gently hold the pain felt again in the absent and/or negative repre-
Breathing slowly agam.v? sentations of women in music history, in the
denial of any meaning to the misogynist opera
stories and literary texts for which so much
great music has been composed, the repudia-
tion of theories of sociological, psychological,
or political meaning in music or feminist inter-
Aria senza accolllpagnalllento.
pretation thereof, and in the almost locker-
Video to pause. Too rrrucfr silence.
room ambience of music schools.68
Lights fade out.
In the midst of anxiety, women who are silent
and appear to believe in the order and harmony
of music can enjoy its privileges: You are a
Good Girl; you are superior and talented; you
are expressive; you will be heard by people
who will pay money to listen to you and then
sit quietly in awe of your abilities.Zv If you are
a Good Girl, the risk decreases that you will be
found out as an impostor, a charlatan: Not-
Man.Z! \Vomen in music are not feminists,
14. [He] inscribed himself on the "Why do we need feminism? There are so many
women he murdered. (H)e found it women in music. Look at all the music teachers!
necessary to erase the inscription that The concert artists! A woman even won the
he confronted... For the women he Pulitzer Prize for composition= awhile ago."
erased had already situated them- This perception is not so different from the
selves as subjects within the dis- women in Montreal who said, "But we're not
courses of a preserve of the feminists! We're engineers." Whether as engi-
phallocracy's ideology, engineering. neers or musicians, women have entered a
When the traditional and hitherto male realm in which our existence as subjects
fixed object desires and threatens to threatens the sexualized hierarchy. It does not

16 The Quarterly Journal of Music Teaching and Learning

become the subject, phallogocentric surprise me that women in music acquiesce to
discourse threatens to undo itself. the security, order and harmony of object/ive
at only is the very existence of dis- status. The risk of doing otherwise is great and
course itself thro'wn in doubt, so too not far removed from the murders in Montreal.
is the power that attends it.69
Aria senza aooorrrpugmarrrerrto, Video to pause. Too rmrcb silence.
Lights fade out.

For women to risk becoming subjects in the

creation of feminist theories of aesthetic/music
education is to risk anarchy and annihilation.
Becoming the subject/v is to sing the bad news
that no one wants to hear and to feel the glass
rattle as the window is slammed shut, once
15. I am in the world to change again. It is to share whispered long-distance
the world my lifetime is to love to en- conversations over the phone behind locked
dure to suffer the music ...73 doors. It is to constantly hear the violent noise
The process is after all like music, ringing in your ears. Becoming the subject is to
like the development of a piece of sing the possibility of a future. It is to (dejcorn-
music. pose music. It is to compose the imaginary, the
The fugues come back and again fiction-theory, wherein we change the chords,
and again interweave.Z'l ... the melodies, the structures, the genre. It is a
...and when we speak we are afraid spiraling tango, that Last Tango with Music
our words will not be heard Education."? It is to sing an aria senza
nor welcomed accompagnamento. Like Nicole Brossard, I
but when we are silent we are still find myself "remembering forward" from one
afraid poet to another, beginning with Muriel Rukey-
So it is better to speak remembering ser and continuing with Audre Lorde.
we were never meant to survive.Z>

Notes search, a very different but related paper, "The

1. See R. Lamb, "Including Women Composers possibilities of/for feminist criticism in music edu-
in School Music Curricula, Grades 5-8: A Feminist cation," was presented at Music-Gender-Education
Perspective," in The Musical Woman, Judith Lang Conference, Bristol University, England, March,
Zaimont (Ed.) (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993.
1991); "Including Women Composers in Music 5. "Tone deaf/symphonies singing," Gender 111/
Forms Curriculum, ]. Gaskell & J. Willinsky (Eds.),
Curricula: Development of Creative Strategies for
General Music Classes, Grades 5-8" (diss.), (New New York: Teachers College Press (In press).
York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 6. M. Rukeyser, "Kathe Kollwitz" in Rising
1987). Tides: Twentieth Century American Women Poets,
1. Chester & S. Barba (Eds.) (New York: Wash-
2. See R. Lamb, "Are There Gender Issues in
School Music?" in Canadian Music Educator, 31 ington Square Press, 1973), 70-75, esp. 73.
(6), 1990. 7. N. Brossard, The Aerial Letter, trans. M.
3. See R. Lamb, "Medusa's Aria: Feminist Wildeman (Toronto: Women's Press, 1988).
Theory and Music Education," in Women and 8. In addition to being a play on the film title
Education, rev. ed.,]. Gaskell & A. Mclaren (Eds.) Last Tango in Paris=- and perhaps in opposition
(Calgary: Detselig, 1991). to it- this phrase draws on Brossard's ideas, par-
4. "Aria d'entrata" was first presented at Cana- ticularly that "the tango is for Brossard a figure
dian Women Studies Association, The Learned of (lesbian) desire, and her favorite dance form."
Societies, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, A. Park, "Nicole Brossard: A Different Equation of
May, 1991. A later version, "The value of feminist Lesbian Love," in Lesbian Texts and Contexts, K.
music criticism to music education," was pre- Jay &J. Glasgow (jfids.) (New York: New York
sented at New Dimensions in Music Criticism Con- University Press, 1990), 304-329, esp. 328.
ference, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, 9. This decidedly Anglo-American definition
in November, 1991. After much additional re- contrasts with that of the French feminists men-
tioned earlier. For an introduction to French femi-

Volume IV; Number 4/ Volume V; Number 1 17

nism, see Sexual Subversions, E. Grosz (Sydney: of Minnesota Press, 1985), 26.
Allen & Unwin, 1989); Sexual/Textual politics, T. 19. B. Reimer, A Pbilosopby of Music Education,
Moi (London: Routledge, 1988); "Inscribing Femi- 2nd ed. (Englewood Cliffs, I J: Prentice Hall,
ninity: French Theories of the Feminine," A. R. 1989), 103.
Jones in lvlaking a Difference: Feminist Literary 20. McClary, S. "Terminal Prestige: The Case of
Criticism, eds. G. Greene & C. Kahn (London: Avant-Garde Music Composition," Cultural Cri-
Methuen, 1985),80-112. tique (1989, Spring); 57-S1.
10. As suggested by Schor, "Women are bilin- 21. Reimer, 103.
gual, bifocal, bitextual," N. Schor, "Dreaming Dis- 22. As Greene says, "A concern for the critical
symmetry. Barthes, Foucault, and Sexual Differ- and the imaginative, for the opening of new ways
ence," in Coming to Terms: Feminism, Theory, of 'looking at things,' is wholly at odds with the
Politics, E. Weed (Ed.) (New York: Routledge, technicist and behaviorist emphases we still find in
1989), 47-58, esp. 58. American schools." She continues, "In the class-
11. Contrapuntal radio is Glenn Gould's term. room opened to possibility and at once concerned
See "Radio as Music" and "CODA" in 1JJe Glenn with inquiry, critiques must be developed that un-
Gou.ld Reader, T. Page (Ed.) (I ew York: Alfred A. cover what masquerade as neutral frameworks ... "
Knopf, 1985), M. Greene, The Dialectic of Freedom (New York:
12. In this sense, music is the subject studied in Teachers College Press, 1988), esp. 126 & 134. I
schools, universities and conservatories. It is what am indebted to Greene for her teaching and many
is composed and performed by highly skilled mu- insights into the positive values of aesthetic educa-
sicians and studied by erudite musicologists. It is tion, especially in terms of the relations between
not "popular" or "jazz" or "rock" or "ethnic." I creative processes and technical-rational society.
acknowledge this definition of music as incom- 23. See R. Lamb, "Shout! Shout! Up with Our
plete, but it is highly relevant to the context of this Song!," trans. as "Chantons plus forte" in Critiques
story. feministes des disciplines, R. Mura (Ed.) (Universite
13. The Show of this paper was written during Laval: Groupe de recherche rnultidisciplinaire
August and September of 1990, simultaneous with ferniniste, 1991) for a review of current feminist
the Canadian Armed Forces' strike against the critiques of music. For specific examples of male
Mohawk people in Kanesatake. heterosexuality represented in music, see also C.
14. The reference to Kent State is to the killing Clement, Opera, or the Undoing of Women, trans.
of four university students at Kent State University, B. Wing (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Ohio, in 1970. The twentieth anniversary of that Press, 1988); S. McClary, Feminine Endings, (Min-
event occurred as I was writing this paper. neapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1991); S.
15. The Montreal murders refer to the 13 McClary, "Foreword. The undoing of opera: To-
women engineering students and one woman ward a feminist criticism of music," in C. Clement;
support staff worker killed by a misogynist on 6 S. McClalY, 1989.
December 1989 at the Ecole Polytechnique, 24. Calling these themes "masculine" and "femi-
Montreal, Quebec. nine" was still common in undergraduate and
16. Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics docu- graduate music history classes during the 1970s.
mented 97 women murdered in domestic violence 25 Attali, 19-20.
in 1988; this is the most recent statistic available in 26. R. Leppert & S. McClary, Music and Society
1990. While I am aware that the number of (Cambridge University Press, 1987), xii.
women murdered in their homes in the U.S. is 27. One can determine these proportions by
probably higher, I retain the Canadian figures to examining the current Directory of Music Faculties
emphasize specificity of location and time. in Colleges and Universities, U.S. and Canada,
17. I began to use the term "non-white" rather (Boulder, co: College Music Society), which in-
than "of color" after hearing Himani Bannerji cludes each professor's areas of interest; or the job
speak on the topic at the Canadian Sociology and descriptions in the positions-available section of
Anthropology Association, Victoria, BC, June 1990. the College Music Society Newsletter. I used the
Bannerji suggests that the problem with "of color" 1988-90 edition.
is that it implies that "white" is not a color and 28. S. Langer, Problems of Art (New York:
that when speaking "of color," what one usually Scribner's Sons, 1957); Feeling and Form ( ew
means is "all those people who are not white," York: Scribner's Sons, 1953); Philosophy in a New
hence her suggestion to use "non-white." For fur- Key (New York: Mentor Books, 1942).
ther discussion see H. Bannerji, "But Who Speaks 29. Clement, 21.
for Us' Experience and Agency in Conventional 30. R. Barthes, The Responsibility of Forms.
Feminist Paradigms," 67-108, and 1. Carty, "Black Criticai Essays on Music, Art, and Representation,
Women in Academia: A Statement from the Pe- trans. R. Howard (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1985),
riphery," 13-41, esp. 42, note 4, both in Unsettling 294
Relations: The University as a Site of Feminist 31. Barthes, 308.
Struggles (Toronto: Women's Press, 1991). 32. Attali, 26.
18. J. Attali, Noise, The Political Economy of 33. McClary, "Terminal Prestige," 75.
Music, trans. B. Massumi (Minneapolis: University 34. Phallogocentrism is a term used in much

18 The Quarterly Journal of Music Teaching and Learning

post-structuralist feminist criticism' however ac- us to scoff at the idea that the discipline and pain
cording to Shaktini, it Cphallogoc~ntrisme) ~as required to succeed in the arts is unnatural and
defined by Jacques Derrida in "Le Facteur de la wrong." 20.
verite," Poetique 21 (1975),96-175, 96-147. 48 Attali, 147
Shaktini defines phallogocentrism as: 49. M. Fishbein, & S. E. Middlestadt, with V.
Phallogocentrism may be described as the Ottati, S. Straus & A. Ellis, Senza Sordino v. 25. n.
current tradition that constitutes a signifying 6 (August 1986) 1-7. .
system organized around gender. By "gen- 50. R. J. Lederman, New Englandjournal of
der," I refer to a binary concept of relation Medicine, v. 320, n. 4 (989) 246-248; A. H.
that assumes such dichotomies as male pres- Lockwood, Netu Englandjournal of Medicine, v.
320, n. 4 (1989): 221-227; Fishbein. et al. In the
ence/female absence, male word principle
same year, the Organization of Can'adian Musi-
(verbe)/female verbal object, male center/
cians conducted a similar survey showing an in-
female margin. I regard gender as the "logi- jury rate of 60 percent in its membership. D.
cal" dichotomizing principles of Kelly, Globe & Mail, Section C (August 11, 1990),
phallogocentrism. This organizing principle 1, 3. In a separate study, 64 percent of musicians
regulates a set of systems that maintain the reponed severely painful overuse syndromes,
male-identified subject at the center of words. while 42 percent reported pain in the mildest cat-
These signifying systems occur in all the arts egory. A 1991 study in a Canadian university's
and sciences, not just in "belles lettres." Thus school of music revealed 80 percent of the student
the phallus may be regarded as the organiz- population responding (39 percent of the student
ing principle for all standard systems ... population completed the survey) indicated pain
N. Shaktini, "displacing the Phallic Subject: and/or injury related to musical performance.
Wittig's Lesbian Writing," in The Thinking Muse: 51. Lederman; Lockwood.
Feminism and Modem French Philosophy, J. 52. H. R. J. H. Fry, "Patterns of overuse syn-
Allen & I. M. Young (Eds.) (Bloomington: Indiana drome seen in 658 affected instrumental musi-
cians," International journal of Music Education
University Press, 1989), 195-210, esp. 195-196.
11 (988), 3-16.
35. McClary, "Foreword. The Undoing of Op-
53. Kelly.
era,"
54. G. Donaldson, "Pianimal Doc a Physician of
36. McClary, Feminine Endings, 3.
Note," Ontario Medicine (luly 23, 1990), 12,23.
37. Reimer.
55. Including but not limited to Lockwood;
38. In Canada, where there is less emphasis on
Lederman; Fry; J. Newmark & F. H. Hochberg,
performance in public school music classes, we
"Doctor, it hurts when I play: Painful Disorder
see unqualified personnel taking the role of music
among Instrumental Musicians," Medical Problems
teacher. A musician-teacher is deemed unneces-
Ci! Performing Artists (September, 1987), 93-97.
sary since performance, not school music, is real
56. Attali, 28.
music. Once again, aesthetic education fails.
57. Lockwood, 226.
39. Reimer, 116.
58. Two-thirds of the students enrolled in the
40. See E. Anderson, "Compulsory Perfor-
Toronto Royal Conservatory are girls. At the uni-
mance: Rescuing My Lesbian Self from the Shell
versity level, women comprise 57 percent of the
of the Prodigy," Lesbian Ethics v. 3, n. 3 (Summer
undergraduate music students, 51 percent of mas-
1989): 7-29, for a discussion of musicians as ad-
ters students, and 40 percent of the doctoral can-
dicts to perfection and performance.
didates. The College Music Society studies of
41. I would like to acknowledge Deborah
women's status in music demonstrate that during
Britzman for highlighting this idea for me.
the past 40 years the majority of undergraduate
42. Atta li, 134 & 147.
music degrees conferred in music in both Canada
43. McClary, Feminine Endings, 20.
and the U.S. have gone to women. This propor-
44. See Anderson, and McClary, Feminine End-
tion approaches 60 percent when examining mu-
ings, "Terminal Prestige," among others, for spe-
sic education degrees. The majority of masters
cific examples of misogyny in music.
degrees in music (all areas) are earned by women,
45. M. Apple, Teachers and Texts (New York:
and the number of women completing doctoral
Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1986), 37.
degrees has tripled (to 36 percent) since 1951. A.
46. M. Grumet, Bitter Milk: Women and Teach-
I. Dagg, The 50 Percent Solution: Wby Should
ing (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press,
Women Pay for Men's Culture? (Waterloo, Ontario:
1988), 25.
Otter Press, 1986). A. F. mock, "The Status of
47. Anderson says, "Playing and performing
Women in College Music, 1986-1987; A Statistical
hurt me very deeply" 7 "In a profession that is
Report," in Women's Studies/women's Status, CMS
traditionally associated with suffering, it would be
report 5 (Boulder, CO: College Music Societv
unthinkable to suggest that we have gone too far, 1988). ',
that there is nothing wrong with our bodies, that it
59. Women comprise 92 percent of all part-
is the instruments that must be changed. A cul-
time and 59 percent of all full-time music teachers
ture that hates bodies and their limitations teaches
in elementary schools throughout Canada. Dagg.

Volume TV, Number 4/ Volume V; Number 1 19

 60. Women make up only 12 percent of ten- note on 254, emphasis in original. In other
ured university music faculty, but 42 percent of words, the existence of women within music is in
the non-tenured and part-time faculty. Dagg. itself resistance to the dominant discourse. Conse-
61. The number of women music faculty spe- q uentl y speaking! singing! performing! com posing
cializing in early childhood education has re- are dangerous activities for women.
mained stable at 68 percent since 1977, while it 67. As Lorde says, "For women, then, poetry is
has dropped in both elementary and secondary not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our exist-
specializations, from 54 percent to 50 percent in ence. It forms the quality of the light within
elementary, and 14 percent to 9 percent in sec- which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward
ondary. It has been suggested that this drop "may survival and change, first made into language,
reflect changes in the field, possibly a greater em- then into idea, then into more tangible action.
phasis on instrumental music, where men tend to Poetry is the way we help give names to the
outnumber women," or that due to increased nameless so it can be thought." A. Lorde, "Poetry
competition for college and university positions, is not a Luxury," in 77JeFuture of Difference, H.
"men [in order to obtain a university positionl may Eisenstein & A. Jardine (Eds.) (New Brunswick:
be going into fields in which large numbers of Rutgers University Press, 1985), 125-127, esp. 126.
women have traditionally clustered" (Block, 91), 68. John Chong, Canadian Centre for Health in
but neither reason offers an adequate explanation. the Arts, Chedoke-McMaster Hospital, Hamilton,
Women now earn 35 percent of music education Ontario, made this last comment to me in regards
doctorates, and the total number of university po- to the willingness of serious performers to ap-
sitions in elementary and secondary music educa- proach injury in the same way that athletes do.
tion specializations has increased in an area tradi- He supports my theory that many women present-
tionally dominated by women. ing injuries may have experienced sexual harass-
62. J. Bowers, "Feminist Scholarship and the ment/abuse. Examples of resistance to such ha-
Field of Musicology: I," College Music Symposium rassment: women students change performance
29 (1989), 81-92; J. Bowers, "Feminist Scholarship area in order to avoid a specific teacher; a list of
and the Field of Musicology: II" College Music harassers is circulated among women music stu-
Symposium, v. 30, n. 1 0990, 1 - 13; M. Citron, dents at one prominent U.S. mid-western school
"Gender, Professionalism, and the Musical Canon," so that they can avoiel classes or lessons with
journal of Musicology v . 3, n. 1 (1990) 102-117; S. those men; women students have discovered they
Cook, "Women, \'{7omen's Studies Music, and Mu- get higher marks in their performance exams (ap-
sicology: Issues of Pedagogy and Scholarship," plied lessons, conducting) when they dress "femi-
College Music Symposium 29 (1989), 93-100; nine" or "sexy."
McClaJY, Feminine Endings, among others, have 69. M. Manson, "In-difference: The Massacre,
documented this phenomenon in separate studies. the Media, and Male Self-hatred" (Paper pre-
63. C. MacKinnon, Towards a Feminist The01Y sented at Canadian Women's Studies Association,
of the State (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, Victoria, B.C., June, 1990), 4.
1989), 127. 70. Anderson.
64. Benjamin's concept of "rational violence" 71. S. deBeauvoir, The Second Sex, trans. H. M.
may be helpful for further understanding the posi- Parshely ( ew York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1952).
tions of women in music. Benjamin defines ratio- 72. Ellen Taaffe Zwilich was the first woman to
nal violence as "the way in which the male expe- win the Pulitzer Prize in music for her "Symphony
rience of differentiation is linked to a form of ra- No.1," 1983. Shulamit Ran was the second, win-
tionality which pervades our culture and is essen- ning in 1991 for "Symphony."
tial to sadomasochism ... the controlled, ritualized 73. Rukeyser, 70.
form of violence." J. Benjamin, "The Bonds of 74. Rukeyser, 71.
Love: Rational Violence and Erotic Domination," 75. A. Lorde, "Litany for survival," in 77.7eBlack
in The Future of Difference, H. Eisenstein & A. Unicorn (New York: Norton, 1978), 31-32.
Jardine (Eds.) (New Brunswick: Rutgers Univer- 76. After completing "Aria senza
sity Press, 1985),41-70, esp. 42. accompagnamento," Ire-read N. Miller, "Changing
65. b. hooks, Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, the Subject: Authorship, Writing, and the Reader,"
Thinking Black Toronto: Between the Lines, in Feminist Studies/Cultural Studies, T. deLauretis
1988), 128. (JEd.) (Bloomington: Indiana University Press,
66. Findlay, in explaining Derrida's critique of 1986), 102-120, and realized her work is an influ-
phallogocentrism and self-presence, makes a state- ence here. Similarly, Ire-read R. B. DuPlessis and
ment relevant to this context: "For it is precisely Members of Workshop 9, "For the Etruscans:
the location of the feminine within phallogo- Sexual Difference and Artistic Production," in The
centrism that makes her disruptive." H. Findlay, Future of Difference, H. Eisenstein & A. Jardine
"Is There a Lesbian in This Text? Derrida, Wittig, (Eels.) (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press,
and the Politics of the Three Women," in Coming 1985), 128-156, and immediately noticed their in-
to Terms: Feminism, Theory, Politics, E. Weed fluence, particularly in terms of alternative f0l111s.
(Ed.) (New York: Routledge, 1989), 59-69, esp. 77. See note 8 above. ~

20 T7JeQuarterly Journal of Music Teaching and Learning