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Performing A Comeback: Assessing The Biography Of Alma Mahler Via Youtube Performances, Rachel E. Scott

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

The life and work of many nineteenth-century women composers cannot be satisfactorily studied or understood due to a lack of documentary evidence. In the case of Alma Mahler, however, it is not a lack of manuscript materials or biographical accounts that preclude the appraisal of her legacy, but rather the sheer volume and often contradictory nature of accounts. Although her early life writing emphasized the importance of music, she later downplayed her identity as a composer and emphasized her role of patron of the arts and muse to “great men.” I would argue, however, that if biography is a tool …