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Full-Text Articles in Musicology

The Feminine Harp As Feminist Tool: Early Professional Footing For Women In Mid-Twentieth-Century America, Chelsea Lane Jun 2022

The Feminine Harp As Feminist Tool: Early Professional Footing For Women In Mid-Twentieth-Century America, Chelsea Lane

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In 1930s North America, women—for the first time—were accorded permanent principal positions in significant American orchestras. Edna Phillips, Alice Chalifoux, and Sylvia Meyer, all students of the legendary harp pedagogue Carlos Salzedo, have been celebrated as pioneers for the prestigious employment they obtained in the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, and National Symphony Orchestra, respectively, between 1930 and 1933. Despite the impressiveness of these accomplishments, however, the narrative of their “firstness” is not wholly accurate. In actuality, female harpists have occupied orchestral posts as acting principals, substitutes, and second harpists since the very inception of orchestras. The cause for their early …


Making The Violin Fashionable: Gender And Virtuosity In The Life Of Camilla Urso, Maeve Nagel-Frazel, Petra Meyer Frazier, Antonia Banducci Jan 2021

Making The Violin Fashionable: Gender And Virtuosity In The Life Of Camilla Urso, Maeve Nagel-Frazel, Petra Meyer Frazier, Antonia Banducci

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

In the late nineteenth century, the violinist Camilla Urso (1840-1902) was widely recognized as the preeminent female violinist in the United States. As a nationally famous celebrity, Urso became a pedagogue and role model to subsequent generations of female violinists. Both the wide-ranging geographic spread of Urso’s career and her direct advocacy for women violinists played a pivotal role in changing cultural ideals of violin performance from a militant and masculine bravura tradition into a fashionable pursuit for young women. A classmate of HenrykWieniawski (1835-1880) and a concert rival of the Norwegian virtuoso Ole Bull (1810-1880), Urso’s career rested on …


In Her Own Hands: How Girls And Women Used The Piano To Chart Their Futures, Expand Women's Roles, And Shape Music In America, 1880–1920, Sarah F. Litvin Sep 2019

In Her Own Hands: How Girls And Women Used The Piano To Chart Their Futures, Expand Women's Roles, And Shape Music In America, 1880–1920, Sarah F. Litvin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

American girls and women used the parlor piano to reshape their lives between 1880 and 1920, the years when the instrument reached the height of its commercial and cultural popularity. Newspapers, memoirs, biographies, women’s magazines, personal papers, and trade publications show that female pianists engaged in public-facing piano play and work in pursuit of artistic expression, economic gain, self-actualization, social mobility, and social change. These motivations drove many to use their piano skills to play beyond the parlor, by studying in conservatory, working as classical and popular music performers and composers, founding and teaching at schools, working as department store …


“Get Your Geek On”: Online And Offline Representations Of Audiotopia Within The Geekycon Community, Sarah Frances Holder Aug 2017

“Get Your Geek On”: Online And Offline Representations Of Audiotopia Within The Geekycon Community, Sarah Frances Holder

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the musical community of GeekyCon, a convention centered around popular media, such as Harry Potter, Broadway, and Disney. The GeekyCon community results from the connection between the unofficial convention Facebook group and the yearly physical event. This interconnectivity allows both the live and mediated space of GeekyCon to function as a heterotopia, a concept first conceived by Foucault (1967) as a separate space outside of the dominant society in which ideas and identities can be freely explored. Through ethnographic research, including participant observation as well as interviews, I present the music of GeekyCon as an audiotopia, a …


Hildegard Of Bingen: Visionary Woman Who Encouraged The Role Of Feminism, Melissa K. Treharn Apr 2015

Hildegard Of Bingen: Visionary Woman Who Encouraged The Role Of Feminism, Melissa K. Treharn

Undergraduate Distinction Papers

This paper will discuss the life of Hildegard of Bingen and how her musical and lifestyle choices can be defined as that of a feminist. Hildegard was a nun during the mid 1100's who was given the gift of visions. These visions, sent from God, told her about how she should be living her life and the lessons she should be teaching her followers. However, as a woman during this time, Hildegard had no power or any opportunities to share these ideas with others without being shunned as stepping outside of her "gender role." It was not until she gained …