JAVS Spring 2022

Feature Article

Portraits of Three American Composers: The Modernist Woman’s Evolution by Sigrid Karlstrom

became more normalized. The experiences of Marion Bauer, Miriam Gideon, and Vivian Fine demonstrate both evolving acceptance of women composers’ careers and continuing prejudice. Stylistic Trends in American Music The question of American musical aesthetics—what kind of serious classical music might best represent the nation—was hotly debated at the end of the nineteenth century. America’s first composers tended to emulate Europeans, especially the German Romantics, but still wished to distinguish themselves and represent their homeland in some special way. At first, they followed the European model of musical nationalism, creating “American” music by utilizing homegrown programmatic themes and folk melodies within a German Romantic style. As the twentieth century began, American composers faced a transitional period. New styles emerged abroad, unsettling hundreds of years of classical tradition and providing American composers with more freedom in their creative choices. A pathway therefore opened to create a truly original “American” sound. In music, the modernist movement encompassed the advent of compositional trends such as atonality and serialism. Modernism coincided with a campaign for women’s suffrage and a new concept of a professional, educated, independent woman. Perhaps because of this, much of the modernist movement tended to be preoccupied with gender. A great deal of modernist work was either overtly misogynist or fascinated with female empowerment, and women who wrote modernist music received additional criticism for their work. 1 Marion Bauer, Miriam Gideon, and Vivian Fine represent an evolution in the willingness of American women composers to utilize modernist techniques.

Introduction The lives and careers of three composers—Marion Bauer (1882-1955), Miriam Gideon (1906-1996), and Vivian Fine (1913-2000)—spanned over a century and encompassed important directions in the professional development of the woman composer in the United States. This article will discuss each of these three composers’ careers and identify important long-term trends relating to women composers’ gradual acceptance. Attention will then turn to focus on how these composers’ works for viola and piano demonstrate an evolving progression in women’s willingness to embrace modernist techniques. Gender and Professionalism For most of Western history, the home was considered the proper place for a woman. A woman’s job was to serve the household. When it was necessary for her to work outside the domestic sphere, only certain occupations were deemed appropriate. These jobs usually involved themes of domesticity and nurturing. By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, women began to enter male-dominated professions. However, they faced difficult choices in deciding how to present themselves professionally. Women could step outside traditional female roles, gain professional respect, and accept criticism for lack of femininity, or they could continue within the expected comportment of a woman professional, resulting in limited career potential. Music composition was traditionally a publicly masculine field, and women composers struggled with marginalization. This included exclusion from the best educational opportunities, stereotypes in public reception, and difficulty getting publishing contracts. As the twentieth century progressed, women composers

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Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 38, No. 1, Spring 2022