Womxn In Music
Before I trained as a classical soloist & opera singer, I was a chorister at both school & national level. I have therefore had ample experience & time to study & reflect upon the concept of "standard repertoire", & how these lists are established by both audiences & members of music academia alike; within almost all areas of the classical music industry.
In 2017, my impressario Douglas Bullis & his wife Elysoun Ross approached me with a concert proposal that would prove to be a fundamental turning point in my career as a then-student performer. On the 11th November 2017, in collaboration with violist Lizzie Rennie & pianist Garreth Robertson, A Feather on the Breath of God was staged. Popular tunes & arias aside, it also featured the works of Hildegard von Bingen & Rebecca Clarke, which Lizzie & I arranged for voice & viola. This concert was fully booked & met with wide acclaim. One of the recurring comments made to me by audience members, however, was that they wished the concert had featured more works by these (or other) female Western Art Music composers.
I took note of this & in June/July 2018 I staged my second production on the Makhanda / Grahamstown National Arts Arena Festival, A Feather on the Breath of God. This was a new & revised programme, showcasing the works of 10 female WAM composers from around the world, spanning 700 years of music history. All four shows were sold out & met with rave reviews.
I turned this concert into a case study for my Honours research paper, asking audiences to fill out questionnaires probing them about their understanding of repertoire lists & their personal music tastes. I also interviewed 3 South African vocal academics from 3 tertiary vocal institutions in South Africa. In November 2018, I submitted A Feather on the Breath of God: A quantitative & qualitative enquiry into the performative state of female WAM composers in select South African tertiary vocal institutions.
The bug bit; I have a tattoo & portfolio career to show for it! 2020 to 2022 saw me build upon my belief in championing female composers past & present, international & local. I produced 2 eConcert-Documentaries entitled Hear Her Now & "Herstory". The latter received 2 Digital Mobility Grants from ConcertsSA, SAMRO, IKSS Consulting & The Norwegian Arts Embassy. Sourcing musicians, actor-dancers, a conductor & an opera director from South Africa & abroad, this digital edu-resource aids audiences & educators in learning about select womxn in music, & where to source publications of their work, as well as featuring a diversity of instruments & performers. For my work in the field of feminist musicology, I was invited twice to present on the Bowed Electrons Music Technology Festival & Symposium.
I was offered a place with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2020 and 2021, to do a Masters of Education in Performing & Learning in the Arts. Alas, a lack of scholarship and funding meant that I could not pursue this degree. Jump to 2023, and I am studying towards an MA in Music, with The Open University UK! If you would like to help me to finance my studies, visit my GoFundMe page.
WOMXN THAT INSPIRE ME
KASSIANI
Kassiani is regarded as the first woman of colour composer to have had her work recorded on score, and survive music history. I made her Troparion Hymn / Hymn of The Fallen Woman my debut piece for A Feather on the Breath of God 2018. In the Greek Orthodox church, the only time prostitutes are known to attend mass is when this composition features in the service.
"I will not be silent when it is right to speak."
"Smitten by Kassia's beauty, the young emperor approached her and said: "Through a woman [came forth] the baser [things]", referring to the sin and suffering coming as a result of Eve's transgression. Kassia promptly responded by saying: "And through a woman [came forth] the better [things]", referring to the hope of salvation resulting from the Incarnation of Christ through the Virgin Mary." - Wikipedia
FRIDA KAHLO
I've been hooked on Frida Kahlo since we studied her in Grade 7 art class. Her paintings are so emotionally frank. She held nothing back, painted every reality of her life, always with such vivid use of colour. As I write this, as a month-old 25 year old, I have a Frida Kahlo artwork made by my long-time school friend on my wall, and Frida fingers painted by my other gal who is a nail beautician and business owner!
"They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn't. I never painted dreams or nightmares. I painted my own reality."
"Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly!?"
"We can endure much more than we think we can."
ARUNDHATI ROY
One of my favourite books of all time remains "The God of Small Things". Roy tackles the violence that is the caste-system and child molestation with a gentle, sensory profundity that hits me in the solar plexus every time.
“But what was there to say?
Only that there were tears. Only that Quietness and Emptiness fitted together like stacked spoons. Only that there was a snuffling in the hollows at the base of a lovely throat. Only that a hard honey-colored shoulder had a semicircle of teethmarks on it. Only that they held each other close, long after it was over. Only that what they shared that night was not happiness, but hideous grief."
DOMINIQUE CHRISTINA
This is Woman's Work, a poetry and essay collection by African-American poet and author Dominique, equipped me with the vocabulary I'd been searching for throughout my teens. Her words were a sacred text I clung to as I navigated my becoming, leaving school girlhood behind and stepping into a fully whole and developed woman. Dominique taught me how to step out of the unbalanced versions of the Shadow and Wounded Woman archetypes and instead, channel my experiences to become Warrior Woman for myself and for others. Every time I read this book, I'm predominantly manifesting a different archetype of woman-ness from within, who I need to greet and / or balance out.
"In order to re-create yourself, you first have to know yourself. Not the 'you' that was handed to you by your parents, community, schools, lovers, and spouses. I am talking about the complete you that can only be accessed by an inward journey." - Christina, book leaf
"Through poetry, compelling inquiry, and heart-opening writing exercises, she invites you to forge an intimate connection with each inner woman - known and unknown, loved and feared - so you may integrate their voices, and open to your full expression and power." - Sounds True publishers
CAITLIN MORAN
Moran makes the argument about what makes a feminist a funny and delightfully "unladylike" discussion. If you haven't read her book How To Be A Woman, read it now. You'll be dying of laughter and pronounce by the final page that you are definitely a feminist!
Topics which she covers are consent, waxing, the reading as the great equalizer ... necessary topics for a contemporary human to contemplate as they interact with womxn.
"I'm wearing Wellington boots, NHS glasses that make me look like lan Bennett, and my dad's Withnail-style army coat [...] I am ... femi-none. So I understand The Yobs' confusion. They do not look as if they have dabbled much in either a) the iconography of the counter-culture or b) the inspirational imagery of radical gender-benders."