Research Guides: Music: Womxn Musicians

Discover Music by Women

Freely Available Resources

Boulanger Initiative Database
- This database provides access to thousands of works by women and gender-marginalized composers. Note: this serves as an index and search tool while attempting to link you to where scores/recordings exist. You will need to get scores through ILL if they aren't held in UCI Libraries.
***Institute for Composer Diversity*** (highly recommended)
- Composer Diversity Database - search profiles of composers from underrepresented groups by facets like ethnicity, gender identity, dates, genres, etc.
- Works Diversity Database - search wind band, orchestral, and art song repertoire

A Seat at the Piano: Promoting Inclusion in Piano Repertoire - a spreadsheet of piano music by underrepresented composers. Can sort by sex, gender identity, ethnicity, disability, level of music, etc.
Chamber Music America. The Composers Equity Project - an inclusive listing of composers who are women or gender non-conforming, and also Black, Latinx, Asian, Arab/Middle Eastern, or Native American
Diverse Brass Music List - a regularly updated list of music for brass instruments (trumpet, horn, trombone, euphonium, tuba) and occassionally other non-brass instruments (in chamber music combinations)
Donne. Women in Music - a massive list of female musicians, organized chronologically
Many Many Women - an index of over 1000+ composers, improvisers, and global sound makers. Can search by keyword or genre.

UCI Libraries Resources

From Convent to Concert Hall: a guide to women composers by Sylvia Glickman (Editor); Martha Furman Schleifer (Editor)
ISBN: 1573564117
Publication Date: 2003-10-30
Introduction / Sylvia Glickman -- The Middle Ages and the Renaissance / Martha Furman Schleifer -- The seventeenth century / Barbara Garvey Jackson -- The eighteenth century / Valerie Woodring Goertzen -- The nineteenth century / E. Douglas Bomberger -- The twentieth century / Adeline Mueller
From Spirituals to Symphonies: African-American women composers and their music by Helen Walker-Hill
ISBN: 0313299471
Publication Date: 2002-03-30
Helen Walker-Hill's unique study provides a carefully researched examination of the history and scope of musical composition by African American women composers from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Focusing on the effect of race, gender, and class, From Spirituals to Symphonies notes the important role played by individual personalities and circumstances in shaping this underappreciated category of American art. The study also provides in-depth exploration of the backgrounds, experiences, and musical compositions of eight African American women including Margaret Bonds, Undine Smith Moore, and Julia Perry, who combined the techniques of Western art music with their own cultural traditions and individual gifts. Despite having gained national and international recognition during their lifetimes, the contributions of many of these women are today forgotten.
International Encyclopedia of Women Composers by Aaron I. Cohen
ISBN: 0961748508
Publication Date: 1987-01-01
The International Encyclopedia of Women Composers is a reference book by Aaron I. Cohen which contains biographies of over 5,000 women composers from nearly 70 countries.
New Grove Dictionary of Women Composers by Julie Anne Sadie (Editor); Rhian Samuel (Editor)
ISBN: 0333515986
Publication Date: 1994-11-01
Women have been composing music, but until recently their achievements went largely unrecognized. Those few in earlier times who gained some renown were often as not the sisters, daughters, wives, or muses of well-known men - the surnames of Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann speak for themselves. Now, with a significant increase in the number of women composers and a burgeoning interest in their work, the need for authoritative information about these musicians is greater than ever. The Norton/ Grove Dictionary of Women Composers, produced by an international corps of experts, is the indispensable first choice of scholars, teachers, musicians, librarians, and all music lovers interested in women's creative contributions to Western art music.
Women of notes : 1,000 women composers born before 1900 by Anya Laurence
ISBN: 0823902636
A biographical bibliography of women composers from twenty countries and born before 1900 is presented together with a brief survey of the women's contributions to and changing roles in the field of musical composition
The Work of Women Composers from 1150 to 1995 by Mary Booker
ISBN: 072232975X
Publication Date: 1995-01-01

Contemporary Concert Music by Women by Judith L. Zaimont (Compiled by); Karen Famera (Editor)
ISBN: 031322921X
Publication Date: 1981-07-24
Flute Music by Women Composers by Heidi M. Boenke (Compiled by); H. Alais Boenke
ISBN: 9780313260193
Publication Date: 1988-10-19
Guitar Music by Women Composers by Janna MacAuslan; Kristan Aspen
ISBN: 0313293856
Publication Date: 1997-08-07
Keyboard Music by Women Composers by Joan M. Meggett
ISBN: 9780313228339
Publication Date: 1981-09-17
Music by Black Women Composers: a bibliography of available scores by Helen Walker-Hill
ISBN: 0929911040
Publication Date: 1995-03-01
Piano Music by Women Composers by Pamela Youngdahl Dees
ISBN: 0313319901
Publication Date: 2004-12-30
Say Can You Deny Me: a guide to surviving music by women from the 16th through the 18th centuries
ISBN: 1557283036
Publication Date: 1994-09-30
Violin Music by Women Composers by Rose-Marie Johnson (Compiled by)
ISBN: 9780313266522
Publication Date: 1989-11-06
Women in American Music: a bibliography of music and literature by Adrienne Fried Block (Editor); Carol Neuls-Bates (Editor)
ISBN: 0313214107
Publication Date: 1979-11-30
Women in Music: an encyclopedic biobibliography by Don L. Hixon; Don A. Hennessee
ISBN: 9780810827691
Publication Date: 1993-11-01
Women in Music: a research and information guide by Karin Pendle; Melinda Boyd
ISBN: 9780203891209
Publication Date: 2012-07-26
Women Composers: a checklist of works for the solo voice by Miriam Stewart-Green
ISBN: 9780816184989
Publication Date: 1980-06-01

Analytical Essays on Music by Women Composers: Concert Music, 1960-2000 by Laurel Parsons (Editor); Brenda Ravenscroft (Editor)
ISBN: 9780190236861
Publication Date: 2016-04-15
This volume is the first to appear in a four-volume series devoted to the work of women composers across Western art music. Each chapter opens with a brief biographical sketch of the composer before presenting an in-depth exploration of a single representative composition, linking analytical observations with questions of meaning and content. Chapters are grouped thematically into three sections, each of which places the analytical methods used in the essays into the context of late twentieth-century ideas and trends.
And So I Sing: African-American divas of opera and concert by Rosalyn M. Story
ISBN: 9780446710169
Publication Date: 1990-02-01
Black women bring a host of influences & ideologies with them to opera as well as their spirituality, their strengths & passions. The exclusion of blacks from opera for so many generations impoverished both the artists & the artistic world from which they were barred. Imagine if Leontyne Price had been born 50 years earlier, during a time when she would not have been allowed on an American opera stage. This book not only supplies portraits of the greatest artists for future generations of students of black art & culture, but also rescues from historys shadows the lost legacies of geniuses born too soon.
Finding Her Voice: women in country music, 1800-2000 by Mary A. Bufwack; Robert K. Oermann
ISBN: 0826514324
Publication Date: 2003-09-01
The Spirit of the mountains: women in American folk music -- Southern sentiments: country females in nineteenth-century show business -- Single girl, married girl: The Carter Family and the birth of country music recording -- The National Barn Dance: country women, radio, and the Great Depression -- Hungry disgusted blues: women in protest -- Hollywood hayride: country music women in World War II -- Honky-tonk girl: Kitty Wells and her postwar sisters -- All-day sing: women and Southern gospel music -- Rockabilly women: let's have a party -- The Nashville sound: Patsy Cline and the Grand Ole Opry -- The Folk revival: Come all ye fair and tender maidens -- You're lookin' at country: Loretta Lynn and working-class pride -- The Heroines of heartbreak: Tammy Wynette and traditional values -- Just because I'm a woman: Dolly Parton and her savvy sisters -- Hollywood Tennessee: Barbara Mandrell and the show queens of country music -- Back to country: Emmylou Harris and the country-rock fusion -- Little darlin's not my name: women in bluegrass -- Eighties ladies and beyond: images for modern times -- Meeting the millennium: female country triumphs
Five Lives in Music: women performers, composers, and impresarios from the baroque to the present by Cecelia Hopkins Porter
ISBN: 9780252037016
Publication Date: 2012-08-20
Duchess Sophie-Elisabeth : composer, harpsichordist, and impresario in the North German baroque -- Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre : Versailles and Paris in the twilight of the ancien régime -- Josephine Lang : the music of romanticism in South German cultural life -- Maria Bach : Vienna from imperial splendor to the Second Republic -- Ann Schein : an American concert pianist in today's world
God Save the Queens: the essential history of women in hip-hop by Kathy Iandoli
ISBN: 9780062878502
Publication Date: 2019-10-22
For far too long, women in hip-hop have been relegated to the shadows, viewed as the designated "First Lady" thrown a contract, a pawn in some beef, or even worse. But as Kathy Iandoli makes clear, the reality is very different. Today, hip-hop is dominated by successful women such as Cardi B and Nicki Minaj, yet there are scores of female artists whose influence continues to resonate. God Save the Queens pays tribute to the women of hip-hop--from the early work of Roxanne Shante, to hitmakers like Queen Latifah and Missy Elliot, to the superstars of today. Exploring issues of gender, money, sexuality, violence, body image, feuds, objectification and more, God Save the Queens is an important and monumental work of music journalism that at last gives these influential female artists the respect they have long deserved.
In Her Own Words: conversations with composers in the United States by Jennifer Kelly
ISBN: 9780252037597
Publication Date: 2013-06-19
Chronological list of birthdates -- Introduction -- Joan Tower -- Shulamit Ran -- Jennifer Higdon -- Gabriela Lena Frank -- Alice Parker -- Chen Yi -- Tania León -- Hasu Patel -- Pauline Oliveros -- Meredith Monk -- Svjetlana Bukvich -- Pamela Z -- Toshiko Akiyoshi -- Maria Schneider -- Augusta Read Thomas -- Hilary Tann -- Libby Larsen -- Laura Karpman -- Winifred Phillips -- Deborah Lurie -- Jeanine Tesori -- Beth Anderson -- Janika Vandervelde -- Mary Jane Leach -- Emma Lou Diemer.
The Kaleidoscope of Women's Sounds in Music of the Late 20th and Early 21st Centuries by Kheng K. Koay
ISBN: 9781443876520
Publication Date: 2015-06-15
Women composers and modern society -- Creativity, reception to and background of the composers -- Bold sound colors and space: Sofia Gubaidulina, Quaternion ; Joan Tower, String quartet no. 2, In memory -- Straddling classical and American vernacular idioms: Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Millennium fantasy ; Libby Larsen, Four on the floor -- The cross-over and national influences: Chen Yi, Ba Yin ; Judith Weir, Distance and enchantment
She's a Rebel: the history of women in rock & roll by Gillian G. Gaar; Yoko Ono (Preface by)
ISBN: 9781580050784
Publication Date: 2002-11-29
Arranged chronologically and told with impassioned detail, She's a rebel charts a half century of women performers from the early R and B singers of the 1950s, to the girl groups, Motown acts, folksingers, and rock chicks of the 1960s, to the punk rebels and pop divas of the 1970s, to the brash all-girl bands, rappers, and riot grrls of the 1980s and 1990s. This expanded ten-year anniversary edition features over 75 photos and includes three all-new chapters on all the major artists of the last decade as well as an insider's look at the music industry and the emerging power of women rock stars.
Women in Music: an anthology of source readings from the Middle Ages to the present by Carol Neuls-Bates (Editor)
ISBN: 9781555532390
Publication Date: 1995-11-16
The voices of women such as Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Clara Schumann, and Marian Anderson resonate as they emerge from the wide range of materials in this volume, which includes letters, diaries, poems, novels, and reviews that reveal women's achievements not only as patrons and educators but also as composers and performers.
Women of Influence in Contemporary Music by Michael K. Slayton (Editor)
ISBN: 9780810877429
Publication Date: 2010-12-23
Michael K. Slayton has collected essays, which focus on women who have made significant contributions to American music: Elizabeth Austin, Susan Botti, Gabriela Lena Frank, Jennifer Higdon, Libby Larsen, Tania Le-n, Cindy McTee, Marga Richter, and Judith Shatin. While these composers have much in common, not least of all dedication to their art, their individual stories reveal different impulses in American music. Their works reflect the shifting societal landscapes in the United States over the last seven decades, as well as different stylistic approaches to writing music. Each chapter includes a biography of the composer, an interview, and a detailed analysis of one major composition.

This is a selection of composers whose scores can be found in the UCI Libraries. Click on the following female composers to initiate a catalog search for that composer's scores.

A selection of various score anthologies of music by female composers.

Art songs and spirituals by African-American women composers / Vivian Taylor, editor
Contemporary anthology of music by women / edited by James R. Briscoe
Contains vocal and instrumental music, with introductory essays on each composer
The first solos : songs by women composers / Randi Marrazzo, editor.
3 volumes
Four centuries of women composers / [compiled] by Gail Smith.
Piano music
Historical Anthology of Music by Women / edited by James R. Briscoe
*ebook*
This collection of 51 works by 37 composers is the first compendium of its kind. The compositions, spanning eleven centuries of Western art music, are vital and important and illustrate advanced compositional trends of their age. The earliest works reproduced are two Byzantine chants by Kassia (fl. 840); the most recent is the first movement of Ellen Zwilich's Symphony No. 1, which received the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1983. Some of the outstanding early composers included are Hildegard von Bingen (fl. 1150), Maddalena Casulana (fl. 1560), Francesca Caccini (fl. 1620), and Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre (fl. 1700). From the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries come compositions by Marianne von Martinez, Maria Szymanowska, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Pauline Viardot, Clara Schumann, and Amy Beach. Among the twentieth-century composers are Ruth Crawford Seeger, Grazyna Bacewicz, Louise Talma, Pauline Oliveros, and Thea Musgrave. Each composer is introduced in a short essay written by an authority on the period or, in the case of some of the living composers, the artist herself. The essays discuss the main aspects of the individual composer's life, her style, and her output, and they suggest additional readings. Since this anthology is designed for use in courses in women's studies, music appreciation, and music history, all style periods and important genres are represented, and all the works in the collection are available on recordings or are easily performed. Historical Anthology of Music by Women reflects the growing interest in and recognition of women's contributions to the arts in general and to music in particular.
New historical anthology of music by women / edited by James R. Briscoe.
Contains vocal and instrumental music from the Middle Ages to the present, with introductory essays on each composer.
Women composers : a heritage of song : high voice / edited by Carol Kimball.
Vocal music
Women composers music through the ages / edited by Martha Furman Schleifer and Sylvia Glickman.
7 volumes. Available electronically and physical copies.
v. 1. Composers born before 1599 -- v. 2. Composers born 1600-1699 -- v. 3. Composers born 1700 to 1799 : keyboard music -- v. 4. Composers born 1700-1799 : vocal music -- v. 5. Composers born 1700-1799 : large and small instrumental ensembles -- v. 6. Composers born 1800-1899 -- v. 7. Composers born 1800-1899 : vocal music.

Music: Womxn Musicians

Introduction

Discover Music by Women

Music by Women in UCI Libraries