If you have older kids studying World History, throw in the name of Anne Boleyn. Wait a minute. Wasn't she the one that made her hubby (King Henry VIII) a little, er, chop-happy? Yup, she kinda lost her head over some things, but Anne also had a reputation as an excellent musician and composer. This link's featured work is thought to be a song written while she waited in the Tower of London to be executed for treason. (As the link page mentions, she was probably executed only for not producing a male heir.) Her daughter, Elizabeth I was also renown as a musician.
So many prominent musicians can lay claim to having had been educated by one of the best music teachers, Nadia Boulanger. And, even for the early twentieth century, a prominent female music instructor was something that just wasn't common. As a former student, Albert Alan Owen recalls, Mme. Boulanger had told him that she had memorized Bach's 48 Preludes and Fugues by the age of 7. She seemed to be a strong, opinionated, but delightful woman whose teaching methods seemed a little unorthodox to traditional methods. The Boulanger sisters is a fascinating look at Nadia and her extremely talented (but doomed) sister Lili, who won the Prix de Rome composition competition at 19, but fell victim to Crohn's Disease at age 24.
It's good to know that the list of prominent and interesting female figures in music is exhaustive! For more great links, check out the following:
Clara Schumann
Internet Resources on Women Composers
The International Alliance for Women in Music
Uh, oh. In a couple of weeks, Daylight Savings Time will hit. The air's getting warmer. The daffodils are popping up. Must be about Easter time! Next week's article will include some nifty ideas on playing Easter Bunny and maybe actually teaching something in the process!
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