MUSIC AND WOMEN

by Sophie Drinker ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 19, 1947

This traces the anthropological, cultural and religious pattern of women in relation to music, contributing a history of rather specialized significance based on twenty years' research. Primitive woman expressed in song the forces of life and death, as illustrated by the rituals of the pagan tribes, African, Indian, etc. In ancient times, there is the role of women as goddesses, priestess-queens, lyric poetesses; their role in the culture of the Jew, the Egyptian, the Greek; the symbolic significance of Artomis, and- with Christianity- the replacement of the old goddesses with the figure of Mary; the relation of women in the convents to church music; the secular music which developed in the 13th and 14th centuries; the concept of the prima donna, which entered with the 17th century, as women emerged publicly, though even up to today, they have held a subordinate position in the ""nonpermissive environment"" which denies them their full creative status. A composite of socio-artistic history which is not altogether pleasing in the woman-consciousness of idea and expression. For a defined and limited market, at best.

Pub Date: Jan. 19, 1947

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Coward, McCann

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1947

Categories: NONFICTION