17th Annual Student Research Conference
Fine Arts
The Forgotten Marianna Martines
Elizabeth K. Geisewite♦
Dr. Jay Bulen, Faculty Mentor
Marianna Martines (1744-1812) is barely remembered in music history, though early in life she showed great promise as a performing musician and composer. She was granted unusual opportunities as a member of Enlightenment Vienna nobility, but also experienced the typical limitations of a woman in that era. Both her privileges and restrictions shaped her musical career and musical style. Though most of her compositional output is lost, or yet undiscovered, period sources indicate that her work was favorably received, and that she earned a reputation among her contemporaries as an able composer. A broad-based analysis of some of Martines’ surviving works and related historical accounts seeks to take into consideration the implications of gender and social context. Her musical career and exclusion from the Western art music canon are analyzed in terms of hierarchy of style, form, transmission, educational experience and, certainly, gender.
Keywords: music, gender, classical music, art music, canon, Martines, women in music
Topic(s):Music
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 3-5
Location: OP 2113
Time: 9:30