In this collection of essays and interviews, nine gifted composers openly discuss their work.

Contains vocal and instrumental music composed by women during the 20th Century.

What do Oprah Winfrey, Sandra Day O'Connor, Margaret Thatcher, Marie Curie and Sojourner Truth have in common? Not only are they some of the world's most influential women, their life lessons are now revealed in the latest book by Pat Williams. Williams blends the personal accounts of each influential woman with the contemporary and historical insights of others, what emerges is an intimate portrait of each great person—her motivations, her aspirations, her personal challenges and the qualities that made her so successful at her calling. An added bonus is life lessons at the end of each chapter, which provide remarkable motivation for women who are blazing a new career trail, building a strong family or struggling to "have it all". This exceptional book highlights a diverse group of women, from activists, businesswomen and humanitarians to athletes, explorers and scientists—it will appeal to any reader regardless of age, occupation or creative pursuits. Profiles of women of influence include: Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, Mary Kay Ash, Helen Keller, Anne Frank, Amelia Earhart and others. This is not a history book—it is a perfect blueprint for creating a successful life.

Contents Ancient Influences The Wives of Composers - Beethoven and Female Inspiration Female Inspiration - Schubert, Spohr and Weber The Affections of Chopin and Berlioz Eminent Women Active in Music: Musical Queens Female Composers - Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann Other European Female Composers Women Composers of America Louis Charles Elson (1848-1920) was an American music critic, author, and lecturer. He studied music at the Leipzig Conservatory, and became music critic for the Boston Advertiser as well as lecturer at the New England Conservatory of Music. He is also the author of Curiosities in Music.

Women write about their experiences of loving music that doesn’t love them back – a feminist 'guilty pleasures'.e - a kind of feminist guilty pleasures. In the majority of mainstream writing and discussions on music, women appear purely in relation to men as muses, groupies or fangirls, with our own experiences, ideas and arguments dismissed or ignored. But this hasn’t stopped generations of women from loving, being moved by and critically appreciating music, even – and sometimes especially – when we feel we shouldn’t. Under My Thumb: Songs that Hate Women and the Women Who Love Them is a study of misogyny in music through the eyes of women. It brings together stories from journalists, critics, musicians and fans about artists or songs we love (or used to love) despite their questionable or troubling gender politics, and looks at how these issues interact with race, class and sexuality. As much celebration as critique, this collection explores the joys, tensions, contradictions and complexities of women loving music – however that music may feel about them. Featuring: murder ballads, country, metal, hip hop, emo, indie, Phil Spector, David Bowie, Guns N’ Roses, 2Pac, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, AC/DC, Elvis Costello, Jarvis Cocker, Kanye West, Swans, Eminem, Jay-Z, Taylor Swift, Combichrist and many more.

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.