BY LISA CHENEY
Lisa Cheney recently took part in This Will Be Our Reply – an International Women’s Day concert of new music by female composers, which raised money for the Safe Steps Family Violence Response Centre. Lisa shares her views on engaging in the music community under the label of ‘female composer’.
UPDATE 20 AUGUST 2018: Lisa’s composition When We Speak is nominated for Instrumental Work of the Year in the 2018 Art Music Awards. You can listen to the work below, and read about all finalists in this prestigious award here.
As a ‘female composer’ with an interest in feminist scholarship, the idea of participating in an all-female composers’ concert shouldn’t bother me, right?
Well, to tell you the truth, it does and it doesn’t – and here’s why.
Without question, every composer wishes to be judged on her/his merit alone. No one composer wants anything but their music to be the drawcard to a concert. But to achieve this, we must first seek gender parity for women (and other minority) composers, rather than assume we’re all working within an even playing field to begin.
In my fairly young career, I’ve spoken with female composers who choose to embrace their ‘other’ status by working with the gendered label of ‘female composer’. Many composers, such myself, consciously embrace the label as a term of empowerment that celebrates a unique status and elevates the discussion and promotion of women’s music. I’ve also met those who choose to ignore the label all together in the hope that refusing to entertain discussion surrounding gender will make their ‘other’ status eventually disappear. Each path is valid and necessary. However, no matter which way you turn, there are positive and negative ramifications to consider and as such, I often find myself existing in a unique, conflicted space.
The generation before my own fought hard to pave the way for so many opportunities and norms that I often take for granted. Interestingly, I’ve spoken to many emerging/established women in the field and have felt a general sense of uneasiness about bringing ‘gender’ in to conversations about our composition careers. We’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t. So frankly, I’m opting for ‘damned if I do’ and I know that I’m in fabulous company. However, there are few things I feel you should know about those who choose to embrace a label that many in the field/society already want to pin on you.
Just because I’m cool with talking about my experiences as a female composer does not mean I like it. The truth is that I detest the existence of this label. However, I never want to let its associated feelings of isolation negatively impact any young composer as it did on me in my early years. I refer quite frequently to my ‘light bulb’ moment in the second year of my composition study at the Queensland Conservatorium. This was the moment (that I’ll never forget) when I realised I couldn’t name one single living female composer outside of my composition class colleagues (many of whom seemed to be slowly transferring to other education majors. And just for the record, I could list you 50 amazing composers just off the top of my head now, but that’s after a long period of actively seeking them out!). Horrific, right?!
As you might expect, I began to question everything. Who was I? In what context was I working? Why didn’t I have any female role models? Was this some sort of proof that women couldn’t compose? If that was true, what the hell was I going to do with my life? Was this why I’d felt so self-conscious in composition class? Was this why I felt I had so much to prove to my colleagues, teachers and myself? And was this why, at 19, I had so much self-doubt and creative anxiety?
These were amazing questions to start me on journey of self-discovery and feminist scholarship. To skip to the point: this is why concerts of exclusively women’s music are still needed and are still valid (as much as I wish they weren’t). There’s an overwhelming body of music that deserves to brought to the forefront and championed, and these types of concerts are a way of doing that. But can they bring about permanent change?
At the age of 29, each day I hold, examine and navigate the unification of myself (human, Lisa), my compositional voice (musical language) and this third realm/label of ‘female composer’ that seems to saunter along beside me; haunting biographical introductions and descriptions of my music. I recently received an email from a young female composer asking questions for a high school assignment. The first question was: “Do you think there is sexual bias in the composing industry? As in, do males have more chance in being successful purely because of their sex?”. It broke my heart. I answered her as honestly as I could, attempted to explain some of the complexities behind answering her question and sent her a big list of names of composers/articles I thought she should explore of the past and present of women in composition. Sometimes, it becomes too easy to dismiss how uncertain and lonely it can be to navigate these spaces, especially as you get older and more experienced. But I believe young woman emerging in to a male-dominated field (and even some more established women) continue to need strong access to roles models, exposure to music of other women, access to research and support. Not all women will need to use these things, but they should exist regardless.
It is my belief that we need to continue contributing to discussion on all areas of diversity in music. In particular, composers of all genders/identities should be speaking out about the ways in which patriarchal structures are often deeply ingrained into the ways important opportunities are distributed, works are programmed/broadcast/
To those who choose to reject the validity of identifying as a ‘female composer’ – that’s cool, it’s totally your choice. There are pros and there are cons – but I plead with you not to shy away from this discussion for fear of being labelled. I implore you not to let subtle discrimination or sexist comments go unchallenged. I like to think that I proudly wear the label of ‘female composer’ to advance the role and place of this discussion. However, it’s good to remember that sometimes I too want to shout from the rooftops: “I never ever wanted to have anything to do with labels in the first place!”.
Lisa Cheney is a composer based in Melbourne. She undertook a Master of Music researching the experiences of early career female composers in Australia, is the co-curator and partner of Making Waves, and mediates social media groups dedicated to women in composition. Lisa is currently completing a PhD in Composition at the University of Melbourne.
This blog was originally published on Lisa’s website here, where you can learn more about This Will Be Our Reply.
Images supplied. Featured image by Griffith University. Portrait by Daniele Martinie.
