A Century of Composition by Women

Linda Kouvaras, musicologist, composer and pianist, is Associate Professor at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music at the University of Melbourne, Australia. A leading scholar on postmodernism in music and feminist musicology, she publishes in contemporary music, with a focus on gender issues in music and post/modernism.

Maria Grenfell is Associate Professor and Head of Composition at the School of Creative Arts and Media, University of Tasmania, Australia. Founder of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra's Australian Composers' School, her orchestral music has been commissioned and performed by all the major symphony orchestras in Australia and New Zealand.
Natalie Williams, composer and academic, is Interim Dean at the School of Music, Art and Theatre at North Park University, Chicago. Her research focuses on post-tonal music, counterpoint, music theory pedagogy and the work of women in the creative arts.

Chapter 1 Introduction: Composing Women's (Very) Long 100-year Fight: Evolutions, Illuminations, Solutions, Linda Kouvaras.- Part I Creative Work-Then and Now.- Chapter 2 Synaesthetic Associations and Gendered Nature Imagery: Female Agency in the Piano Music of Amy Beach, Sabrina Clarke.- Chapter 3 "Australian Bush Songs" as Multimodal Discourse: The Remarkable Collaboration of Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, Annie Rentoul, and Georgette Peterson, Johanna Selleck.- Chapter 4 The 1940s Australian Ballet that "Far Outstripped ... 'Swan Lake' in Popular Appeal": Esther Rofe's Ground-Breaking Ballet, Sea Legend, Emma Townsend.- Chapter 5 Italians, Indians and Indigenous People: Innovative Themes and Materials Found in the Operas of Early-C20^th Australian Women Composers, Jeanell Carrigan.- Chapter 6 "Conjuring Up the Magic": Helen Gifford's Compositional Passage to the Creation of Fable for Solo Harp, Jacinta Dennett.- Chapter 7 Of Broken Trees and Elephant Ivories: The Revivification of the Colonial Piano Manifested Through a New Work by Catherine Milliken, Gabriella Smart.- Chapter 8 Beyond Exploitation: Feminist Satire in Jennifer Walshe's XXX_LIVE_NUDE_GIRLS!!!, Jaslyn Robertson.- Chapter 9 Hildegard's Daughters: Women Composers "Overcoming Their Astonishment", Natalie Williams.- Chapter 10 Is the Category of the "Woman Artist" Still Helpful?, Susan Best.- Part II The State of the Industry in the Present Day.- Chapter 11 "Dear Women Composers in Australia (and Beyond):" (A Letter from a Music Critic), Rosalind Appleby.- Chapter 12 Programming Orchestral Repertoire by Women Composers: Challenges and Opportunity, Joanna Drimatis.- Chapter 13 Troubleshooting Gender in the Australian Screen Music Industry: An Insider Perspective, Felicity Wilcox.- Chapter 14 Programming with Gender Parity in Call-Based New Music Festivals, Alice Bennett.- Chapter 15 Mentoring Emerging Women Composers, Maria Grenfell.- Chapter 16 Content Targets Work: A Practical Example of Changing Behaviours and Processes in Programming Women Composers, Naomi Johnson and Matthew Dewey.- Chapter 17 Working Towards Gender Equality and Empowerment in Australian Music Culture, Cat Hope.- Part III Creating; Collaborating: Composer and Performer Reflections.- Chapter 18 The Book of Daughters and The Sonic aGender Guitar Project: Inclusivity as Guiding Principle, Lisa MacKinney.- Chapter 19 When We Speak: Creating ("Something Personal") in a Three-Level Collaboration, Lisa Cheney.- Chapter 20 "It Gently Makes Itself Known...": A Composer and a Violist Discuss their Collaboration on Cranes, Phoebe Green.- Chapter 21 Children's Opera in theTwenty-First Century: The Child-Centred Approach to Writing, Emma Jayakumar.- Chapter 22 Making Music in A Chorus of Women, Glenda Cloughley and Johanna McBride.