The Kaleidoscope of Women’s Sounds in Music of the Late 20th and Early 21st Centuries

This book traces the development of music in the late 20th and early 21st centuries with regards to the work of six women composers: Sofia Gubaidulina, Joan Tower, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Libby Larsen, Chen Yi, and Judith Weir. The study integrates cultural contexts with the composers’ biographies, their diverse compositional styles, and provides in-depth analyses of their musical works. The Kaleidoscope of Women’s Sounds in Music of the Late 20th and Early 21st Centuries offers a more detailed guide to not only these composers, but also their musical characters and styles, than previous studies on women’s music. It discusses several aspects of these women’s compositional perspectives and their personal experiences as they developed their music careers. The book also places emphasis on how these composers incorporated diverse musical styles and the idioms of others into the development of their own distinctly personal styles. The analytical approach adopted in this book is supplemented with illustrations of musical examples in order to provide a more complete understanding of the work of these composers.