Data

DEBORAH HAYES

CLASSIC WOMEN MUSICIANS

European and American Women

Composers of the Late Eighteenth

and Early Nineteenth Centuries

Data

This page and the linked documents provide an overview of European and American women composers whose music dates from ca. 1750 to the early 1800s, the Classic era.

The alphabetical list of composers is almost entirely from Barbara Garvey Jackson’s 1994 book “Say Can You Deny Me’” A Guide to Surviving Music by Women from the 16th through the 18th Centuries. The chronological and geographical lists are derived from that main list.

Jackson identified about 635 women and provided the locations of their surviving works. She also listed 152 composers whose music has not survived. Of the total of 787 women whom she names, around 550, or 70 percent, were active in the Classic era.

Jackson built upon the considerable work undertaken especially in the 1970s and 1980s to restore the rich historical record of women musicians. She corresponded with numerous other researchers and visited libraries to see for herself. Besides verifying and correcting existing information, she added a wealth of new material. “Say Can You Deny Me” remains indispensable for its extraordinary depth and pioneering scholarship.

Alphabetical List

Jackson lists the composers alphabetically. My alphabetical list (PDF, 41 p.) is essentially Jackson’s list minus the earlier composers of the 16th, 17th, and early 18th centuries. For almost all of the listings my source is Jackson’s book, abbreviated BGJ (under the composer’s name). Other abbreviations are listed in the Sources and abbreviations (PDF, 2 p.).

I list the name, dates, and where the composer was active. I do not begin to duplicate the wealth of information that makes Jackson’s book invaluable. It must be noted that much of what she reported over thirty years ago could not be compiled now from online sources.

I have added information that has surfaced since the book’s publication ago; it is highlighted in blue. It includes the names of 13 additional composers, some birth and death years, the occasional newly discovered work, and new print and digital sources such as scans of scores. I do not claim to have found all that is new!

Today, the music of about 100 of the composers is available in new editions, many more than appear in Appendix 5 of “Say Can You Deny Me.” I use the abbreviation EDN to indicate that the woman’s work is available in a new print edition. Jackson’s own publishing company ClarNan Editions (CN), Barbara Harbach’s Vivace Press (VIV), and the series Women Composers: Music Through the Ages (WCMTA) are notable for their extensive commentary on the composer and her music. Other leading publishers include Editions Ars Femina (EAF) and Hildegard Publications (HIL), Lists are in the PDF files New Editions, WCMTA Contents, and Sources and Abbreviations (PDF, 2p.) linked in the sidebar above.

Many new digital sources are available as well.

- Primary sources are available at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP.org) and other sites. These offer scans of scores and writings, published or manuscript (MS).

- Updated information is available at Grove Music Online (GMO) and the Recueil International des Sources Musicales (RISM) online. Wikipedia (WIKI) lists its articles about female composers chronologically by birth year . Many further sources may be located via search engines.

England: 188 names

c. 1750–1780: 9

1780s–c. 1820: 136

1820s–1830s: 43

Scotland c. 1760s–1820s: 26 names

Ireland c. 1750–1830: 9

Portugal: 1

Sweden: 4

Belgium: 2

Bohemian: 1

Netherlands: 2

Bohemia: 1

Poland: 10

Russia: 8

Switzerland: 8

United States: 30 =

Colonial America/U.S.: 27

U.S. 1820s–1830s: 3

Chronological List

The chronological list (PDF, 14 p.) is organized by decade according to composers’ birth years, whether known or estimated, from the 1720s through the 1790s.

Birth and death years are known for only 155 of the 550 composers. For the majority of these Classic-era composers, only the dates when they “flourished” (abbreviated fl) are known, that is, the dates of their published music or other evidence. In those cases the birth year is estimated as about twenty to thirty years before the earliest fl year.

For 28 composers Jackson writes “no date” (n.d.), “before 1800,” or “18th century.” That a composer worked in the later, Classic 18th century (rather than the earlier, Baroque 18th century) can be surmised if, for example, she wrote for fortepiano. Here are the figures:

1720s: 15 names

b. 1720s: 7 + pub./fl. 1740s–1750s [b. 1720s?]: 8

1730s: 25 names

b. 1730s: 7 + pub./fl. 1760s, b. 1730s?: 18

1740s: 32 names

b. 1740s: 16 + pub./fl. 1770s, b. 1740s?: 16

1750s: 82 names

b. 1750s: 36 + pub./fl. 1780s, b. 1750s?: 46

1760s: 183 names

b. 1760s: 45 + pub./fl. 1790s, b. 1760s?: 67

+ pub./fl. late 18th cen., b. 1760s?: 35 + pub./fl. c. 1800, b. late 1760s?: 36

1770s: 53 names

b. 1770s: 25 + pub./fl. c. 1801–1809, b. 1770s?: 28

1780s: 77 names

b. 1780s: 26 + pub. / fl. 1810–1820, b. 1780s?: 51

1790s: 80 names

b. 1790s: 21 + pub. c. 1820s, b. 1790s?: 35 + pub. c. 1830s, b. before 1800?: 2

Geographical List

The geographical list (PDF, 14 p.) uses the information in Jackson’s book (BGJ) for almost all of the composers. Other abbreviations are listed in the Sources and Abbreviations PDF (2 p.). Composers in major centers are listed in three phases according to when they were active—c. 1750–1780, the 1780s through1820, and the 1820s and 1830s.

Italy: 19 names—

c. 1750–1780: 9

1780s–c. 1820 7

1820s–1830s: 3

German centers: 66 names—

c. 1750–1780: 22

1780s–c. 1820: 37

1820s–1830s: 7

Austria: 26 names—

c. 1750–1780: 5

1780s–c. 1820: 18

1820s–1830s: 39

France: 140 names

c. 1750–1780: 36

1780s–c. 1820: 90

1820s–1830s: 13