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The Sexual Politics of Victorian Musical Aesthetics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Derek B. Scott
Derek B. Scott*
Affiliation:
University College Salford
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Extract

A sexual division of musical composition emerged in nineteenth-century Britain: during that period, metaphors of masculinity and femininity solidified into truths about musical style. Contemporary social theory, domestic sphere ideology, the new scientia sexualis, and aesthetics of the sublime and the beautiful ensured that certain musical styles were considered unsuitable or even unnatural for women composers. Female creativity was also denied or inhibited by educational and socio-economic pressures born of ideological assumptions. In consequence, many women found themselves marginalized as composers, restricted to ‘acceptable’ genres such as the drawing-room ballad. Men, too, were affected by the sexual politics of the age, because the supposed revelation of biological truths in music meant that the presence of feminine qualities in their compositions could lead to invidious comparison with the less elevated output of women.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Musical Association , Volume 119 , Issue 1 , 1994 , pp. 91 - 114
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 Royal Musical Association

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