Volume 4, Issue 2 The Kapralova Society Journal Fall 2006 A Journal of Women in Music The Woman Composer Question: Philosophical and Historical Perspectives By Eugene Gates A major topic of public debate in the men." 3 In this terse statement of non- nineteenth and early twentieth centuries confidence in woman's creative ability, was the so-called "woman question." A Naumann too was merely reflecting the sub-category of this controversial subject prevailing belief of nineteenth-century so- was the "woman composer question"-- or, ciety at large. as one contemporaneous writer termed it, The prejudice against female com- "the much-vexed question of the woman posers recognized no national bounda- composer." 1 References to the woman ries, nor was it confined to the writings of composer question loomed large in Ro- philosophers, educators, critics and mu- mantic philosophy, treatises on female sic scholars. French novelist Guy de education, and music criticism. This arti- Maupassant echoed similar thoughts in cle examines some of these writings in or- his 1885 preface to the Abbé Prevost's Special points of interest: der to demonstrate their relationship to L'Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de both the limited content of music educa- Manon Lescaut: tion for women throughout much of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries-- The experience of centuries . • The Woman Composer specifically, the lack of adequate instruc- has proved that woman is, with- Question tion in theoretical subjects--and the double out exception, incapable of any standard in music criticism, a system of true artistic or scientific work. aesthetics that allowed critics to evaluate The attempt is useless, since a woman's compositions in terms of their we have not yet produced the appropriateness to her sex. female artist or musician, not- Inside this issue: Pianist/conductor and writer on mu- withstanding all the desperate sic Hans von Bülow (1830-94) expressed efforts of daughters of The Woman Composer 1 the view of many of his contemporaries, 'concierges' and of all the mar- Question: Philosophical and when he penned the following condemna- riageable young ladies in gen- Historical Perspectives tion of female creative potential in music: eral who study the piano, and even composition. Woman on New publications 5, 12 Reproductive genius can be earth has two parts to play, admitted to the pretty sex, quite distinct roles, both of them but productive genius uncon- charming--Love and Maternity! 4 ditionally cannot. There will never be a woman com- Implicit in such diatribes against fe- poser, at best a misprinting male musical creativity is the notion that copyist. I do not believe in certain innate intellectual deficiencies ren- the feminine form of the word der women incapable of achieving suc- 2 "creator." cess as composers. To trace the genesis of this idea, one need only consult the Writing in the early 1880s, German works of early Romantic and German Ide- music historian Emil Naumann pro- alist philosophers. claimed: "Music is the most masculine of all the arts, for art essentially depends on Complementary Intellectual Abilities the creative idea. All creative work is well known as being the exclusive work of The theory that men and women Page 2 The Kapralova Society Journal The Woman Composer Question are endowed by nature with separate but complementary abilities and talents. While Rousseau attributes to nature intellectual abilities first appeared in the writings of West- only those aptitudes and capacities that, in his opinion, ern philosophers around the middle of the eighteenth cen- should be nurtured, they are not the only ones that could tury.5 Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78), generally be nurtured. In other words, Rousseau is unashamedly thought to be the father of the Romantic movement, for selective. He calls "natural," and chooses to develop, only example, believed that "a perfect man and a perfect those traits that fit the respective societal roles he has as- woman should no more be alike in mind than in face." 6 signed to Emile and Sophie. In so doing, he ensures that According to Rousseau, the complementary rela- Emile's education will equip him for his dual role as citizen tionship of man and woman resulted in sex-differential and head of the family while Sophie's education will pre- styles of intellectual function. In Book V of Emile, his trea- pare her only for the subordinate role of wife and mother tise on education, he tells us: "All the faculties common to within the context of a patriarchal society. 11 both sexes are not equally shared between them, but Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) also subscribed to the taken as a whole they are fairly divided. Woman has concept of complementary male/female modes of reason- more wit, man more genius; woman observes, man rea- ing. In Section Three of Observations on the Feeling of sons." 7 the Beautiful and Sublime, he wrote: It will prove instructive at this point to compare the above passage with the following short excerpt from Rous- The fair sex has just as much understanding seau's Letter to d'Alembert, for it becomes immediately as the male, but it is a beautiful understand- apparent that his scornful assessment of female creativity ing, whereas ours should be a deep under- is inextricably linked to his theory of complementary intel- standing, an expression that signifies identity lectual abilities: with the sublime. Laborious learning or painful pondering, Women, in general, do not like any art, know even if a woman should greatly succeed in it, nothing about any, and have no genius. destroy the merits that are proper to her sex, They can acquire science, erudition, talents, and because of their rarity they can make of and everything which is acquired by dint of her an object of cold admiration; but at the hard work. But that celestial flame which same time they will weaken the charms with warms and sets fire to the soul, that genius which she exercises her great power over the which consumes and devours, that burning other sex. [Therefore,] the beautiful under- eloquence, those sublime transports which standing selects for its objects everything carry their raptures to the depths of hearts, closely related to the finer feeling, and relin- will always lack in the writings of women; their quishes to the diligent, fundamental, and works are all cold and pretty as they are; they deep understanding abstract speculations or may contain as much wit as you please, branches of knowledge useful but dry. 12 never a soul; they are a hundred times more sensible than passionate. 8 Kant's theory of female education followed the gen- eral conventions of his era. Being a disciple of Rousseau, Since Rousseau was convinced that "the search for he believed that the only reason for educating a girl was to abstract and speculative truths, for principles and axioms prepare her for the type of life she would be expected to in science, for all that tends to wide generalisation, is be- lead both biologically and socially. Kant saw no purpose in yond a woman's grasp," 9 it followed that developing her intellect; rather, he advised that educators should concentrate on the formation of her taste and feel- a woman's education must therefore be ings. To accomplish this, he recommended that girls planned in relation to man. To be pleasing in study a little history and geography, and that they be given his sight, to win his respect and love, to train the opportunity to develop a "feeling for expressive paint- him in childhood, to tend him in manhood, to ing and for music, not so much as it manifests artistry but counsel and console, to make his life pleas- sensitivity--[since] all this refines or elevates the taste of ant and happy, these are the duties of woman this sex." 13 for all time, and this is what she should be The mere thought that a female might aspire to be- taught while she is young. 10 come a composer would have caused Kant to recoil in horror. In his opinion, the woman who gave herself over In her recent critique of Rousseau's theory of fe- to such intellectual pursuits "might as well even have a male education, Jane Roland Martin draws attention to the beard; for perhaps that would express more obviously the fact that both Emile and Sophie, Rousseau's perfect man mien of profundity for which she strives." 14 In fact, as the and woman, were born with a wide range of intellectual following passage from his Anthropology from a Pragmatic Volume 4, Issue 2 Page 3 Philosophical and historical perspectives Point of View shows, Kant seriously doubted that there able talent, but not genius, for they always remain subjec- could ever be a truly scholarly woman: "As for the scholarly tive." 24 In his essay "On Women," which is probably the woman, she uses her books in the same way as her watch, most extreme example of misogyny in the whole of Ro- for example, which she carries so that people will see that mantic philosophy, Schopenhauer summed up his views she has one, though it is usually not running or not set by on female creativity as follows: the sun." 15 Despite their negative views of the feminine intellect, Neither for music, nor poetry, nor the plastic neither Rousseau nor Kant regarded woman's alleged lack arts do they possess any real feeling or re- of genius and abstract reasoning power as a barren space ceptivity. … Nor can one expect anything in the female mind. Nature had compensated for the ab- else from women if one considers that the sence of the cold and analytical modes of thought in most eminent heads of the entire sex have women by endowing them with other more appropriately proved incapable of a truly great, genuine feminine mental traits--feeling, taste, sensibility and practi- and original achievement in art, or indeed cality.