Female Composers, Conductors, Performers: Musiciennes of Interwar France, 1919–1939 by Laura Hamer

Abstract

Reviewed by: Female Composers, Conductors, Performers: Musiciennes of Interwar France, 1919–1939 by Laura Hamer James P. Gilroy Hamer, Laura. Female Composers, Conductors, Performers: Musiciennes of Interwar France, 1919–1939. Routledge, 2018. ISBN 978-1-138-21203-9. Pp. 218. Hamer's book explores the fortunes of French women musicians in France between the two World Wars. She includes composers and conductors, as well as instrumental soloists on the piano, violin, and harp. Among the musiciennes of whom she writes, the two with the greatest name recognition today are teacher and conductor Nadia Boulanger and composer Germaine Taillefer, whose career benefitted from her membership in the 1920s group Les Six—the only woman among her five colleagues. Hamer devotes much attention to the ambiguous position of women in the French musical world during these years. The official policy of the French government was to promote a domestic role for women as wives and mothers so as to rebuild the population of the nation depleted by World War I. Women were also limited in the choice of instruments they could play. Piano and violin were considered more ladylike than brass, wood-winds, or percussion, which were forbidden to them. Hamer also points out the gendered [End Page 203] language used by music critics. Even if the latter applauded a woman's performance or œuvre, they emphasized the charm and delicacy displayed. An alternate form of gender bias was to compare the power and strength of a musicienne's accomplishment to a man's. Despite all these limitations, women did extremely well in music in the 1920s and 1930s. Women students constituted an increasing percentage of the student body of the Paris Conservatoire and other important schools. They were also highly successful in gaining recognition through prizes, like the Grand Prix de Rome. Their works were frequently included in major concerts, and they were often engaged as soloists. Moreover, women founded their own orchestras to give themselves greater opportunities. The orchestra of the Union des Femmes Professeurs et Compositeurs (1904) hired men to play the instruments that were still deemed unfeminine, while the Orchestre féminin de Paris, founded by conductor and violinist Jane Evrard in 1930, resolved the issue by becoming an all-string ensemble. Women were also hired as professors at the Conservatoire, but it was rare for them to be offered the highest-level positions. Hamer writes as well of the impact of the personal lives of these women on their careers. Unhappy marriages could be an obstacle, particularly if the husband resented his wife's public life or, if he was also a musician, he felt threatened by her greater professional success. Women in music often had to devote long hours to teaching in order to support themselves. Some wrote textbooks that have become standard. All this took time away from composing. Hamer studies in depth several musiciennes whose achievements have fallen undeservedly into oblivion. Among them are three composers who were protégées of Paul Dukas at the Conservatoire: Elsa Barraine, who celebrated her Jewish heritage in music and participated in the Resistance; Yvonne Desportes, who tackled large-scale orchestral works and opera; and Claude Arrieu, who, despite her close association with Olivier Messaien (known for his naturalistic free styling), concentrated on neoclassical and baroque forms. James P. Gilroy University of Denver Copyright © 2019 American Association of Teachers of French