Wow - I seem to have put my foot in it here! As usual!
Historically speaking - yes there were all these women who played the lute -
but they didn't earn their living doing it. Most of them played in the
private domestic sphere. The same is true of the guitar.
Today - yes there are women who play professionally etc. but as one who is
occasionally privy to their private thoughts on the matter I can say that it
is not always easy for them to compete on the same terms.
I would add that when I read music at university in the 1950s women were
certainly treated as 2nd class citizens. The professor in my music
department would not have had any women in his classes if not obliged to do
so by the university.
We may all be created equal...but some are still more equal than others.
Monica
Monica
----- Original Message -----
From: "Stewart McCoy" <lu...@tiscali.co.uk>
To: "Lute Net" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2009 5:29 PM
Subject: [LUTE] Imbalance
Dear Monica,
I don't think it is sad at all. We all have the opportunity to
contribute to this list, whether we are men or women. The choice is
ours. If there happen to be more men than women in Peter Martin's
sample, so be it. That's the way it is.
You could as well do a survey, as I did some years ago, to see how many
contributors to the list had beards. Of those who responded, 70% had
beards, and none of them was a woman. Donatella Galetti was the only
female lute-netter to respond to the survey, and she confirmed that she
didn't have a beard. (See the archives for 19th December 2004.)
There have always been women who play the lute, at least as long as
lutes were around. I have in mind those sideways-on pictures of women
plucking lute-like instruments in ancient Egyptian pictures. You have
only to look at a few old paintings from renaissance times to see a
multitude of female lutenists, including our good Queen Elizabeth. As
far as sources are concerned, we have the Jane Pickeringe lute book, the
Margaret Board lute book, and the M (probably for Margaret) L lute book.
A little later we have Mary Burwell's lute book and Lady Wemyss' book.
There is the Thynne lute book, and one of the family members who used it
was a young lady to be seen in a painting holding her lute. Some
important patrons of music were women, including Isabella d'Este and
Margaret of Austria in the early part of the 16th century. Even in times
when women were treated very differently from men, music was a pursuit
where women could flourish. So strongly was music seen to be associated
with women, that macho Tobias Hume felt it necessary to confess that
music was the only effeminate part of him.
The situation is no different today. I think of Paula Chateauneuf, Lynda
Sayce, Elizabeth Kenny, and many other women, who play the lute
extremely well, and there are plenty of women who are fine musicologists
too. It is a nonsense to say that the lute is a man's world, as if there
were some latent prejudice we need to feel guilty about. We have enough
barmy political correctness imposed upon us in other walks of life. May
we be preserved from it here.
Best wishes,
Stewart McCoy.
-----Original Message-----
From: lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu [mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] On
Behalf Of Monica Hall
Sent: 10 September 2009 13:17
To: David Tayler
Cc: Lutelist
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Imbalance
It is indeed a sad story. I suspect this is also the case in the
classical
guitar world which may have a knock on effect. It's still a man's
world.
Monica
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Tayler" <vidan...@sbcglobal.net>
To: "lute-cs.dartmouth.edu" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2009 9:06 AM
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Imbalance
It is a sad story.
d
At 12:54 AM 9/10/2009, you wrote:
Of the last 100 individuals to post to this list, 95 were men. Is
this
representative of the wider lute world? Any ideas why?
Peter
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