the dissertation, Dec 2011

I pitched this idea to my advisor back in mid-August. Given an initial green light, I proceeded forward with my music club fieldwork, whose required background on early clubs and federation only helped to further refine and solidify that this is my topic. As of December, this is the dissertation, as I perceive it.


I will be investigating Musical America, from roughly 1850--1950, and exploring musical feminine idols. Women whose persona exuded femininity and thereby the media overtly emphasized their womanhood. I want to question whether, in an era of more pronounced gendered expectations, there can be a music that actually *is* feminine, and what those musical characteristics might be-- as they are embodied in musical expression, performance, staging, image, etc.

The concept might sound vaguely reminiscent of the master's thesis, but as I wrote in my personal notes back in mid-August, this dissertation will:
-- be more articulate and refined than the master's thesis [which really, isn't that the hope of all scholars?]
-- be more philosophically based
-- be more interpretative (rather than merely reporting phenomenon)
-- have some ethnomusicological roots
-- become more than simply a record of past trends
-- be something that can provoke future research and further debate


And to that today I add that the dissertation:
-- is focused around case study "characters" (women be it actual, idealized, or completely fictional)
-- it also does away with archetyping and tries instead to look at specific receptions of specific creative constructions of femininity. by and large, I hope the case studies will be "actual" women- performers, composers, patrons.... but I do leave room for fictionalized women.
--  looks at certain elements, not entire comprehsive factors of one phenomenon

I wrote back in August that "the goal is not to expand themes of the master's thesis. It is now to take the tools and knowledge developed from the master's thesis and apply it to another medium." I acknowledge readily that my research in Hildegard helped formulate this topic, but it happened earlier too... my fascination with Jenny Lind, and my undying affection for Cecile Chaminade (both ladies whom I suspect will be in this document someway or another). It also helped that I took a philosophy course over the summer, leading to the philosophical question of "can there be a feminine music" 

And this post cannot be completed without saying that yes, Susan McClary will be heavily influential in the foundation of the feminist musicological theories I propose. But I also hope that my general feminist theory class next semester will help (taught by a sociologist), as well as my future aesthetics course. I may not turn into MClary 2.0, but I do hope I can further the field of feminist musicology with this work.