They are essential women from all parts of the world, from Europe, Africa, Asia and America that nobody remembers and whose compositions, which can be heard through links, have sometimes luckily survived
We all know who Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Bach, Verdi or Schubert is. But, could they say something about Corona Schöter? Or Adriana Basile? And Nelly Uchendu? Miriam Gideon? Emma Martinez? Kikuko Kanai? Now an interactive map tells them who they are. The history of music has been led by men and women, but the former have benefited for reasons that are not worth dwelling on. There are exceptional cases, such as that of Clara Weick, a child prodigy who played the piano with unprecedented excellence since she was a child.. Her talent was recognized by her father, who looked at her like a prodigy and the eyes of an admired teacher. She immediately achieved a certain reputation in her time, she became one of the great pianists of the moment and was absolutely innovative when she dared to attack musical pieces without sheet music, which none or very few had dared to do. Her extraordinary gift attracted Schumann, a student of her father’s, who fell in love with her early on. Despite his mood swings and his gradual but irremediable psychological deterioration, the two had a long and neat offspring: eight children.. Not only that. She helped him with her work and helped spread it in concerts. She also had an extraordinary closeness with another of the prodigies of the period: Brahms, with whom they say that she also shared some other passion.
But was there only her? Apparently not, of course. There have been great performers and composers who have been silenced, forgotten or set aside . And now, never better said, they have been put on the map through a free interactive tool, with a pedagogical vocation, which is accessible to the general public, which is not bad for those who enjoy a bunch of kids to entertain in their home. For all those adults who are unable to remember the names of two or three women dedicated to music, this is a website that delves into the past and provides around 530 female composers . So there are no more excuses. But it is not limited to that, it goes further.
All the continents and a photograph of the city, town or region of each of these talents appear on the map . By clicking on the photograph of each of them, the image opens and you can access a short biography, a link to wikipedia, a website in the case of some of them are contemporary and a playlist on Spotify so that interested parties can access a playlist or their discs. There are also links to Twitter or Facebook to further your knowledge. As Sakira Ventura, creator of this initiative, declared to the newspaper “The Guardian”: “They do not appear in musical history books, their works are not played in concerts and their music is not recorded.”. On the reason for having limited the male presence, she herself replied to this British newspaper and said: “I have to explain to them that if they want to know about male composers, they can open any music history book, go to any concert or tune in to any radio station, but if I am putting together a map of female composers, it is because these women do not appear anywhere else”.
The map is almost a juicy album of anecdotes and discoveries . Surprising and amusing biographies can be found, such as that of Natalia Janotha, who, as stated in her file, was a great artist and an intrepid mountain climber: “In 1885 she became the pianist of the Imperial Court in Berlin. She became known as a mountain climber, sometimes wearing men’s pants. In 1883 she became the first woman to climb Gerlach, the highest mountain in the Carpathians”. Also S. Elisabeth, Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg who “in 1628 was forced to flee the Thirty Years’ War and live at the court of Kassel” and whose compositions “have survived anonymously”.
In the past, many of them were nuns. The reason was simple. Within the convents he could receive the musical learning that outside their walls they would never findor their families would not be willing to give them. In closing thus grew the ingenuity of Caterina Assandra, cataloged as “Italian composer and nun. She received instruction from the Master of the Pavia Cathedral, who dedicated a piece of hers to her in 1607. Her surviving book of motets: Motetti à due e tre voci, Op. 2 (1609)”. Another problem that exists when investigating the past of these creators is that many of their works have been lost or lost. This is the case of the Italian Maria Xaveria Perucona, also a “nun and composer”, although in this case of “aristocratic origin” and whose “Sacri concerti de motetti a una, due tre e quattro voci, part with Violini and parte senza (1675)”.
