From the birth of classical music, the women who dared to compose were treated, at best, with condescension: their sex life was subject to scrutiny and often served to question their authorship. However, the eight protagonists of this essay? Caccini,Strozzi, Jacquet de la Guerre, Von Martines, Hensel, Schumann, Boulanger and Maconchy?challenged the social conventions that sought to exclude them from the artistic realm and, despite adversity, managed to forge a work of their own. From Renaissance Florence to London in the 1940s, Anna Beer brings us closer to the extraordinary lives and works of these composers, narrates the vicissitudes they experienced, explores the circumstances in which they created their major pieces, and considers the reasons why they are still not interpreted today. Harmonies and gentle singing is a celebration of the talent and tenacity of creators unjustly igno...read more
