FROM THE OTHER SIDE: FEMINIST AESTHETICS IN AUSTRALIAN MUSICOLOGY

The rise of new musicology and feminist music criticism in the 1980s prompted a rethinking of gender in Australian art music spheres and resulted in over a decade of advocacy on behalf of women music makers. Local musicological publications began to cover feminist concerns from the late 1980s, with a focus on composing women. Catalysed by the proliferation of feminist musicology internationally in the 1990s, a series of women's music festivals were held around Australia from 1991–2001 and accompanied by conferences, symposia and special-issue publications. Aesthetic concerns were at the forefront of this debate as women musicologists and practitioners were divided on the existence of a gendered aesthetic and the implications this might have. This article examines the major feminist aesthetic contributions and debates at the time and how these considerations have impacted music-making practices, with particular reference to women composers of new music.

Music for mothers and babies: A view from alternative theoretical perspectives

This article is based on a recently completed review of mother and baby music programmes that draws mainly on the various written sources associated with those programmes. The review looked primarily at programmes in the United Kingdom with some examples from other English-speaking countries. The review process revealed that the rationales and theories that underpin these programmes are highly psychologized, drawing on a reinvigoration of attachment theory that has become interwoven with recent ideas from neuroscience. It also revealed that the written sources do not acknowledge or reflect upon the wider social, cultural and political context which drives and shapes this rapidly expanding area. Drawing on alternative theoretical perspectives from parenting culture studies, post-feminist theory, sociology, biological anthropology and feminist musicology, I develop a discussion that explores how mother and baby music resides on a powerful blend of mothering ideology and psychological theory. This blend and the practices it has given rise to, reinforce intensive mothering practices that do not ameliorate but rather perpetuate and reinforce gendered, racialized and classed inequalities. Intensive mothering in a neo-liberal society supposedly offers choice, autonomy and fulfilment as a mother, but in reality requires unrealistic levels of investment and self-regulation by the mother that can result in conflicted feelings of guilt and anxiety.

Pioneer Spirits: New media representations of women in electronic music history

The Alternative Histories of Electronic Music conference in 2016 reflected a rise in research that explores new and alternative directions in electronic music historiography. Accordingly, attention has been focused on practitioners previously either ignored or thought to be marginal; a significant number of these figures are women. This fact has caught the attention of print and online media and the independent recording industry and, as a result, historical narratives of female electronic musicians have become part of the modern music media discourse. While this has many positive aspects, some media representations of the female electronic musician raise concerns for feminist scholars of electronic music history. Following the work of Tara Rodgers, Sally MacArthur and others, I consider some new media representations of electronic music’s female ‘pioneers’, situate them in relation to both feminist musicology and media studies, and propose readings from digital humanities that might be used to examine and critique them. This article expands on a talk given at AHEM and was first conceived as a presentation for the Fawcett Society event Sound Synthesis and the Female Musician, in 2014.

The Possibilities of/for Feminist Music Criticism in Music Education

The essay sets the context and identifies some possibilities this music educator/feminist theorist currently finds in music, whilst applying the framework of sociologist Dorothy Smith's standpoint feminism to music as constituted within the ideology of particular institutions and practices. Contributions of feminist musicology, in terms of documentation of women's experience in and with music, women's status, and perspectives of feminist music criticism, are summarized. Considering these contributions and framework as a basis to this contextualized critical stance leads to further questions. For example, just as feminist musicology provides music education with the possibilities of new content, is it not likely that feminist criticism in music education could assist musicology in coming to terms with making musical sense, collectively, through cultural institutions? In beginning to work with such a question of criticism, it is suggested that institutional issues of power, as played out through who teaches and sexual harassment of student, are evident and require attention.