VIEWPOINT is a regular monthly space reserved for women's perspectives which do not necessarily reflect the consensual views of the What She Wants Collectve.

I just said good-bye to four Danish students who had come to the United States for only one reason; to find out for themselves about what is happening in Cleveland. These Danish visitors could have chosen any other city in the country for their studies. After all, many other cities are also exhibiting the symptoms of the urban fiscal crisis, other cities are better known to foreign students of American history, and certainly other cities are pleasanter places to visit in the dead of February.

But, through reading about Cleveland in European and American newspapers, the Danish students had discovered something that many of us in Cleveland tend to forget: that the events in Cleveland of the last year have been truly remarkable, and have important lessons for people facing similar problems around the country.

Those of us in Cleveland have grown used to hearing our Mayor blast the corporate control of the economy and oppose governmental favors to big business. And we have become accustomed to the attacks which the corporate community makes in response, threatening to move out of the city unless the "business climate" becomes more favorable. We see our City Council routinely engage in antidemocratic methods of operation in order to protect the interests of banks and utilities. And we have even become used to, and sometimes annoyed by, marching to the polls every three months to cast our votes in yet another "special election".

But in order to realize just how unusual our city is,

we have only to look at the dramatic way in which Clevelanders have begun to use the political process to change the conditions which for so many years had been the norm. In the summer of 1977, rather than complacently watching City Hall hand out tax breaks to two of our wealthiest corporations, hundreds of Clevelanders came to City Council to protest the use of tax abateinents to National City and Sohio. In November 1977, in the culmination of a wave of protest over tax abatement and the sale of Muny Light, Clevelanders elected a Mayor who firmly promised to take City government out of the hands of the big business interests. Then, in the summer of 1978, Clevelanders caine to the polls again to defeat a recall attempt which had clearly been financed and promoted by the corporate community.

And on February 27, the voters of Cleveland have one more chance to defend the public interest against the quest for private profit. Those of us in the feminist and progressive community cannot afford to be cynical or hesitant about the importance of saving Muny Light. The story of CEI's consistent sabotage of Muny Light in its attempt to destroy its only competitor embodies every aspect of corporate behavior against which many of us are committed to fight: complete disregard for the rights of the consumer; active contempt for the laws of antitrust and regulation; manipulation of the media; and attempted blackmail of the political process. If CEI succeeds in taking over Muny Light on February 27, not only will electric rates skyrocket for all consumers, but CEI

Rediscovering Women in Music

Though traditional music historians would have you believe otherwise, there is a rich, but largely unexplored, herstory of women in classical music. Standard music history texts neglect to mention over a thousand women who composed classical music prior to 1900. But due to the work of historical musicologists such as Jeannie Pool, women are becoming acquainted with our obscured musical heritage,

Jeannie Pool, a graduate student at Columbia and the author of Women in Music-A Research Guide and numerous articles about women in music, spoke here at CWRU, CSU and Labyris, as well as elsewhere, February 7-9. In her illustrated lectures, Pool surveyed a herstory of women in music which extends from 2700 B.C. to the present. She combined slides and recordings to highlight women composers and works from various periods in music history.

At the same time that it is exciting to learn that there is a plethora of information about women musicians and composers, it is sobering to realize the extent to which creative women have been frustrated and denied in Western societies throughout history. Women were, as many still are, sacrificed to a sexist aesthetic. Qualities identified as "feminine" and "masculine" are set into opposition as evil is to good. Western music has upheld the aesthetic by assigning musical qualities as well as instruments to the feminine or masculine category. Music, so engendered, can be criticized with the appropriate moral intonations. As early as the 6th Century B.C., Protagoras, a Greek philosopher, formulated this evaluative relation. That it has persisted throughout the history of music criticism explains the systematic exclusion of women not only from recognition in music history, but even performance and composition during some historical periods.

Historically, women's participation in rnusic varies with their relation to religion and overall status in successive societies. Women are pictured as musicians in Egyptian art dating back to 2700 B.C. Generally, women in Eastern societies have con-

tinued to participate in music, while women in Western societies have been periodically excluded.

Sappho, who lived in the 7th Century B.C., is the first known woman composer and musician. Unfortunately, none of her music has been preserved. In fact, the oldest manuscripts of women composers now available were not written until the close of the Dark Ages. Church music was restricted to men throughout the Dark Ages. During this 500-year exile, women performed as troubadors. By the 10th Century, however, nuns began to become involved in liturgical music. Hildegard von Bingen, an 11th Century nun, is one of the best known women composers of this period. Many.of her compositions are now be ing translated.

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A few hundred years later, Renaissance man banished women from music again. He confined women with the introduction of the concept of the home. Women performers of this period were discouraged and labelled as courtesans. Only in the convents could women continue in music and in education in general,

In the late 16th and early 17th Centuries, women were composers, performers, and teachers of secular and sacred music. Barbara Strozzi, a prolific Bar-

VIEW POINT

will never be taken to court in the city's air-tight $330 million antitrust suit.

The first obligation for all of us must be to vote against and work against the sale of Muny Light,

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Second, we must continue to be active in and even to be amazed by the fierce economic struggle which is going on around us. We must stop listening to the name-calling and the rumors and instead look at who is doing the name-calling and what they represent. What do Basil Russo, George Forbes, the Greater Cleveland Growth Association, the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company, and the banking industry have in common? They're all on the same side, and they're out to destroy not just an "uncooperative" mayor, but the entire progressive movement.

-Sandy Buchanan

[Ed. note: What She Wants believes that it is important to support continued popular control of Muny Light and to oppose the attempts of CEI to secure a monopoly. However, this should in no way be interpreted as a general approval of Kucinich and his administration. WSW does not espouse the proKucinich position of the above article.]

oque composer, had 90 pieces published in the late 17th Century,

But in the 18th Century, women were displaced from musical performance and composition once again. This was the classical period in music history. Although women continued to write, their compositions were ignored.

Women re-emerged as virtuoso performers, primarily as pianists and composers, in the 19th Century. For example, Clara Schumann, a pianist and composer, supported herself and her family with her music after the death of her composer husband Robert. In the United States, all-women orchestras toured the country in the 1870's. Many American women composers wrote and sold popular music.

There are about 1200 women composers of classical music in the United States today. However, these women face many of the same difficulties and frustrations as their predecessors. A composition is never really completed until it is performed, and music by women composers is rarely performed. Major American orchestras do not include women's compositions in their repertoires. Nor do classical music stations broadcast music by women composers.

In the mid-1800's, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, a composer, wrote to her successful brother Felix, "I can't help considering it a sign of talent that I do not give it up, though I can find no one to take an interest in my efforts." Undoubtedly, many more letters like this will be written before women are recognized as equally important performers and composers.

In an effort to popularize women composers and their compositions and further explore the herstory of women in music, Jeannie Pool is coordinating the First National Congress on Women in Music, which is scheduled to be held in New York City sometime next winter. This three-day conference will include workshops, recitals, concerts, discussions, and the presentation of scholarly papers.

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March, 1979/What She Wants/Page 3