[1000 Years, 1000 Notes. Under this motto the Vienna Music Summer
Celebrates 1000 Years of "Ostarrichi"]
by Nancy Van de Vate
These proud words on the cover of the 1996 Klangbogen Wien
(literally, "Sound Arches Vienna," but meaning the Vienna Music
Summer) program booklet do not reveal that in 1000 years Musikland
Oesterreich (Musicland Austria) has not yet produced a single
musical composition by a woman good enough to be included in its
Millennium celebration. How can this be?
Are Austrian women genetically inferior? Do they simply not have
enough talent to compose music? If they are genetically inferior,
how have they produced sons of sufficient talent to compose music?
Is it possible that Austrian women are the genetic carriers of
compositional talent but that it can only appear in their male
offspring?
Austria, and Vienna in particular, have long been magnets for
talented composers from other countries. The male composers who
come here are rightfully celebrated along with native-born Austrian
composers. Has no woman composer of talent ever chosen to make her
home in Austria? Or does compositional talent in women just
mysteriously dry up and blow away in the culturally fertile climate
of Austria?
What the 1996 Klangbogen, "1000 Jahre, 1000 Noten, " really
celebrates is 1000 years of male chauvinism. One millennium of
outrageous exclusion of women from the musical life of Austria has
come to an end and another is beginning. Musikland Oesterreich or
Maennerland Oesterreich? (Men's Land Austria)?
Several months before the opening of the 1996 Vienna Music Summer,
Austrian composers received a questionnaire about their work so
that Austrian music could appear in the Millennium celebration. I
believe all active Austrian women composers would have provided
adequate information. Thus, ignorance cannot be an excuse for the
exclusion of women composers from the festival. A book published
in Kassel, Germany in 1995, "Annaeherung VI," (Rapprochement VI or
Understanding VI, published by Furore Verlag, Kassel, Germany)
focuses on the lives and works of six Austrian women composers. Is
it not a little pathetic that even in Germany, hardly known for its
advanced attitudes toward women composers, more is known about
Austrian women composers than in Austria itself?
Where in the 1000-year celebration of Austrian music is the work
of Grete von Zieritz? This excellent composer, born in Vienna in
1899, has a very large repertoire of sophisticated music. She lives
in Berlin and is still musically active. Perhaps she is not yet old
enough? For five years I have served as a jury member for the
Foerderungspreise und Arbeitsstipendien der Stadt Wien
(Encouragement Prizes and Work-in-Progress Awards of the City of
Vienna). Some years when a woman composer was proposed, one of the
men would suggest the composer "was still too young," even though
male composers of the same age were receiving awards. (Fortunately,
the opinion did not prevail.) Or perhaps Grete von Zieritz is too
old? In any case, the quality of her music cannot have been the
deciding factor.
So much for native-born women composers. What about the
Wahlwienerinnen (women composers who become Viennese by choice)?
I, for example, am now also an Austrian citizen and during my ten
years in Vienna have been a member of various composers'
organizations including the Oesterreichischer Komponistenbund
(Austrian Composers Union), the Internationale Gesellschaft fuer
Neue Musik, Sektion Oesterreich (Internationa1 Society for New
Music, Austrian Chapter], and AKM (Autoren, Komponisten und
Musikverleger--Authors, Composers and Music Publishers, the
Austrian Performing Rights Society).
My repertoire is very large and almost 20 of my works for orchestra
are available on compact disc. I also have works for solo piano,
violin, or viola, if the presence of a woman composer on the
festival had been desired, but one had wished to keep it as minimal
as possible. My orchestral work, Tschernobyl (Chernobyl) is
included in Diesterweg Verlag's (German textbook publisher
Diesterweg's) school music book, "Die Musikstunde," Stufe 7-8 ("The
Music Hour," Levels 7-8) and thus is widely studied throughout
Germany and Austria. Perhaps I am not "Austrian enough"? I believe
I am as Austrian as, for example, (the male Swiss composer) Beat
Furrer, who is certainly very successful and whose music is widely
heard throughout Austria. Perhaps I am still too young or already
too old?
Where is the music of younger Austrian women composers? While there
are some women now studying composition at the Musikhochschule
(Music Academy), they are still students and thus not yet
competition for the established male composers. Will they be
allowed to participate in the musical life of the next millennium
if they evidence any real talent and determination?
The inside title page of the 1996 Klangbogen booklet says: "Tu
felix Austria...Du Glueckliches Oesterreich "996-1996" [You fortunate
and happy Austria, 996-1996]. Oh yes indeed, Du Glueckliches
Austria--1000 years and not yet a single woman composer! With any
luck at all, this can continue for the next 1000 years.
Nancy Van de Vate
Vienna, Austria
email: VMMSMITH@ping.at