Sheung-Ping Lai

During the past year, coincidentally, I have been interviewed by different students from different institutions on the research topic of women composers, which has made me re-think the topic, which I had put aside more than a decade ago. This essay is my organized thoughts on the topic of women composers. It is not an academic paper; it is simply a sharing of ideas based on my experiences and observations.

Whenever the topic of ‘women composers’ is mentioned, several aspects are generally involved: gender issues in historical and social perspectives, women’s roles in the musical world, women composers’ perspectives of music, women composers’ perspectives of being women composers, and characteristics of music by women composers.

The gender issue of women composers has been thoroughly discussed by sociologists and feminists for decades. I will not get into further discussion. From my personal experience, gender is no longer an issue in the profession of music composition, at least not in a modern Western or Westernized society. As long as everyone has the same opportunity for education and has free choice for a career, a girl dedicated to be a composer can receive professional training and become a composer. There are so many successful women composers nowadays. Treating ‘women composers’ as a special species is outdated.

The most common questions interviewers like to ask includes the followings:

1. How do you feel about being a woman composer?

2. What kinds of difficulties or obstacles have you encountered as a woman composer? Or, what are the kinds of difficulties or obstacles unique to women composers?

3. What are the differences between the music written by female composers and by male composers?

To answer Q1, I feel good about being a composer. It just happens that I am female. On the other hand, being the only active Hong Kong female composer of my generation does make me feel special.

Q2 will take longer to answer. First of all, most composers, regardless of gender, face similar challenges: composing while trying to make a living and to take care of a family at the same time, trying to get music performed and published, trying to get more commissions and awards, gaining acceptance and recognition from the public, and pursuing the next artistic break-through, etc .

The unique challenges that a female composer may encounter include expectations of a more traditional female role in her family and her society, which is something other than being a composer, and occasional bias or jealousy towards women in a traditionally male-dominated profession. In order to pursue a career in composition, a woman encountering the above-mentioned problems would have to go against her family’s expectations, and try hard to prove her ability in the profession. Failure is not an option.

Just two to three decades ago, the concept of female composers was still rather foreign to many people in my society. Very few girls would dare to say that they want to be composers because no one would take them seriously. The main reason why I could pursue compositional studies, besides my own determination, was because of the exceptional support of my parents, particularly my late father, and my first composition teacher, Mr. Law Wing-Fai; both gave me enormous encouragement.

After my graduation in the early 1990s, I began to encounter the problem most young composers encounter of not being able to find a stable job. The brutal reality of unemployment, visa expiration, family pressure and the like became prominent. For a while, struggles for survival became the focus of my life, which far exceeded artistic pursuits in composition. It would be hard to prove if gender had anything to do with the obstacles that, I faced during my post-graduate years. As I look back, I was caught in a discordant mixture of cultural, geographical, political, social and economical disadvantages at the time.

Then, Rob Taylor entered my life. Not only did he provide me with the loving support and stability I needed, he also enriched my musical life by teaching me about jazz and introducing me to enormous amounts of contemporary music repertoire that I had not known before, which directly benefited my music compositions. Since 1998, we have been involved in international college teaching in Beijing, China and Kathmandu, Nepal. Eventually, we settled back in Hong Kong a few years ago.

It has taken more than a decade, but I finally have a stable full-time teaching position in which I can teach composition. During the past few years, new compositions by my students and I have been pouring out. My music and papers have been published. I am quite satisfied with my current situation as a composer, teacher and researcher. The main challenge at this point is taking care of my husband, who is suffered from multiple health problems, on top of my full-time job and artistic pursuits. As I wrote on my Facebook Profile, “Life is an endless journey of problem-solving activities.” If we do not maintain a positive attitude, we are not able to survive.

Perhaps my multiple roles as a composer, teacher, researcher and caregiver could shed some light into the life of a woman composer in contemporary society. Is this a typical life for most women composers? I am not sure. Perhaps a survey involving more living women composers from different generations and in different parts of the world could give a more comprehensive account of this situation.

One thing is for certain; women composers have to make more decisions than their male counterparts do, particularly on marriage and child-bearing. Composing requires a great deal of personal space, time and mental energy to focus. While men do not have to go through the child-bearing process and are not expected to take care of children and the household, they can better focus on their profession. On the other hand, women are always expected to take care of the household, which is already a distraction to composing. Childcare is an even bigger responsibility and a distraction to composing. If a woman works full-time and takes care of the entire family after work, how does she find extra time and energy left to compose? It is not surprising that many professional women composers do not have children. Child-bearing is a major decision a woman composer has to make. As for marriage, the spouse of a woman composer must understand the profession of composition and be supportive of her profession; otherwise, her career would suffer. So, for some women composers, being single would be considered the best option to ensure her professional life not being affected by family.

In contemporary society, equal opportunities abound. Younger generations of women composers are facing fewer obstacles than their predecessors did. Girls are now having more opportunities to study composition, and are widely accepted by society to do so. On the other hand, because of the increase of options in life, students nowadays tend to be less focused and determined in one area of study, which might affect the quality of the profession. Things are much easier for younger people today. The word ‘struggle’ seems to disappear from their vocabulary. Should any young composer complain about not having enough opportunities in the profession, most likely, he or she has not tried hard enough.

For Q3, I do not think that gender has anything to do with the quality and the style of music composition. Music itself has no gender. Furthermore, each composer writes in a different style. Therefore, categorizing music based on gender is irrelevant.

References to ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ (strong and weak) qualities in music, as found in some older music literature, is very much outdated. In fact, it is very common that both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ qualities exist in music by the same composer, and even within the same composition. If gentle and elegant music is considered feminine, then plenty of chamber music by Mozart, Mendelssohn or Ravel would definitely be ‘feminine.’ On the other hand, many large-scale compositions by contemporary women composers are very powerful and ‘masculine’ sounding. Therefore, it is almost impossible to tell whether a piece of music is written by a male composer or a female composer just by listening to it. We could only appreciate a piece of music based on its own merits.

Even though the topic of women composers is often gender-related, research on the topic should not be limited to the gender issue. Objective discussions on compositions by women composers in different periods are meaningful. In fact, to truly practice equal opportunity, compositions by less known composers, regardless of gender and cultural background, should be included in musical studies. Also, interviews on the topic of women composers should not be limited to women composers from the same cultural background and the same age group. Women composers from different cultures and different age groups might give different responses to the same questions. Furthermore, to collect viewpoints from different perspectives, male composers, professional performers and conductors, music scholars, music administrators, music educators, students, and others who have professional relationships with women composers, as well as educated audiences should be interviewed. Only when women composers’ music are well represented and studied, and solid data are collected and analyzed, would we gain a deeper understanding on the topic.

In conclusion, contemporary women composers are no longer known as daughters, sisters, or wives of other famous male composers. They are no longer ‘victims’ in a traditionally male-dominated society. Contemporary women composers are well-educated and independent individuals who are capable of taking good care of themselves, their families and their careers. They respect their male colleagues and are respected by them. They have high EQ and problem-solving skills, and are able to maintain a fine balance among different aspects in their lives. They have strong wills and strong compassions. They are sensitive and caring nurturers of younger generations. The struggle of women composers in the older generations has paved the way for young women composers. Perhaps one day, ‘women composers’ will only be considered a part of history in social studies, and will no longer be a current topic in musical studies.