On 12 Apr 2005 at 8:55, Florence + Michael wrote: > Apparently Brahms did have something to say about women composers. Can > anybody give me a serious source for this quote, found in a German > musical calendar with no bibliographical references: > > "Es wird dann erst eine Komponistin geben, wenn der erste Mann ein > Kind zur Welt gebracht hat" (more or less "There won't be a woman > composer until a man gives birth to a child") > > My wife would like to include the quote in a book she's writing about > French women composers, but she won't put it in unless she can give > reasonable proof that Brahms actually said, or wrote it.
I think it's highly suspect, given how close Brahms was to Clara Schumann, who was, quite plainly, a very able composer in her own right. Brahms knew this, probably better than just about anyone other than Robert Schumann himself. > Oh, and just for the record: I consider myself to be both an atheist > and a feminist, but this won't stop me from loving and playing music > by Brahms. Er, why the hell would anyone think that my objection to one quoted sentiment of Brahms would mean that I reject his music? Wagner was a hateful anti-Semite (though probably not as bad as modern scholarship casts him to be, especially in terms of his contemporaries), but that doesn't mean I reject his music. I just reject Wagner's BS, just as I reject Brahms's. Their music is another matter entirely. -- David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton David Fenton Associates http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
