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Text by Hannah Bosma

This paper was originally written for Switch.

Going to computer music conferences, lectures about electronic music or hi-fi shops etc., one learns that electronic music ¹ is a man's world. One can react to this in different ways. Here, I will give a limited overview of some possibilities.

First of all, one can ignore the fact that most people in the world of electronic music are male, or at least one can try to do so. Considering the topics which are raised in conferences, books, journals etc., this is what most people do. But this is changing a little. Last year, for instance, the International Computer Music Conference encouraged to submit papers on women and computer music; and with the ICMC'96, this is again the case. But although there was a lively discussion about women and computer music at the ICMC'95, only three papers on this topic were actually presented. And in the programme of the ICMC'96, I can only find two papers on the issue of women and computer/electroacoustic music.

One can ask: why are there wo few women in computer music? This is what Mary Simoni did in her paper at the ICMC '95. The question is related to questions like: why are there so few women working in the field of (specialized) technology? why are there so few women working with (the more specialized aspects of) computers? why are there so few women composers? The answers are complex. Simoni also gave suggestions for ways to get more women into computer music. Central here seems the ideal of equality between men and women.

In her paper at the ICMC'95, Andra McCartney focused on women composers. She interviewed many Canadian women composers, and gave an overview of the specific experiences and practices of these women composers. This approach focuses on the differences women make. McCartney not only reports negative experiences of women with sexism in electronic music practice. She also shows interesting positive specific feminine practices of electronic music (including teaching etc.).

My paper at the ICMC'95 was not focused on (female or male) composers, but on the music itself. The subject of this paper was computer compositions with voice sounds, and the question was: Do male and female voices have different roles in this type of music? The answer was: yes. First of all, there are a lot of compositions for live singing female vocalist and tape or computer, but almost no compositions for live singing male vocalist and tape/computer. Furthermore, female voices in computer music often sing non- verbal, melismatic vocal lines, whereas, male voices in computer music tend to speak more. This is a similar gender pattern as had been found in film (Silverman 1988) and nineteenth-century opera (Poizat, Dame 1994). This paper was concerned with representations of gender in computer compositions.

Instead of focusing on composers or compositions, one can also focus on listeners. This approach is developed by Dame (1994), but she doesn't apply it to electronic music. Women can, as 'resisting listeners', create different interpretations and different reception practices of musical pieces.

A focus on performers would also be possible. I tried to developed this a little in my papers for the ICMC'95 and ICMC'96.

Probably, there are many other ways to study women's or gender issues in electronic music, and I would like to invite anyone whose work in this field I haven't mentioned, to contact me.

Last but not least, I think that an important omission in the research regarding gender issues in electronic music so far, is the topic of men in electronic music. Why are so many men involved in electronic music? How is electronic music related to masculinity? Can we find traces or representations of masculinity or reactions to masculinity in electronic compositions or in hard- and software used in electronic music? Many more questions can be thought of. Exploring these topics would give us more insight in electronic music and its practices. But personally, I first want to focus on female voices in electronic music. Since electronic music is so much a man's world, it seems a good idea to me to pay special attention to female aspects. But gender issues are related to femininity and masculinity, to women and men. Focusing on masculinity seems to me a very interesting issue for future research. Furthermore, what is needed urgently, I think, is that men in electronic music also reflect on their roles, on masculinity and on gender.

Footnotes

¹ With 'electronic music', I also refer to electroacoustic and computer music and musique concréte.

More Information

Proceedings ICMC '95 are published by:

International Computer Music Association
2040 Polk Street, Suite 330
San Francisco, California 94109 USA

and:

the International Computer Music Conference '95
The Banff Centre for the Arts
Box 1020
Banff, Alberta, T0L 0C0 Canada

Andra McCartney's homepage: http://www.finearts.yorku.ca/andsoundfiles/andra.html
(with many interesting references related to gender and technology). Articles by AndraMcCartney on gender issues appeared in the journal of the Canadian Electroacoustic Community (CEC): Contact! 8.2 Spring 1995 and 9.1 Autumn 1995. In the next issue will appear one also.

Address of the CEC:

1908 Panet suite 302
Montreal QC
CANADA H2L 3A2
T: +1 514 523 7951
F: +1 514 524 0323
Email: cec@vax2.concordia.ca
WWW: http://lecaine.music.ca/~berger/cec_home.html

See for many interesting information and references related to women, gender, electronic music and technology: http://www.odyssee.net/~studioxx/

References

Buikema, Rosemarie en Smelik, Anneke (red.)
1993
Vrouwenstudies in de cultuurwetenschappen. Muiderberg: Coutinho. Translated as: Women's Studies and Culture: A Feminist Introduction. London: Zed Books.

Citron, Marcia
1993
Gender and the Musical Canon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Dame, Joke
1992
'Rocky times: Feminist musicology in the 1990s', Muziek en Wetenschap 2/1, 25-31.

Dame, Joke
1994
Het zingend lichaam: Betekenissen van de stem in de westerse vocale muziek. Kampen: Kok Agora.

Dame, Joke
1993
'Theme and Variations: Feminist musicology', in Buikema & Smelik (eds.).

Poizat, Michel
1986
L'opÈra ou le cri de l'ange: Essai sur la jouissance de l'amateur d'opera. Paris: MÈtailiÈ.
Translated by Arthur Denner as:
1992
The Angel's Cry: Beyond the Pleasure Principle in Opera. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Silverman, Kaja
1988
The Acoustic Mirror: The Female Voice in Psychoanalysis and Cinema. Bloomington etc.: Indiana University Press.

Wajcman, Judy
1991
Feminism Confronts Technology. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Comments welcome to: Hannah Bosma