Race and gender have emerged most powerfully in my writing this semester. I now think of Paris as a kind of “promised land” for people of color in the 1920s. As we see with Ada “Bricktop” Smith, African Americans (even African American women) were able to live autonomously and have control over their own finances. […]
A lot of things were going on the night of November 2, 1928. Verdi’s “La Traviata” was being performed at the Met in New York City, Henry Cowell programmed Ive’s first violin sonata on a New Music Society concert in San Francisco, and the opera house in Paris was performing a new work by Stravinsky […]
The Arguments The term “Sapphonics” can be defined as a theory of relationality for women in classical music (specifically opera,) but according to Wood it can also be used to describe an individual voice whose qualities represent “lesbian difference and desire,” and consequently affect lesbian/female listeners in particular ways (1). Both Dorf and Moore make […]
When I was six years old I took ballet. For the final recital, myself and ten other small, suburban white girls dressed in tiny black tutu’s danced to “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong. It’s a good memory that has stayed with me for my entire life. Six-year-old me did not see Louis Armstrong […]
1915 was not a great year for 51-year-old Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. Her privileged upbringing did nothing to prepare her for the loss of her mother, father, and husband all within months of each other. Though losing her family was incredibly tragic, she ended up inheriting over $4,000,000. Elizabeth Coolidge grew up as an accomplished pianist, […]
By the time of the Industrial Revolution, the bourgeoisie had become the economic ruling class in France. They owned the means of production (land and capital) and the means of coercion (armed forces and legal system, police forces and prison system). By owning the means of production, the bourgeoisie was able “to employ and exploit […]