Four Centuries of Women's Musical Salons

The story of how women's musicianship flourished at social gatherings in Europe and the Americas, as well as North Africa and the Ottoman Empire.

For centuries, women have organized social gatherings known as 'salons', which have served as sites of women's creativity in the arts, sciences, and letters – especially music. Through case studies ranging across Europe, the Americas, North Africa, and the Ottoman Empire, this volume foregrounds women's musicianship in cross-cultural perspective.For centuries, women have organized and hosted social gatherings known as 'salons,' which have served as sites of women's creativity and agency in the arts, sciences, and letters – especially music. This volume offers new understandings of women's musical salons across four centuries from North America, Latin America, Europe, North Africa, and the Ottoman Empire, foregrounding an often-overlooked platform of women's musicianship in cross-cultural perspective. Drawing on disciplines including musicology, ethnomusicology, women's and gender studies, cultural and performance studies, film studies, art history, anthropology, and Jewish studies, the authors present a new history of women and music through the lens of musical salon culture. The twenty-five case studies included in the book present an array of practices and manifestations of the institution of musical salons. These cases demonstrate how women from a wide range of social and cultural backgrounds used salons as sites of agency, shaping their musical environments according to their distinctive interests and ideals.