Music and Gender

As I ponder how gender differences play a role in music, my mind is teeming with various thoughts, questions, and memories of personal experiences. I barely know where to begin. Gender plays a huge role in how a person experiences music (whether they are a performer or listener).

As an instrumentalist, I have seen firsthand that girls play certain instruments while boys play others. Throughout middle school and high school, the high woodwind sections (and the french horn section) were comprised mainly of girls while boys occupied the low woodwind, brass, and percussion sections. (Sounds kind of like the Converse Wind Ensemble…full of flutes and clarinets but lacking in brass.) I think this is partly due to our culture’s need to label things as either “masculine” or “feminine”. A smaller instrument considered “feminine”, while the larger instruments (or instruments that produce a large sound) are considered “masculine”.

But as for me, I am a female and I play the clarinet. However, I chose the clarinet not because I thought it complimented my “femininity”, but rather as a matter of convenience. My aunt had a clarinet for me to use, so that was what I played. It was the same situation for my older sister. Our dad played the tenor sax and still owned it, so it was convenient for my sister to play the tenor sax. Soon after beginning the clarinet, I picked up the tenor sax so that I could join the jazz band and even marched tenor sax in high school.

Playing the tenor sax in marching band while playing clarinet in my high school wind ensemble gave me two totally different experiences. The sax section had only guys (except for me) whereas the clarinet section had only girls. In marching band, the other saxophonists seemed to respect me perhaps because I was the only female in a male dominant section. (Or, it could’ve been because I was actually a better player than them…) In the wind ensemble clarinet section there was quite a bit of competition, We were constantly challenging each other and there was always a power struggle going on.

Being at an all-women’s college I definitely notice things like the ratio of men to women in a professional orchestra or the number of women composers on a particular program. Right now I am busy preparing for my senior recital (February 18^th!) and just recently realized that all of the music I am playing was composed by men. In fact, I don’t actually think I have ever played a solo clarinet piece written by a woman. (Although I almost did this great piece by Libby Larsen: “Dancing Solo”… look it up. It will knock your socks off)

I do think these trends are changing, though. Women now have equal opportunities as men to perform and compose, and I think young musicians are beginning to realize that you don’t need to be a girl or boy to play a certain instrument. Rather, you simply need to love it.