07-05 TABLE of CONTENTS:
Wanda Landowska, high priestess of
the harpsichord
Vera Brodsky Lawrence saved music
of Joplin and Gottschalk
Sexism of Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and
EVENTS
QUOTE by
Letty M. Russell.
Landowska High Priestess
of the Harpsichord
Wanda
Landowska
at her harpsichord.
Polish-born,
French resident, Wanda Landowska (b. 07-05-1879) was recognized world-wide
as the high priestess of the harpsichord.
She founded Ecole de Musique Ancienne (1925)
in a small town near Paris where she lived. The institute was founded for
experienced musicians to learn old musical instruments and musical styles.
She gave her acclaimed concerts there also. WL was the recognized authority
on keyboard instruments of the 17th and 18th centuries. After painstakingly
examination of a large number of museum harpsichords, WL had her personal
harpsichord specially built to her specification so that her own instrument
would reflect the sounds of the mid-1700's - the peak of harpsichord usage.
Fleeing before Hitler's armies, she had to abandon her 10,000 volume library
and world collection of old instruments.
Her mother Eve was a linguist in Warsaw, Poland.
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Modern Archeologist of Black American
Music
Vera Brodsky Lawrence, U.S.
music historian, pianist, and editor brought the almost forgotten works
of Scott Joplin and Louis Moreau Gottschalk to the public attention. Her
The Collected Works of Scott Joplin (1971) made the forgotten music
available. Lawrence's work was responsible for the resurgence of ragtime
in the 1970s.
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White Men-Only Bigotry in Vienna Philharmonic
Ann Lelkes was the harpist
with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra for 26 years but was never recognized
as a member of the orchestra nor listed on its program. She was finally
made the first woman member of the VPO in face of a threatened boycott
of its 1997 U.S. tour of the VPO that provides so much of its money.
The orchestra chair at the time opposed women, claiming
an orchestra containing women ran the risk of being paralyzed by "mass
pregnancy." He also said it was an orchestra of white men playing
music by white men for white men.
Under growing pressure from women's groups and musicians
who know that musicianship is not dependent upon one's genitalia, the orchestra
is gradually hiring women.
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07-05 DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and EVENTS
B. 07-05-1839, Hannah Clark Johnston Bailey - U.S. reformer and
peace advocate.
B. 07-05-1857, Clara Zetkin - German socialist and later communist
and feminist leader. A noted orator, CZ gained prominence in the Socialist
Democratic Party and founded the party's newspaper for women aDie Gleicheit
which she edited from 1892 to 1917.
Breaking with the socialists,
she was a major factor in the organizing of the German Communist party
in 1919. She served in the German Reischstage from 1920 to 1932 as a communist
deputy.
She was most responsible
for the creation of International Woman's Day [See Women
of Achievement and Herstory 03-08].
Event 07-05-1870: St. Louis passed ordinance requiring prostitutes
to be medically inspected (male customers were not inspected) for venereal
disease.
With no women in government
or in positions of power, prostitution was seen as a necessary evil and
no limits on age or forced prostitution (white slavery) were considered
- and only women were arrested for such sex crimes as prostitution.
Event 07-05-1900: Elizabeth Cohn becomes the first woman allowed
to second the nomination at a national political convention when she speaks
on behalf of William Jennings Bryan for president of the United States
in the Democratic National Convention at Kansas City, MO.
B. 07-05-1920, Frances Christine Fisher Tiernan - U.S. author
who published under the pseudonym Christian Reid.
DIED 07-05-1996, Anne Hummert (b. 1905) who was considered the mother
of radio soap operas, creating such enduring shows as Just Plain
Bill, and Helen Trent followed by Stella Dallas and Young
Widder Brown.
In today's TV world,
it's hard to imagine the draw of radio drama, but lonely women all alone
inside their isolated homes could listen while doing their heavy household
and mothering duties. The shows were usually 15 minutes long during the
day and those in the evening were a half hour.
Hummert's evening programs
included Mr. Keen, tracer of lost persons and Mystery Theater.
When TV took over, she
and her husband retired and spent the multi-millions she earned with her
writing by happily traveling and enjoying the good life. She was active
until almost the end of her 91 year life.
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QUOTES DU JOUR
RUSSELL, LETTY M.:
"Women not only
seek identity in history but begin to seek out their sisters so that, in
community, they can build a strong feminist culture which supports the
ideas and actions of those who do not think persons are inferior because
of their sex. Here the emphasis is on vertical support from the past and
from women of the past, as well as horizontal support from sisters close
by, and in every part of the globe."
-- from Human Liberation in a Feminist Perspective - a Theology
by Letty M. Russell. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press,1974.
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