Comparing Ethel Smyth And Hildegard Of Bingen

The different stories of prominent female composers illustrate that each one of them, especially those before Ethel Smyth, had characteristics that set them apart from the average woman in their respective time periods. For instance, the first noted composer, Hildegard of Bingen, was regarded as a prophet and her works were works were viewed as being divine in nature since she would not have had the necessary training to produce such a composition. On the other hand, Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet derived her musical and compositional prowess from training she received as a result of being accepted into the court of King Louis XIV. These two cases are similar because the acceptance of women as being able to produce musical compositions lies in the fact that they are allowed this understanding of music by their connection with authority and paternal figures. This is a trend that can be seen in most of the other stories as many of the listed women had men in their lives that had the power to enhance or destroy their compositional career. For instance, Clara Wieck’s husband successfully quelled her desire to create original compositions. The fact that third parties (Wieck’s husband and Jacquet’s mistress) could profoundly affect the success of a female composer illustrates that the …show more content…
It appears that she is in someone divinely impacted because the text states that she was uneducated and in the image she is shown reading a book that is likely the Bible. As can be gathered from the writing on the bottom portion of the image, she was an abbess, which means that she would have held a place of leadership within the monastery she lived. Furthermore, the writing also suggests that she died at 82 years old, which adds to the divine aura that surrounds her since that is about the average age people pass away in developed countries in the 21st century and she perished in the