{"id":10,"date":"2017-11-03T12:12:51","date_gmt":"2017-11-03T11:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.uit.no\/mgb-conference\/?page_id=10"},"modified":"2018-03-20T07:31:31","modified_gmt":"2018-03-20T06:31:31","slug":"key-notes","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/site.uit.no\/mgb-conference\/key-notes\/","title":{"rendered":"Keynotes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Victoria Armstrong\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>(St Mary\u2019s University, Twickenham, London)<\/strong><\/p>\n

When ‘Good’ Work Turns ‘Bad’: Creative Labour\u00a0and the Working Lives of Female Classical Musicians<\/strong><\/p>\n

The recent cultural turn in the examination of creative labour has resulted in binaristic perspectives which are either over-celebratory viewing this type of work as\u00a0flexible, pleasurable, and affording high levels of autonomy, or characterised in negative terms because of the likelihood of it resulting in (self)exploitation, precariousness, and requiring the \u2018gifting\u2019 of free labour. Consequently, Hesmondhalgh (2010: 234) asks the question, is creative labour barely disguised \u2018bad\u2019 work?\u00a0\u00a0Drawing on his concept of \u2018good\u2019 and \u2018bad\u2019 work, this paper will offer a critical analysis of the subjective experience of\u00a0women’s labour\u00a0from the perspectives of female classical musicians\u00a0– how they experience their musical lives, and the factors which circumscribe the choices and decisions they\u00a0make\u00a0about their musical and non-musical lives. As Hesmondhalgh (2010: 235) notes \u2018total autonomy in any sphere of life \u2013 whether artistic, scientific or ethical \u2013 is an impossible ideal, because there is not life without constraints and determinants\u2019.\u00a0 The challenge is mediating between overly deterministic and overly voluntaristic accounts of subjectivity for these workers.\u00a0I argue that creative labour is largely perceived as \u2018good\u2019 work by my participants but can become \u2018bad\u2019 work when it impacts on artistic quality, self esteem and confidence. I draw attention to a number of factors which may contribute to this shift, arguing that these are highly gendered. The data presented are drawn from an on-going research project involving\u00a0twenty four\u00a0female classical musicians based in the UK, ranging in age from their mid-twenties to mid-50s, and working as composers, conductors and performers.\u00a0\u00a0Over a five week period, each participant compiled a personal \u2018digital diary\u2019 comprising information about their musical and non-musical lives. The content of the diaries was not analysed but, using a form of photo elicitation, the women wove narratives around their data which allowed themes around the nature of work to emerge and be explored. This enabled me to \u2018demarginalise\u2019 the voice of respondents in these accounts (Murthy, 2008: 839) as the authority of the subject is central to the study\u2019s concerns.<\/p>\n

Victoria Armstrong, PhD<\/strong> is Director of Education and Social Science at St. Mary\u2019s University, London. She originally trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama\u00a0and worked as a freelance singer specialising in contemporary music.\u00a0As a sociologist of music, her academic interests focus on issues relating to gender,\u00a0social justice and inclusion in education and within the music industry.\u00a0She regularly presents her work at conferences\u00a0in the UK, Europe and the US. She recently contributed a chapter entitled \u2018Gendered Perspectives\u2019\u00a0to the\u00a0Routledge Companion to Music, Technology and Education<\/em>.\u00a0She is the author of\u00a0Technology and the Gendering of Music Education<\/em>\u00a0and is currently working on a second monograph,\u00a0Women\u2019s Musical Lives\u00a0<\/em>based on the ethnographies of female professional\u00a0musicians exploring the gendered dimensions of labour\u00a0in cultural work. She serves on the editorial board of\u00a0Music Education Research.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

Cecilia Bj\u00f6rck\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>(University of\u00a0<\/strong>Gothenburg)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Music, Gender\u00a0<\/strong>and Social\u00a0<\/strong>Change – Contemporary Debates, Directions and Challenges<\/strong><\/p>\n

For decades, various efforts have been made to counteract the effects of male-dominated\u00a0and\/or sexist\u00a0music cultures\u00a0and to balance the number of women in areas and positions where they are underrepresented.\u00a0In popular music, such efforts have often been channelled into creating alternative women- and girls-only spaces, offering opportunities to network, to perform, and to develop technical and artistic skills in a supportive environment (Bj\u00f6rck, 2013), for example through rock camps for girls.\u00a0The recent #metoo movement, which has\u00a0shaken various professional sectors during the fall of 2017 including the music industry, indicates that different forms of power misuse in popular (and also classical) music remain. In Sweden, the #metoo critique is situated in an ongoing arts and culture debate about the benefits and risks of gender equality policy goals in relation to artistic freedom and quality. In a larger and global context, the critique also relates to negotiations on how democracy and equality are to be understood and carried into action in contemporary society.\u00a0This\u00a0presentation will map central issues currently discussed in music practice and research and show examples of ongoing gender-equality efforts in music, today\u00a0applying to a broad range of genres and musical activities. I will also discuss how ideas about gender equality in music relate to themes such as freedom\/limitation, visibility\/invisibility, and neoliberal\/social justice discourses, and also how gender-equality work is complicated by calls for intersectional perspectives.<\/p>\n

Cecilia Bj\u00f6rck<\/strong> holds a position as senior lecturer in Education at University of Gothenburg. Her research interest is focused on norms and discourses concerning popular culture and gender equality. Her PhD thesis in Music Education (2011) discusses the use of spatial metaphors in discourses on gender, popular music, and social change; in particular, the argument that women must \u201cclaim space\u201d in order to participate in popular music practice. Cecilia’s ongoing researching includes music organizations\u2019 equality work, music and emotion in feminist activism, and young Swedes\u2019 interest in Japanese popular culture.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

Astrid Kvalbein<\/a> <\/strong>(Norwegian Academy of Music)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Forever Exceptional?\u00a0 On Women Who Compose Music<\/b><\/p>\n

What histories do we tell about women who compose music now, and those who composed music in the past? And what stories do female composers tell through their works? Drawing on examples from western art music from the 19th<\/sup> century until today, I will ask how feminist musicology might move beyond descriptions that emphasize the limitations that women composers have been and still are subject to due to their sex \u2013 or have overcome despite all odds. \u00a0Therefore, the question that emerges is: how do we re-examine the criteria for artistic quality, success and significance in art music \u2013 that still lean heavily on concepts of the genius, the autonomous art work and the importance of technological mastery? And might new definitions open up to women\u2019s contributions in new ways? \u00a0I will draw upon my doctoral work on the Norwegian composer and critic Pauline Hall (1890-1969) where I studied how gender came forward as an aspect in many different discourses, for instance on nationality, high and low culture, and even musical form and structure. Subsequently, I will discuss if the dissolving of traditional tonalities and work concepts in modernist and avant-garde music might release tensions between so-called masculine and feminine opposites in music and its social contexts. Or was male power simply re-established in new forms in the 1960s? Finally, three Nordic works from the 2000s and 2010s open up for new questions: what kind of statements are being made when female composers in the postmodern era include their children\u2019s babbling, Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s baroque feminist postures and Robert Schumann\u2019s idealizing \u201cFrauenliebe und Leben\u201d (Love and Life of a Woman) in their works? \u00a0The lecture will include live performance.<\/p>\n

Astrid Kvalbein<\/strong> specializes in Norwegian and Nordic music history from the 1900s to the 2000s, and is editor of the book Musikk og kj\u00f8nn \u2013 i utakt<\/em>? (Norsk Kulturr\u00e5d 2008). She wrote her PhD thesis (2013) on Pauline Hall (1890-1969) a profiled composer, music critic and founder of the Norwegian section of the International Society for Contemporary Music, Ny Musikk. As a postdoc, Kvalbein has studied the modernist composer Fartein Valen (1897-1952), focusing on the international reception of his music (see \u201cFr\u00e5 den sorte gryte og ut i verda \u2013 Pauline Hall og Fartein Valen i ISCM\u201d, Studia Musicologica Norvegica <\/em>42\/2016). Kvalbein has also written two chapters for the book series A Cultural History of the Avant-Garde in the Nordic Countries<\/em> (vol. II 1925-1950 and vol. IV 1975-2000, Brill 2018), including one on the Ultima festival of contemporary music. Currently she is a researcher and manager of a project on the history of the Norwegian Academy of Music. Kvalbein is also a freelance writer and singer with a particular interest in contemporary music.<\/p>\n

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Victoria Armstrong\u00a0(St Mary\u2019s University, Twickenham, London) When ‘Good’ Work Turns ‘Bad’: Creative Labour\u00a0and the Working Lives of Female Classical Musicians The recent cultural turn in the examination of creative labour has resulted in binaristic perspectives which are either over-celebratory viewing … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":746,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.uit.no\/mgb-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.uit.no\/mgb-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.uit.no\/mgb-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.uit.no\/mgb-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/746"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.uit.no\/mgb-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/site.uit.no\/mgb-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":335,"href":"https:\/\/site.uit.no\/mgb-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10\/revisions\/335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.uit.no\/mgb-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}