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Analytical Essays on Music by Women Composers wins Pauline Alderman Award

Published: 30 June 2020

Analytical Essays on Music by Women Composers: Concert Music, 1960–2000 by Laurel Parsons and Dean Brenda Ravenscroft has won the 2017 Pauline Alderman Award for Outstanding Scholarship on Women in Music in the book category! An adjudicator of the award praised the book for its incredible and necessary research and was specifically impressed with the original and rigorous analysis of music by women composers.

The first volume of a four-book project, Analytical Essays on Music by Women Composers presents detailed studies of compositions by Ursula Mamlok (Joseph N. Straus), Norma Beecroft (Prof. Christoph Neidhöfer), Joan Tower (Jonathan Bernard), Sofia Gubaidulina (Judy Lochhead), Chen Yi (Nancy Rao), Kaija Saariaho (John Roeder), Libby Larsen (Brenda Ravenscroft), and Elisabeth Lutyens (Laurel Parsons). The book includes an introductory chapter by Parsons and Ravenscroft which situates the essays in the contemporary environment of the female composer and examines the representation of her music in creative and scholarly forums.

Members of the McGill community can access this book through the McGill library.


Founded in 1985 by the International Congress on Women in Music, the Pauline Alderman Awards were created to honour the memory of pioneering musicologist Pauline Alderman, Ph.D. (1893–1983), founder and chair of the Music History Department of the University of Southern California. Awards are presented every two years in two categories: books and articles. Learn more about these awards.

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