Women and the Piano: A History in 50 Lives

by Susan Tomes

Women are an essential part of the history of the piano—but how many women pianists can you name?

Throughout most of the piano’s history, women pianists lacked access to formal training and were excluded from male-dominated performance spaces. Even the modern piano’s keys were designed without consideration of women’s typically smaller hands. Yet despite their music being largely confined to the domestic sphere, women continued to play, perform, and compose on their own terms.

Celebrated pianist and author Susan Tomes traces fifty such women across the piano’s history. Including now-famous names such as Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn, Tomes also highlights overlooked from Hélène de Montgeroult, whose playing saved her life during the French Revolution, to Leopoldine Wittgenstein, influential Viennese salonnière, and Hazel Scott, the first Black performer in the United States to have a nationally syndicated TV show.

From Maria Szymanowska to Nina Simone, and including interviews with women performing today, this is a much-needed corrective to our understanding of the piano—and a timely testament to women’s musical lives.

Genres: Music, History, Nonfiction

304 pages, Hardcover

Published April 23, 2024

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a history of women and the piano. Tomes (a well-known pianist) tells the story via a brief biography of fifty different female pianists. They are in Chronological birth order from 1744 to 1949. They are mostly classical pianists but Tomes includes six jazz pianists as well. This pretty much starts with the development of the piano. There is context and background to the history of women and the piano and at the close of the book some reflections and perspectives for the future.
I must admit of the fifty pianists covered I had heard of less than half of them. There are the obvious ones like Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann. There are some interesting asides: Winnaretta Singer had affairs with Romaine Brooks, Virginia Woolf, Violet Trefusis and Ethel Smyth among others. I hadn’t heard of Nadia Boulanger. As well as being a concert pianist she was a composer, conductor and teacher. Those she taught included Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, George Gershwin, Quincy Jones, Philip Glass and Daniel Barenboim to name a few. Barenboim recalls her giving him advice:
“You know how to feel the emotions of music, and you also know how to analyse music. Now your task is to bring the two together. You must learn how to feel the structure of the music, and you must know how to analyse the emotions.”
Many of the women were composers as well as pianists and they are all interesting. Much of their music is unknown, although slowly becoming better known. I found this a fascinating read and learnt a lot.

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

And I thought women in tech have it bad…
I’m not in the field myself, but as a classical music and theatre enthusiast, I’ve often wondered about women composers.

Back when I read Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez, I remember the author mentioning how women pianists were at a disadvantage due to smaller hand size. That stuck with me, but this book showed there’s sooo much more to the story.

I find the author, Susan Tomes, remarkable for researching and writing this book, even if I questioned a few statements that felt more like personal opinions than referenced facts. Then again, I’m pretty sure plenty of male historians have written their “facts” through their own lens, and no one questions them.

We need more books that spotlight and honor women’s struggles, achievements, and the history that often gets left out.

[indy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The highlight was the short but funny biography of Nancy Weir, an irreverent Australian who chose not to pursue the conventional concert pianist path. At 14, Weir knew Schnabel was going too far when he told her that appreciating music requires you to (metaphorically) "take a rope and hang yourself". As Tomes points out, Weir's focus on teaching and bringing music to schools and remote communities touched the lives of more ordinary people than the pianists performing in ticketed concert venues. I wanted more than 3 pages about Weir.

Tomes has good intentions with this book. I appreciate the 50 snapshots of women who have composed for and played the piano; they will be an excellent springboard to further research. On the whole, though, I found this book frustrating and dispiriting.

When writing about the pianist Yuja Wang, Tomes falls into the same trap as the very people she critiques. Tomes paraphrases an unnamed musicologist: "[Yuja Wang] fundamentally changed the narrative when it comes to critical discourse on what a female artist chooses to wear". I thought the goal was to squash all discourse on what women wear so we can focus on the music, like critics do for men. There is no "critical discourse" about the suit or shoes a male pianist wears on stage.

Tomes waxes lyrical about Wang's "ultra-high-heeled shoes", "dazzling" appearance, "pop star" looks, and "youthful glamour". Isn't all of that affirming that women are more likely to succeed when they are visually remarkable? It's great that women are free to wear avant-garde outfits on stage instead of a conventional gown or dress, but we are still giving air time to a woman's appearance over her playing.

This book contains many personal observations disguised as universal truths, such as the idea that all women have softer voices than men and can't play as fast. What the heck?

[John Richens]

Brilliant! Well done, Susan. My initial reservations about tackling so many lives were swept away by the startling cumulative impact of reading about so many women having to battle for recognition in a male-dominated world. You make it crystal clear why so women could only have become successful composers, pianists and conductors if they had sufficient income to combine a professional career with the demands of managing a household and meeting the expectations of husbands and broader society. With the decline of cheap household labour things have, if anything, got even tougher for professional women pianists today. I agree with you fully that the competition circuit and masterclass culture disadvantage women and we have a very long way to go before women pianists can hope for anything close to a level playing field in the professional world. I hope your book is widely read and stimulates long overdue conversations. What you have to say is pertinent to woman pursuing careers of all types and presents a fascinating microcosm of these issues in one very specific field. The sheer variety of the lives of the women you present is extraordinary. It was great to have Nina Simone at the end, though I found you a little over-generous about her bad behaviour late in life. I would like to have seen a nod to Warren Ellis's utterly wacky "Nina Simone's Gum" about the chewing gum she stuck under her Steinway at her last UK gig at the Royal Festival Hall.

[MaryEllen Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

So glad this book was written! Despite having played the piano for more than 60 years, I have been ignorant of the majority of these women. So interesting to learn of their talents, their perseverance through so many obstacles! I am also reading The Piano - A History in 100 pieces by the same author which dovetails nicely with the women and pieces mentioned in this book. Both books need to be read in small pieces - each biographical essay needs to be digested before moving onto the next. Reading them one after another creates a blur. I found stopping and googling each of them to see photos/paintings of the women, listening to the various pieces they played enhanced the reading experience.

[David Dunlap · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fascinating look into female pianists, their lives and their accomplishments. Some of them are rather famous (Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Clara Schumann); many more are obscure. -- The book helps to fill out the portrait of music history. The last chapter, which addresses many of the issues women pianists in particular face, is quite eye-opening...and sobering. -- While I enjoyed reading this book and finding out about pianists of whom I'd never heard (or heard very little), I also found portions of the book a bit dry and lackluster. There were repetitions (of information and of phraseology) that point to careless editing, and the chronology was sometimes a bit skewed. -- Still, I have no difficulty in recommending this book to any who might be interested, and I am glad I read it.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book slowly over about several weeks, which I think is a great way to tackle this book. You can read 1-2 of the biographies in one session easily. I found that biographies engaging and well researched, with commentary from the author that made sense.

I really likes the last few chapters where she shares summative thoughts that address the systemic issues in how we understand and record history, as well as the cultural biases that held women at arm's length in the classical music tradition until fairly recently; that said, based on many responses she discusses from active concert pianists today, many feel they are battling sexism today.

I downloaded lots of new music to learn and highlighted many sections that will be helpful for teaching my music history class.

[N · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating, and embarrassing, how little I knew (and a lot of people don't know) about women pianists. Depressing how so much of the crap women pianists have to up up with is the same as in other professions; judged on how they look, playing like a man is praised while 'acting' like a man (ie assertive) isn't.

[Navida · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating look at the piano, women musicians and the mostly classical music world. Informative and eye opening. A great reference book. Might be giving this as a gift to several of my women composer friends! Loved the chapter on Cecile Chaminade!

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend for persons interested in the role and treatment of women, past and current, who strive to be professional musicians.

[Gooogleion · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really didn’t knew there was so many women in this book

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such an important book in terms of education, repertoire ideas, and inspiration. Young women in any of the artists should read the last two chapters!