During the center of the 18th century, Europe started shifting in the direction of a fresh approach in design, writing and essentially arts which is referred to classicism. It attempted to imitate the values of classical olden times and most specifically those of classical Greece. During this era, there were only two writers of classical music and they were Mozart and Haydn.
Women in this era were just supposed to execute music and not create music like the men did. Their role was to simply provide entertainment and this was some kind of a prerequisite that women during the colonial times were supposed to have. Their role was to just sit at home and play any kind of instruments so that they could entertain visitors and also their families. However, women later came up in quite a strong way in giving education on music to such an extent that women had the upper hand in education of music. Generally, this is what women were supposed to do in the 18th century classical era. In Greece during the classical period, women who went for symposiums were only supposed to dance professionally to the music (Hemelrijik 42).
Women were not supposed to compose music. This was supposed to be men’s work. Women who even tried to compose music were discouraged all the time and even their fathers and husbands discouraged and warned them against going for that option. As a result, a lot of women who had talent in music were forbidden from making any contributions to the musical heritage during the 18th century classical era. However, there were some women who were quite stubborn and refused to be undermined by the men in their era. They therefore went ahead and came up with their own means of composing music secretly. Others even used neutral pen names. Their role was to just support men when they made it in music. Women were just supposed to train families and professionals who were socially related (Pendle, 136).
Work cited.
Emily Ann Hemelrijk .”Matrona docta: educated women in the Roman élite from Cornelia to Julia Domna”. New York Routledge, 1999
Karin Pendle .“Women and music”. Michigan :Indiana University Press, 2001
