Female "voices" In European Musical Salons In The First Half Of The 19th Century

Salon,as a vital part of European culture history,was born in Renaissance and got through a rapid development in the 18^thcentury,eventually prevailing in 19^thcentury.As one special form of salon,the music salon took shape in 18^thcentury and became an important place for middle class family to carrying out culture activities,which made the music salon reach the peak in 19^thcentury.Female would take the some vital roles,such as host,performer and composer,in the music salon,who could also be helpful for the improvement of salon music itself.This thesis includes four chapters.In the first chapter,the writer mainly explains the origin of salon culture,the development of salon music,the connection between female and the music salon,as well as the establishment of musical styles and the changes of creative tendencies which brought by the prosperousness of salon in 18th and 19th century,by collecting,organizing and analyzing various kinds of documents.In the second chapter,the author uses some females who was active in the salon during the 19th century,to name only a few,Sara Itzig Levy,Marie d’Agoult,Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel and Clara Schumann,as examples to explore their achievement in salon music in their three different identities,host,performer and composer.In the third chapter,the writer proceeds music analysis for some bagatelles of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel and the Mélodies of Pauline Viardot Garcia respectively,from several dimensionalities,like the progress of motive,the changes of harmony and the borrowing of music materials.Therefore,the writer could concentrate on the common characteristics of women in music writing and the individual styles contained in their works,which would help with expounding the culture value of their music creations.The fourth chapter bases on the women’activities in salon and combines the culture language on the19th century to interpret the growth of women with the support of the music salon and the promoting effects of women that finally leading the evolution of the salon music,which were all under the constraints of traditional gender concepts and other factors.