Koda and Hayward
Background of Female Musicians in the Early 20th Century in Japan and in the UK - Comparing Concert Reviews
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31265/fkys8e98Keywords:
Western Classical Music, Violin, Female Musicians, Asian Musicians, Concert ReviewsAbstract
Throughout history, female musicians have often been expected to be charming, young, and look attractive, but not to demonstrate mastery greater than their male counterparts. This social expectation has existed since female musicians appeared. One outcome of this emphasis on appearance rather than musical involvement is that after the death of female musicians, their impact is not nearly as documented as is the case for male musicians. ‘She’ is not recognised not only during her lifetime, but also posthumously.
This paper introduces two musicians from Japan and the UK who lived at the same time - Nobu Koda (1870-1946) and Marjorie Hayward (1885-1953). I use concert reviews to demonstrate their backgrounds, as case studies of female violinists of the time.
The first person in a community often receives an especially intense backlash - this was the case for Nobu Koda, the first composer of western classical music in Japan. Koda was a violinist, pianist, a teacher, and a composer, and was the first person who studied abroad as a Japanese musician. Although her outstanding talent and career, she was forced to quit her job in the music institute because of the negative campaign by competitors for her position of head of the department.
Despite her 30-year contribution as an educator at the Royal Academy of Music, it is very hard to find the information about Marjorie Hayward the violinist today. There are many recordings of the broadcasts she made, however, further stories about her are not yet available. She started her professional career as a child prodigy, and many concert reviews in her childhood can be found, but the number of reviews decreased year by year.
Comparing these two, we can see what kind of situations women have faced, and the detail of differences in the philosophies towards music in those two countries, at the dawn of western classical music in Japan, and at the same time in the UK.
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