A one-hour flight feels like 15 minutes and I'm in Phoenix, AZ. I won't regret that I'm here for this fantastic conference. I am basically an outsider to feminist theory, except that I read Susan McClary's book Music and Society (which was published like 20 years ago) and some of Rose Rosengard Subotnik's article. I saw that Phoenix isn't that far away from SD and flight ticket prices are reasonable, so I decided to jump onto the flight!
(Allow me to reveal my ignorance in the following passage, and close the browser if you don't wanna read on,)
The most exciting part, for me, is to see how the NYU violinist Megan Atchley embodied her feminist analysis to her performance. She cogently argued and pursuaded me that the expressiveness of the piano (soft volume) press bow in Saariaho's Nocturne for solo violin has a quality that echoes her identity as a woman. The soft dynamics could have been even softer given the medium-small size of the hall, but I was struck by the quality of both the verbal and musical work she did.
I feel fortunate that I get to know about the three waves of feminist theory movements and how that can be used persuasively, or how dangerous it can be if not cogently argued. It could have been as simple as "women being able to do whatever they like", or "women not doing whatever they like", but it's also much more complicated than that. Scholars always look closely into issues of agents and different views from the three waves of feminist theories.
I also got to know a lot more non-classical music, and how their politics (in the broader sense) is. That includes Bessie Smith, Led Zepplin, Tracy Chapman, Charles Mingus, Sarah Vaughan, cock rock and Spice Girls. Violence (domestic and/or sexual), irony, understanding, commercialization, and politics (in the narrower sense) are great, if sometimes distubing, food for thoughts.
And the post-presentation discussions were also fascinating. Mary Fonow and Susan McClary conducted lively discussions, and Ellen Kostkoff's comments are always trenchant. I didn't participate in any discussion. I think I will at some point, and right now I'm enjoying as a listener, seeing how minds cross.
Website for the conference: http://ftm11.events.asu.edu/
Will look forward to Day 2.
good for you!
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