Presentation Schedule
Decoding Gendered Sound: Exploring Cultural Bias and Sonic Identity in Ethel Smyth’s The Wreckers (90536)
Session Chair: Chin-Ying Chang
This presentation will be live-streamed via Zoom (Online Access)
Monday, 14 July 2025 09:50
Session: Session 2
Room: Live-Stream Room 5
Presentation Type:Live-Stream Presentation
– click here to convert to your timezone
To the extent that art reflects its creator’s experience, we may ask: when a woman composes music, do elements of her lived experience and gender shape her work? Do societal norms influence how we create and interpret art? Are we predisposed, as composers, performers, and listeners, to associate particular sounds with gendered characteristics?
This paper explores the relationship between sound and gender through a behavioral study and an analysis of Act II from Ethel Smyth’s The Wreckers. The behavioral study tests whether a composer’s gender can be identified through musical content, whether musical sounds suggest gendered traits, and whether gender identity influences judgments of composer gender. I examine Smyth’s writing for the opera’s male and female protagonists, analyzing her use of motives, harmony, and orchestration to determine how she constructs musical identities. Critics of her time described her music as “masculine,” reflecting anxieties about women composers and gendered stylistic expectations.
Coupled with the behavioral data, this analysis highlights the difficulties of assigning gender to sound. Engaging with Sally Macarthur’s concept of a “feminine aesthetic,” I interrogate whether Smyth’s music aligns with or resists gendered categorizations. Drawing on Lewis Rowell’s theories of musical meaning and Leonard B. Meyer’s work on expectation, I examine how cultural conditioning shapes perceptions of gendered sound. By identifying sound as a physical property that cannot be inherently gendered, this paper challenges long-standing assumptions linking gender identity with musical composition and perception.
Authors:
Kimberly Soby, University of Connecticut, United States
About the Presenter(s)
Kimberly Soby is a Ph.D. candidate in Music Theory and Music History at the University of Connecticut. Her research interests include sound and gender and the synthesis of performance and analysis.
See this presentation on the full schedule – Monday Schedule
Conference Comments & Feedback
Place a comment using your LinkedIn profileShare this Presentation
Comments
Powered by WP LinkPress