Thesis (MMus (Music))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / This study consists of two parts. The first part focuses primarily on literature that discusses the biography in general, and then turns its focus more sharply on the music biography. A critical reading of three South African music biographies is conducted in order to identify tendencies or patterns in the biographical writing of musicians, especially performers. The second part of this thesis consists of a biographical case study of Pack. This particular biography makes no claim that it will not be faced with the same problems illustrated in the general discussion on biography as a discipline, but rather through the established critical frame claims to qualify and critically elucidate the biographical writing pertaining to Pack. This case study will underline one of the defining elements in the writing of lives of those figures who are considered less important, namely the limited resource material that tend to replicate the themes and stereotypes inherent in biographical writing. This practical problem causes an inevitable repetition of the intellectual difficulties of biographical writing. The purpose of this biography, which is the combination of different source materials and, is not necessarily to avoid these “myths”, but to identify it by critical reflection. With this approach, it is not the biography itself that becomes “critical”, but rather the reading and comprehension of the biography. Finally, the conclusion is reached that Betty Pack’s life as committed to paper and memory displays various themes and topoi characteristic of the music biography in general, rather than just the biographies of performers. The conventions of music biography, as consolidated in the biographical descriptions of composers, thus still provide the norms and forms for the biography of the performing artist.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.Mus.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1987.

There is no abstract available for this dissertation. / School of Music

This thesis examines the impact of gender, feminism and motherhood on the careers of four Australian composers: Margaret Sutherland (1897–1984), Ann Carr-Boyd (b. 1938), Elena Kats-Chernin (b. 1957) and Katy Abbott (b. 1971). / Aspects of the biographies of each of these women are explored, and I situate their narratives within the cultural and musical contexts of their eras, in order to achieve heightened understanding of the ideologies and external influences that have contributed to their choices and experiences. Methodologies derived from feminist biography and oral history/ethnography underpin this study. Theorists who inform this work include Marcia Citron, Daphne de Marneffe, Sherna Gluck, Carolyn Heilbrun, Anne Manne, Ann Oakley, Alessandro Portelli, Adrienne Rich and Robert Stake, along with many others. / The demands traditionally placed on women through motherhood and domesticity have led to a lack of time and creative space being available to develop their careers. Thus they have faced significant challenges in gaining public recognition as serious composers. There is a need for biographical analysis of these women’s lives, in order to consider their experiences and the encumbrances they have faced through attempting to combine their creative and mothering roles. Previous scholarship has concentrated more on their compositions than on the women who created them, and the impact of private lives on public lives has not been considered worthy of consideration. / Three broad themes are investigated. First, the ways in which each composer’s family background, upbringing and education have impacted on their decision to enter the traditionally male field of composition are explored. The positive influence from family and other mentors, and opportunities for a sound musical education, are factors particularly necessary for aspiring female composers. I argue that all four women have benefited from upbringings in families where education and artistic endeavour have been valued highly. / The second theme concerns the extent to which the feminist movement has influenced the women’s lives as composers and mothers, and the levels of frustration, and/or satisfaction or pleasure each has felt in blending motherhood with composition. I contend that all four composers have led feminist lives in the sense that they have exercised agency and a sense of entitlement in choices regarding their domestic and work lives. The three living composers have reaped the benefits of second-wave feminism, but have eschewed complete engagement with its agenda, especially its repudiation of motherhood. They can more readily be identified with the currently evolving third wave of feminism, which advocates women’s freedom to choose how to balance the equally-valued roles of motherhood and the public world of work. I assert that Sutherland was a third-wave prototype, a position that was atypical of her era. / The third and final theme comprises an investigation of the ways in which historical and enduring negative attitudes towards women as musical creators have played out in the musical careers in these composers. It is contested that Sutherland experienced greater challenges than her successors in the areas of dissemination, composition for larger forces, and critical reception, but appears to have been more comfortable in promoting her work. The exploration of their careers demonstrates that all four of these creative mothers are well-respected and recognised composers. They are ‘third-wave’ women who have considerably enriched Australia’s musical landscape.