The purpose of this historical investigation was to contribute to the growing body of knowledge about women in music education by means of documenting the life and career of Genevieve F. Hargiss (1912-1995), a lesser known yet exemplary twentieth-century music educator. Through the investigation of primary source materials including Hargiss's…

The history of female piano teachers, especially those working with children, remains largely unstudied. Estelle Philleo (1880-1936) is one example from the early 20th century who specialized in group lessons for beginners. A New Woman who never married, she began as a junior piano teacher at the Michigan Female Seminary before graduating in 1902.…

In this article, Carl Czerny's "Letters to a Young Lady on the Art of Playing the Pianoforte" (1837) is studied as a machine manual within the cybernetic economy of James Watt's governor. It is argued that while the young pupil is encouraged to subject herself to a strict discipline of physical deportment at the piano, this activity is…

At the end of the nineteenth century, music was an accomplishment that many women were encouraged to pursue. For some, this was merely an additional "ornament" to enhance marriage prospects, but a growing number took the opportunity to turn musical ability into a career option. A small group of musically educated women in New Zealand at…

The purpose of this study was to determine how women music teachers became the United States' first female military band directors. Interviews with seventy-nine World War II military bandswomen revealed that seven of the ten chosen female directors were music teachers prior to their enlistment in the Army, Coast Guard, or Marines--band and…

Between 1920 and 1928, William Churchill Hammond's Christmas Caroling Choir at Mount Holyoke College, in South Hadley, Massachusetts, not only helped to reinstate the musical celebration of Christmas after Puritan beliefs had precluded it in New England, but also provided one of the first experiences for American women to tour, as professional…