Música, maestra

Often forgotten, almost always ignored, very rarely recognized. This has been the state of the female question in music until very recently. Considered mere performers, muses or, simply, visual seasoning in the performances of men, the few pioneers who dared to enter the music industry suffered ostracism and contempt, when they were not condemned to the darkest corner of historiographical memory -if not grass of the most merciless anonymity-. Conceived and put together to counteract the hegemonic masculine discourse in musical literature -mostly written by and for men-, Music, teacher has as its objective, in addition to celebrating the work of such a diverse cast of creators, to settle a long-awaited account: to undermine the sexist bias that has impregnated the essences of the canon in music, literature and cinema. And it does so through biographical sketches composed by writers who vindicate the women whose music, in one way or another, has accompanied them throughout their lives. Artists who rose to the forefront of their time, committed women who joined in their making music and activism, indefatigable transgressors, singer-songwriters, performers, all of whom come from all substrata of the musical spectrum -folk, rock, rap, country, jazz, classical, electronic, etc.-. From Lhasa de Sela, a high school friend turned into a cult object by Maggie Nelson, to Wendy Carlos, the pioneer of electronic music who decided to get away from the madding crowd, evoked here by Sinéad Gleeson, or the ineffable Yoshimi, the Japanese drummer with the who shared the stage and not a few experiences Kim Gordon. Sixteen essays on music written by women with which to shed a little light on the life and work of these and many other artists such as Laurie Anderson, Ella Fitzgerald or Agnes "Sis" Cunningham with the much-needed and urgent aim of beginning to balance the balance.