Women and the Piano

Susan Tomes

Women are an essential part of the history of the piano - but how many women pianists can you name? Throughout most of the piano's history, women pianists lacked access to formal training and were excluded from male-dominated performance spaces. Even the modern piano's keys were designed without consideration of women's typically smaller hands. Yet despite their music being largely confined to the domestic sphere, women continued to play, perform, and compose on their own terms. Celebrated pianist and author Susan Tomes traces fifty such women across the piano's history. Including now-famous names such as Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn, Tomes also highlights overlooked women: from Hélène de Montgeroult, whose playing saved her life during the French Revolution, to Leopoldine Wittgenstein, an influential Viennese salonnière.

Author(s): Tomes, Susan
Binding: Paperback
Date of Publication: 09/05/2025
Pagination: 304 pages
Series: N/A
Imprint: Yale University Press
Published By: Yale University Press
Book Classification: Keyboard instruments|Biography: arts & entertainment|Gender studies: women & girls
Dimensions: 197 x 127
Weight:
ISBN13\EAN\SKU: 9780300281101