Women Patrons and Activists For Modernist Music: New York in the 1920s

• Published in: Modernism/modernity (Baltimore, Md.) Vol. 4; no. 1; pp. 129 - 155
• Main Author: Oja, Carol J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Johns Hopkins University Press 1997
• Subjects: Females; Modernity; Music; New York City, New York; Patronage; Sex Role Attitudes; Volunteers
• ISSN: 1071-6068; 1080-6601; 1080-6601
• DOI: 10.1353/mod.1997.0004

Explores the contribution of women (eg, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, Blanche Wetherill Walton, & Alma Morgenthau Wertheim) to the new music movement in 1920s New York City, drawing on historical documents. In addition to patronage, women played more visible roles in the movement in positions such as the executive directorship of the International Composers' Guild. Although they occupied prominent places in the movement, women's contributions were generally held in disdain both by women & men. It is suggested that the opposition between their contributions & attitudes toward their roles indicates a blending of 20th-century modern & 19th-century traditional attitudes toward music: modern in the sense that the new woman played a vital part in the creation of a new US art form & traditional in the sense that men reacted to this participation by rejecting the worth of feminine contributions. 2 Photographs. D. M. Smith