A Northeastern Tradition

In 1983, professor Judith Tick (now emeritus) published one of the first books to address the wide disparity between the actual achievements of female composers in the nineteenth century, and the recognition afforded them by standard histories (American Women Composers Before 1870). Tick's pioneering work on the musical achievements of women continued with the anthology Women Making Music: The Western Art Tradition, 1150-1950 (1986). Today, Tick is still working to bring greater recognition to the accomplishments of female musicians. Her current project is a biography of Ella Fitzgerald, with attention to the singer's musical expression of proto-feminist ideas on gender relations.