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expatbassist t1_j21tz9m wrote

Plenty of phenomenal female composers in the classical music world. Since you've listed a bunch of film composers, someone like Caroline Shaw or Libby Larsen might be up your street.

The idea of the "Greats" is a bit of an interesting concept anyway; speaking as a classical musician, the idea of the Canon that I grew up with was actually really only constructed in the early 20th century within academia as a way of presenting a narrative structure of music history that really centered Germanic music. A lot of who we think of as the "Greats" of a particular era often were not seen that way during their time at all; Bach was of course famously forgotten until Mendelssohn found his manuscripts in Leipzig and began a revival of his music. Mendelssohn himself was considered world class during his lifetime, but when Wagner wrote his treatise attacking Jews in Music (and specifically named Mendelssohn for having Jewish ancestry), Mendelssohn was removed from being thought of as one of the "Greats."

Anyway, I say all that because there were a ton of successful, popular women composers who were considered first rate in their time that were purposely omitted when the Canon was being constructed. Florence Price, Ethyl Smyth, Amy Beach, and Rebecca Clarke were all very highly regarded in the late Romantic Era; Price has been having a pretty big resurgence the last few years, actually.

But yeah, sorry for the long post. Check out Shaw, Larsen, and Jennifer Higdon. Sofia Gubaidalina and Kaijia Saariaho if youre up for something a bit crunchier. But for real, there are so many out there that we in the classical music world are finally starting to try and recognize.

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