‘Where words fail, music speaks’ – a tribute to the power of music, from the famous Danish author Hans Christian Andersen.

Yet, as is the case for many professions, music has been historically dominated by males, with female composers’ incredible contributions often overlooked and forgotten.

This article presents some of the incredible women in music, both in the past and present. Their influence has shaped the music we listen to and cherish today, and it is the hope that one day, they will be truly recognised for their talents.

Hildegard von Bingen

Composer, poet and saint Hildegard von Bingen is known for her religious music, which was composed for nuns to sing during devotions. 

Born in 1098 in Germany, Hildegard was the tenth child in a noble family. It was customary at the time to pledge the tenth child of a family to the church, so at a young age, Hildegard was sent to live her life in a secluded hilltop monastery. 

After her mentor, Jutta of Sponheim, died, Hildegard took on leadership responsibilities at the monastery, where she was given the opportunity to write music for the nuns to sing. Little is known about her creative process, and her music was probably not heard outside her convent during her lifetime. 

Accounts from the time explain just how extraordinary Hildegard really was. She was also known for her prophetic visions, news of which even reached the pope. She was a prolific writer, and a pioneer in the sciences. As one of the earliest named female composers, her music has inspired generations of musicians, even though she still isn’t as renowned as some male composers. 

Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel

The Mendelssohn name may be familiar to you thanks to revered composer Felix Mendelssohn (composer of the world-famous ‘Wedding March’), but his older sister Fanny has long been hidden in his shadow. 

One famous piece, written by Fanny and published under her brother’s name, was the song ‘Italien’. It is said that this was a particular favourite of Queen Victoria, who asked Felix to perform the piece and was surprised to learn that it was not his own work.

It was not until 1846, aged 41, that Fanny was able to publish a piece under her own name. Unfortunately, she died just a year later.

Leokadiya Kashperova

For decades, Leokadiya Kashperova has been best known, if at all, as Igor Stravinsky’s piano teacher. Her reputation was tainted after he described her as “antiquated” and a “blockhead”. 

However, Kashperova, born in 1872, was a much-loved part of the musical scene in Moscow. 

She enjoyed composing in a variety of styles, including symphonic works, vocal pieces and, of course, solo piano pieces. Many renowned Russian composers appreciated Kashperova’s interpretations of their works, enabling her to travel internationally as a performer of both their works and her own. 

However, with the onset of the Russian Revolution in 1917, Kashperova was silenced, with all public performances of her work ceasing due to her associations with the gentry. She had to flee her home. Any work composed from this point on would not be heard until after her death in 1940. 

For decades, Kashperova has been consigned to merely a footnote in musical history, but now she is once again becoming appreciated for her contributions to the musical scene. 

Lili’uokalani

Born in 1886 in Honolulu, Hawai’i, Lili’uokalani was the last sovereign – and the only female one – to reign over the Hawaiian islands. She was also a prolific composer, writing more than 150 pieces of music. 

As a schoolgirl, her exceptional talent for sight-singing – an ability that requires innate perception of pitch and rhythm – was noticed quickly by her tutors. She nurtured this, writing mele (Hawaiian songs/chants) and became a trained singer, chorister and organist. 

Resisting the annexing of the Hawaiian islands by the United States, Lili’uokalani became a political prisoner. Her sight-singing abilities proved useful here; even without access to a piano, she continued to write, waiting for the day that her music could be performed again. 

She described composing being “as natural to her as to breathe”, in her 1898 autobiography ‘Hawaii’s Story’. 

Her most famous piece remains ‘Aloha ‘Oe’, written as a parting song between two lovers. Although originally inspired by a kind gesture she witnessed, this song came to represent mourning for the loss of Hawai’i’s independence.

Alma Deutscher

Born in 2005 in the UK, Alma Deutscher is a growing sensation in the music world, and a symbol of what the future of classical music could be. 

Deutscher received a violin as a gift for her third birthday and was instantly hooked. Her parents quickly found her a teacher, and within a year she was playing difficult Handel sonatas, a clear sign of her being a musical prodigy. 

She could read music before she could read words, and composed her first fully-notated piano sonata by the age of six. Often depicted as “Little Miss Mozart” in the media, Deutscher has faced difficulty in receiving acclaim for her music outside of the spectacle of her age. 

After the release of her opera Cinderella in 2016, Deutscher has become more known for her musical prowess, with an incredible ability to command musical language and aesthetics. She has described her thought-process: she depicts melodic inspiration arising when she waves a skipping rope – a metaphor for the state of mind she enters during improvisation. 

Critics describe her work as “full of extraordinarily original ideas with genuine surprises”. It shows much resemblance to 18th-century music, this being the compositional style she was educated in, and what she describes as her musical “mother tongue”.

Although remaining fairly traditional in form compared to the modern ideas in 21st-century music, Deutscher’s work shows that the beauty of the Romantic era continues to live on.