ABSTRACT
Some of the world’s finest composers have left behind books, documents, and quotes to help developing composers hone their craft. And although most music theory and composition teaching has been focused on a widely accepted canon, there are many composers who have been grossly underestimated and unrecognized due to race and/or gender. Their lack of representation has diminished the number of role models for aspiring young women, BIPOC and LGBT+ composers. Ideally, we will get to a point in which we stop using the term ‘female composer’ since we don’t use the term ‘male composer’. This chapter will explore the spoken and written words of a wide variety of composers, about their music and about the compositional process. These can give us a glimpse into the mind of a composer from which we can gain a more comprehensive picture of this elusive activity. A seemingly simple quote can carry a powerful message. Composers aren’t always the most articulate speakers, and they can’t always fully explain their processes in ways that are useful to us. Nonetheless, sometimes it’s the simplest ideas that carry the most weight.
