Finnish Women Composers in the 19th and early 20th Centuries: A Feminist-Historical and Activist Research Project

Abstract: In my presentation, I will discuss the research project entitled Daughters of Music: Finnish Women Composers in the 19^th and early-20^th Centuries, which I have carried out during the past six years (2018–2023) with my colleague Nuppu Koivisto-Kaasik. The main publication of the project is a peer-reviewed encyclopaedia comprising biographies of 126 women composers, thus far almost completely neglected in Finnish music historiography. The book is based on large-scale archival research with original materials in over 100 archives in Finland and abroad, and it also includes extensive Introduction and Closing Chapters, as well as work lists of composers presented in the book. The approach draws on feminist music history, social history and cultural music history.

In this project we have also practiced activist music research that aims to advance gender equality in the classical music culture in Finland. We have collaborated with music and cultural institutions and actors, such as the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, The Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE), the music publisher Fennica Gehrman, and The National Biography of Finland, in order to make the stories of these composers as well as their music to become a natural part of contemporary music culture and sonic cultural heritage. This has led into various kinds of co-operative work in producing concerts and concert series, audience development projects, audio recordings, radio programmes, critical editions and other sheet music publications. This work can be seen as a part of the current feminist movement and feminist networking within the culture of classical music in Finland, reflecting broader international trends.

Bio: Susanna Välimäki is a Professor of Art Studies (tenure track) and Head of Musicology at the University of Helsinki, Finland, and a founding member of Suoni, a research association for activist music research. As a musicologist Välimäki has during their later career become more and more occupied with issues around music, society and sustainability, and the possibilities of activist music research. Välimäki also works as a music critic, co-operates in developmental projects with music institutions, and produces radio and television programmes on classical music for the Finnish Broadcasting Company. Their books include Sävelten tyttäret: Säveltävät naiset Suomessa 1800-luvulta 1900-luvulle [Daughters of Music: Women composers in Finland in the 19th and early-20th centuries] (2023, forthcoming in August), co-written with Nuppu Koivisto-Kaasik; Muutoksen musiikki: Pervoja ja ekologisia utopioita audiovisuaalisessa kulttuurissa [Music of Transformation: Queer and Ecological Utopias in Audiovisual Culture] (2015); Miten sota soi? Sotaelokuva, ääni ja musiikki [How Does a War Sound? War Films, Sound and Music] (2008); Subject Strategies in Music: A Psychoanalytic Approach to Musical Signification (2005); and Syötävät sävelet: Vieraana säveltäjien pöydissä [Tasty Tones: Culinary History of Classical Music] (2017).  Currently Välimäki is writing a biography of a Finnish-English composer-violinist Agnes Tschetschulin (1859–1942).