Composing in a changing world

Chapter 5, “Composing in a changing world,” addresses in greater detail the strategies that Mabel Daniels used to establish herself as a serious composer of art music. The height of her career intersected with a time when radio and recording technologies were creating a culture of listeners as the culture of amateur performance was declining and an American art music culture was becoming institutionalized. Daniels’s negotiations around the publication of her works, reflected in her lengthy correspondence with her main publisher Arthur P. Schmidt, document this time of change. As a composer-patron of Harvard University, Daniels becomes the voice there for women’s composition just as concert reprogramming and historicism at Harvard-Radcliffe were replacing women’s operetta. This chapter addresses in greater detail the strategies that Mabel Daniels used to establish herself as a serious composer of art music. The height of her career intersected with a time when radio and recording technologies were creating a culture of listeners as the culture of amateur performance was declining and an American art music culture was becoming institutionalized. Daniels's negotiations around the publication of her works, reflected in her lengthy correspondence with her main publisher Arthur P. Schmidt, document this time of change. As a composer-patron of Harvard University, Daniels becomes the voice there for women's composition just as concert reprogramming and historicism at Harvard-Radcliffe were replacing women's operetta. Daniels also strengthened the connection between women and the amateur culture by downplaying what she viewed as a drive on the part of many mothers to push their children to reach professional musical standards. Daniels's musical style and her community were simultaneously changing.