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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   2058 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for June 30, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Is there a music sharing thread? Probably not, and I get it, people have varying musical tastes. Anyway I am throwing this out there:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=5x-u7iw7W1Y

The faux-ballet is called "Ma Mere L'Oye" and was composed by Ravel, and this is called Le Jardin Feerique which translates, alas, as "The Fairy Garden." A more fey title does not exist. Yet I love this part, and this iteration, in particular, though you can find others on Youtube. Enjoy. Or don't, of course.

That’s a gorgeous piece! Also, I think this is the first male harpist I’ve ever seen. Certain instruments have a significant gender imbalance, and if there’s a more female-coded classical instrument than the harp, I’ve yet to discover it.

I would have guessed the flute would be up there as a female-coded instrument for reasons, and cursory research suggests it indeed is; the harp is generally a clear number one with flute a distant second. In my brief research, I stumbled across a bunch of articles to the… tune… of certain instruments being too male and so are orchestras and This is a Problem that We Need to…

I had a long conversation about this with a family member who often attends classical concerts with me, despite not being very knowledgeable about music nor having ever played an instrument past childhood. She was intrigued by the gender imbalances she’d noticed with certain instruments; like any good liberal feminist, she assumed it must be a result of girls and boys being socialized differently and, subtly or explicitly, nudged by music educators into picking up certain instruments rather than others, as a result of sexist stereotypes about which instruments are “supposed to” be played by each sex.

I explained that this doesn’t match my experience of being a musician in middle and high school. You don’t really see significant gender differences in, for example, the stringed instruments, with stand-up bass being a notable exception due to the fact that it’s a tall instrument which tends to be played by taller individuals. Wind and brass instruments are where you really see the biggest differences. (Other than, as previously noted, the harp.)

I chalked it up to the fact that when it comes to a wind/brass instrument, you’re using your actual lungs and voice to produce the sound. When you blow or hum into an instrument, you’re subconsciously expecting the sound to at least somewhat resemble your actual voice; if you’re a deep-voiced man, and you blow into an oboe or piccolo, the sound that’s going to come out is extremely different from the sound that your brain is used to your lungs and throat producing. I think that this produces a sort of cognitive dissonance that naturally drives people to prefer playing instruments that are more similar to their natural voices. Since stringed instruments don’t involve the use of the human voice, they don’t suffer from this same issue of needing to “identify” with the sound the instrument makes, and therefore you see less gender splits with those instruments.

The gender coding of instruments sort of holds but generally falls off when you get to the professional level. Any social stigma of 'oh your a man that plays the flute' falls off significantly by the time you're making a living playing an instrument, so skill level matters a lot more than social acceptance. Also, by the time you're a professional you survived every cliche and bully about playing a male or female coded instrument that no one cares about the current social coding of any instrument.

There was a study done about 'gender inequality' of professional orchestras, and while strings have gender equality, brass and winds are still VERY heavily male dominated except for flute which is female dominated. Clarinet is, oddly, the most male dominated instrument in professional orchestras.

I chalked it up to the fact that when it comes to a wind/brass instrument, you’re using your actual lungs and voice to produce the sound.

No brass or wind instrument uses their voice unless they're doing some fun extended techniques. Generally, the vocal cords are not used at all. I think it's more that winds and brass use the most musculature of any instrument. To maintain the level of air pressure necessary to activate and sustain notes requires a lot of core strength and embouchure also requires a lot of musculature. I think this amount of physicality when playing a woodwind instrument tends to favor males over females.

Since we're talking about classical music - here's a video of me with my woodwind trio playing a movement of Francaix.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=lBvdIxBYQFw

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