´Feminin repertoire´ and domestic music-making in Sweden 1780-1860: a counter-narrative for today´s musicians

Our project proposes a narrative that challenges normative and gender-based opinions regarding Swedish music-making at home 1780–1860. We call the repertoire "feminine" because it was composed for, and performed by, women at ‘salon concerts’.

We want to show that a large part of the musical development took place right ­here, and that the repertoire disappeared due to a condescending attitude towards female creativity.

Our process is based on "musical empathy", i.e. the ability to openly engage in dialogue with a work in the intimate salon acoustics.

In our "performance laboratory" we document in articles and on video the dialogue between the musician and different period keyboard instruments and we show that different instruments (including a Swedish clavichord) "force" the player into different modes of play – and thus to a large number of contextually possible interpretations within what we call "musical freedom of speech".

The extensive repertoire contains keyboard and chamber ­music.

Song lyrics and the romantic movement in Sweden help to inspi­re our interpretation of unknown female composers such as Caroline Ridderstolpe, Matilda D´Orozco and Emilie Holmberg. Another important source is Musical Pastime, the largest collection in the world of its kind. The project runs over three years, each of which will end with workshops at KMH.

The sounding results are presented every year in concerts at Drottningholm Castle. Recording for BIS concludes our project.