The Expansive Canvas

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The Expansive Canvas

Large-Scale Form in the Music of 19th-Century Women Composers
International Conference and Collaborative Symposium
Dublin, Ireland | 26–28 August 2025

The Department of Music at Trinity College Dublin, the Royal Irish Academy of Music, and the Trinity Long Room Hub are delighted to announce the international conference and collaborative symposium, “The Expansive Canvas: Large-Scale Form in the Music of 19^th-Century Women Composers” which will take place in Dublin, Ireland on 26–28 August 2025.

Large-scale form (LSF) refers to the structure of an extended musical composition found in numerous genres such as sonatas, symphonies, overtures (some with literary adjuncts), operas, concertos, chamber music and extended choral works. It stands in contrast to the domestic genres historically associated with women composers such as song and piano miniatures. For the purposes of this event, the long nineteenth century extends from 1789–1922. This international conference and collaborative symposium aims to reinvigorate our conception of music history, and to challenge entrenched patterns of representation within the classical music establishment by opening up a forum for the discussion, performance, and analysis of LSFs by women composers. With four central pillars in performance, music analysis, musicology, and music education, the event will provide a platform for a discourse on gender diversification in music education, and concert programming as it pertains to the music of the long nineteenth century. Research on women’s contributions to LSF in the nineteenth century lags behind research on women’s contributions to large-scale works in other artforms such as the visual arts and literature. This event will also explore and interrogate the reasons for this disparity.

The main aims of this international conference and collaborative symposium are to:

• Explore the music history of the long nineteenth century as it pertains to women composers by recovering, promoting, performing, and sharing large-scale works, and their cultural contexts and historical narratives;
• Provide a platform for the performance of this repertoire in a number of recitals, concerts, performances, and practical workshops;
  Create a forum for the analysis of music by women composers with a view to opening a wide scholarly discourse in this area;
• Explore the relationship between current and prevailing modes of music analysis and LSFs by women composers, and interrogate the question of which modes of analysis are appropriate to LSFs by women composers in the long nineteenth century—in other words, interrogate whether modes of analysis can be gendered;
• Explore the interdisciplinary contexts of LSFs in relation to their literary, artistic, graphic, and extra-musical adjuncts and associations;
• Consider LSFs in relation to women’s contributions to other artforms at this time through a series of roundtable discussions, provocations, responses, and talks across the disciplines of literature, visual art, drama, dance, film, etc;
• Contextualize developments in research on LSFs by women composers in the long nineteenth century in relation to developments in the field of Gender Studies; 
• Consider the state of research and practice of LSFs by women composers in the discipline of Music Education through a series of roundtable discussions, provocations, responses, and talks; 
• Provide outlets for public engagement, public talks, and broadcasts on the subject of LSFs by women composers;
• Explore the place of LSFs by women composers in the current music education landscape.