The female free-improvising oboist: an investigation into the ways instrument, gender and community affect agency in free improvisation
Wolloshin, Maureen (2024) The female free-improvising oboist: an investigation into the ways instrument, gender and community affect agency in free improvisation. PhD thesis, University for the Creative Arts.
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The aim of my autotheoretical and practice-led research has been to deepen understanding of the ways instrument, gender, and community affect the free improvising I and others undertake and the agency we have in doing so. My praxis is located in the free improvising communities of which I am a part in London and Canterbury. In this thesis I discuss the masculine social and sonic constructs I have uncovered, and the ways in which these function as tacit challenges to agency for women instrumentalists. Self-developed instrumental technique in free improvisation is compared with the imposed classical training I and many women free improvisers received. The sediment of this technical practice on instruments designed by and built for men is seen to act as one of several unintentional barriers to agency in free improvisation for us to negotiate. The development of my unique new instrument, the gliss anglais to overcome this obstacle, is discussed. I argue that the feministing practice I and others undertake is a push against the individualistic quest for ever more virtuosic self-expression which typifies much of the masculine free Improvisation canon to date. I demonstrate that a feministing ‘making with’ in which agency is shared, and precarity and imprecision are welcomed into improvisations, acts in part as an unmasculining of the canon by those of us practicing it.
I write from a feminist perspective. The introductory material situates my practice and defines key concepts. The methodology positions my feminist and autotheoretical stance within relevant literature. Chapters one and two function in part as a contextual review. Chapter one explores my practice as a classically trained oboist, and the challenges I negotiate as a free improviser in a masculine environment. Chapter two uncovers the androcentric roots of free improvisation in my communities, the obstacles this has created for female instrumentalists, and the ways in which I and other practitioners are overcoming these.
Chapter three contextualises recordings of my improvising voice and explains my development of and praxis with the gliss anglais. Chapter four explores recordings of my collaborations with others together with my use of invitation scores. The final part of this portfolio is a recording of an autotheoretical performance I co-curated and performed in titled Social Virtuosity. I conclude with a summary of my findings and discussion of their implications for further research.
A Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University for the Creative Arts. September 2024.
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