Deutsche Harmonia Mundi's Canticles of Ecstasy CD has been a huge critical and financial success, and other labels have taken note of the great interest in Hildegard too. All centuries of women's music are being reexamined now. Now, people are beginning to hear other women . Sometimes this can be a good thing, and sometimes not. Even though Gubaidulina's music is stark and not immediately appealing, it seems to speak to us of what we know of the political and social conditions in the former Soviet Union, and for that reason, it interests us.
Musical form is one area in which the two genders have been hypothesized to differ.
Since most of them were mentored by men, it's tough to say what role is played by education. We'll only begin to know the answers to that question when we have a critical mass of women composers who teach other women. Oh, women are supposed to like to play slow, lyrical things, and men are supposed to like to play powerful showpieces. It's another interesting phenomenon how the music of J. S. Bach has attracted so many gifted female interpreters. Harbach reminds us that Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn could trace their roots back to Bach on their mother's side.