This book explores the work of three significant American women composers of the twentieth century.

Ellie M. Hisama is Associate Professor of Music at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York and is Director of the Institute for Studies in American Music at Brooklyn College.

List of figures; List of tables; List of examples; Foreword Ian Bent; Acknowledgments; List of abbreviations; Note about technical terms; 1. Cultural analysis and post-tonal music; 2. The question of climax in Ruth Crawford's String Quartet, third movement; 3. Inscribing identities in Crawford's String Quartet, fourth movement; 4. The politics of contour in Crawford's 'Chinaman, Laundryman'; 5. Gender, sexuality, and performance in Marion Bauer's Toccata; 6. Musical sublimation in Bauer's 'Chromaticon'; 7. 'A Woman's Way of Responding to the World': Miriam Gideon's 'Night is My Sister'; 8. Feminist agency in Gideon's 'Esther'; Epilogue; Bibliography; Index.