🎶 Rediscovering Sophia Dussek: Reflections Presented at the International Symposium on Musical Form

I recently participated in the International Symposium on Musical Form, held at the School of Communications and Arts (ECA) of the University of São Paulo (USP) from October 29 to 31, 2025, where I presented the paper Rediscovering Sophia Corri Dussek: Analysis of Sonata III in C Minor, Op. 2, and Reflections on the Gender Canon in Concert Music.

My research takes as its starting point Sonata III in C minor, Op. 2, composed by Sophia Corri Dussek (c.1775–c.1847), one of the best-known harp sonatas since the late eighteenth century. I sought to highlight the structural organization, as well as the technical and aesthetic mastery, of the first movement within the framework of the classical sonata form.

However, the study goes beyond musical analysis. It also questions the gender canon within the tradition of concert music — a field in which women composers have historically been marginalized. A revealing fact is that this very sonata was published in London in the 1790s under the name “Madame Dussek,” but later reissued in Paris by the Pleyel publishing house simply as “Dussek.” This led to the intentional misattribution of the work to her husband, Jan Ladislav Dussek, for decades, in an effort to boost sales.

This erasure of authorship illustrates how institutional and editorial structures have shaped what is understood as the “central repertoire.” As Marcia Citron points out in Gender and the Musical Canon (1993), the canon is not neutral: it reflects historical and ideological decisions about what is to be taught, performed, and studied.

Recognizing and studying composers like Dussek is both a gesture of reparation and an expansion of our perspectiveon the history of music.