Sophie Lewis Drinker ( Hutchinson; August 24, 1888 – September 6, 1967) was an
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, p ...
author, musician, and
musicologist
Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...
. She is considered a founder of women's musicological and
gender studies
Gender studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analysing gender identity and gendered representation. Gender studies originated in the field of women's studies, concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. The field n ...
.
Early life and marriage
Drinker was born Sophie Lewis Hutchinson on 24 August 1888 in Haverford, Philadelphia, to Sydney Pemberton Hutchinson and Amy Lewis. She enjoyed a genteel childhood with nannies and domestic staff. The Hutchinson family, which dated back to the seventeenth century, had a high social status. As a child, Drinker had piano lessons and developed a general interest in music. She attended
St. Timothy's School, an exclusive private school in Maryland. Upon graduation in 1906, Drinker was accepted to
Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh language, Welsh: ) is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as a ...
, but she decided against attending.
[Music in America: Women Patrons and Activists since 1860](_blank)
Ruth A Solie, Locke, Ralph P., and Cyrilla Barr, editors. Berkeley, Calif: University of California Press, 199
/ref>
In 1911, Drinker married Henry Sandwith Drinker, a lawyer and musicologist, and moved with him to Merion, Pennsylvania
Merion Station, also known as Merion, is an unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It borders Philadelphia to its west and is one of the communities that make up the Philadelphia Main Line. Merion Station is part of Lower ...
. Henry Drinker was a successful lawyer, but spent every minute of his spare time playing music, a passionate hobby that was as important to him as his real profession. Apart from active music-making, he devoted himself to the translation of the German text of vocal compositions of great composers into English. Among them are Schubert's songs and Haydn's Creation, and a variety of works by Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (German: Help:IPA/Standard German, �joːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque music, Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety ...
, among others, the Christmas Oratorio
The ''Christmas Oratorio'' (German: ''Weihnachtsoratorium''), , is an oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach intended for performance in church during the Christmas season. It is in six parts, each part a cantata intended for performance in a churc ...
, the St. John Passion and the St. Matthew Passion.
The couple had five children together: Sophie, Henry S., Jr., Cecelia, Ernesta, and Pemberton, all of whom had daily music lessons, and the whole family sat down together regularly to sing. They often visited musical events such as concerts, opera performances and music festivals, and were for 25 years subscribers to the Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra, based in Philadelphia. One of the " Big Five" American orchestras, the orchestra is based at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, where it performs its subscription concerts, n ...
.
In 1928, the Drinkers built a new house, which contained a large music room where they regularly organized singing evenings, and sometimes they used the premises of the American Musicological Society
The American Musicological Society (AMS) is a musicological organization which researches, promotes and produces publications on music. Founded in 1934, the AMS was begun by leading American musicologists of the time, and was crucial in legiti ...
for their gatherings. Most well-known were their exclusive singing parties that were invitation only, and involved a dinner prepared by the Drinker household staff with group song and music before and after. Oftentimes these evenings involved the accompaniment of musicians invited from prestigious institutions, such as the Philadelphia Orchestra and Curtis Institute.
Work
Sophie Drinker spent a significant portion of her life researching and writing about the history of women and music, as well as promoting choral singing by women. In 1930 she joined the Montgomery Singers, a women's chorus, and many years later she served as the group's president. In her scholarly work, Drinker was greatly influenced by Mary Ritter Beard
Mary Ritter Beard (August 5, 1876 – August 14, 1958) was an American historian, author, women's suffrage activist, and women's history archivist who was also a lifelong advocate of social justice. As a Progressive Era reformer, Beard was a ...
, pioneer women's historian, and the democratic, economically oriented history of the "progressive" school to which Beard subscribed. She worked with Beard on her abortive project to establish the World Center for Women's Archives.
Sophie Drinker's attention lighted on the fact that there was very little quality music for female choirs, and saw that there were few women composers. This prompted her to conduct extensive research about women and their place in music history. Her results were presented in the book ''Music and Women: The Story of Women in Their Relation to Music'' which appeared in 1948. The book was widely reviewed by the historical community but did not receive much attention from the musical community until the late twentieth century.[ ] The book, argues Ruth A. Solie, has had a major impact on the study of women and music, and has been particularly influential to women in music. In 1995, The Feminist Press
The Feminist Press at CUNY is an American independent nonprofit literary publisher of the City University of New York, based in New York City. It primarily publishes feminist literature that promotes freedom of expression and social justice.
The ...
re-issued ''Women and Music'', with a preface by Elizabeth Wood and an afterword by Solie.
During her life she published other writings, including the book ''Brahms and His Women's Choruses'' (1952) and articles like "What Price Women's Chorus?" for ''Music Journal'' in 1954. Here she developed criteria for compositions for women's choirs which in her view would utilize the full range of the female voice.
Cited for her "service in the cause of Music whereby she had brought together and made available much that, but for her, would have lain forgotten," Drinker was awarded an honorary doctorate from Smith College
Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smit ...
, Northampton, Massachusetts
The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of Northampton (including its outer villages, Florence, Massachusetts, Florence and ...
in 1949.[Sophie Drinker Institute](_blank)
Germany, Brief Biography, accessed October 2012 She served for a time as a guest lecturer at Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania
A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl.
Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional uteruses ...
, from which she received an honorary degree in 1967.
Throughout her life Drinker was involved in a number of philanthropic, civic, and women's groups. In the 1950s, she served as an advisor to a chapter of Delta Omicron
Delta Omicron () is a co-ed international professional music honors fraternity whose mission is to promote and support excellence in music and musicianship.
History
Delta Omicron International Music Fraternity was founded on September 6, 1909 a ...
, though Drinker resigned after several years. She was also involved with the Marriage Council of Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Society of the National Society of Colonial Dames of America, the Lucy Stone League
The Lucy Stone League is a women's rights organization founded in 1921. Its motto is "A wife should no more take her husband's name than he should hers. My name is my identity and must not be lost."“lucystoneleague.org�Archivedfrom the original ...
, the Community Chest, and the League of Women Voters
The League of Women Voters (LWV) is a nonpartisan American nonprofit political organization. Founded in 1920, its ongoing major activities include Voter registration, registering voters, providing voter information, boosting voter turnout and adv ...
. Because of her work with, and writings on, women, Betty Friedan
Betty Friedan (; February 4, 1921 – February 4, 2006) was an American feminist writer and activist. A leading figure in the women's movement in the United States, her 1963 book '' The Feminine Mystique'' is often credited with sparking the s ...
wanted Drinker to join the first elected board of the National Organization of Women. However, Drinker's health was failing at this point, so her daughter Ernesta volunteered in her place and won election to the board.
In 1965 Sophie Drinker wrote her memoirs, but they were meant for her family and have remained unpublished.
Death
Drinker died on 6 September 1967, of cancer. She is interred in the family plot at West Laurel Hill Cemetery
West Laurel Hill Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery located in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1869, is in size, and contains the burials of many notable people. It is affiliated with Laurel Hill Cemetery in nearby Philadelphia. ...
in Bala Cynwyd
Bala Cynwyd ( ) is a community and census-designated place in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located on the Philadelphia Main Line in Southeastern Pennsylvania and borders the western edge of Philadelphia at U.S. Rou ...
, Pennsylvania.
Legacy
The Sophie Drinker Institute was founded in Bremen
Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...
, Germany in 2002. It is a free research institute that specializes in women's musicological studies and gender research.
Works
*'' Music and Women: The Story of Women in Their Relation to Music''. New York: Coward-McCann, Inc., 1948; reprint, New York: Feminist Press, 1995.
*''Brahms and His Women's Choruses''. Merion, 1952.
*"What Price Women's Choruses." ''Musical Journal'' 12/1, (1954), p. 19 & 42f.
*The Woman in the Music: A Sociological Study. Zurich: Atlantis, 1955 (German translation: Karl and Irene Geiringer).
*''Hannah Penn and the proprietorship of Pennsylvania'', Philadelphia: Priv. print. under the auspices of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 1958
*''Eugenie with Andrus Leonard, Miriam Young Holden: The American Woman in Colonial and Revolutionary Times, 1565-1800: A Syllabus with Bibliography''. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1962
References
External links
Sophie Hutchinson Drinker papers
at the Sophia Smith Collection
The Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College is an internationally recognized repository of manuscripts, photographs, periodicals and other primary sources in women's history.
General
One of the largest recognized repositories of manuscripts, a ...
, Smith College Special Collections
Sophie Drinker Institut
website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Drinker, Sophie
1888 births
1967 deaths
American women musicologists
20th-century American musicologists
20th-century American women musicians
20th-century American musicians
Musicians from Philadelphia
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American women writers
Drinker family