2
Women in Music Production
A Contextualized History From the
1890s to the 1980s
Mark Marrington
INTRODUCTION
This chapter’s purpose is to provide a foundational sketch of the historical
participation of women within the mainstream of music production from
the late nineteenth century to the early 1980s. The context of the survey is
Anglo-American, in keeping with the geographical focus of the bulk of the
academic literature concerning music production that has accrued to date.
My choice of the 1980s as the upper limit of the time frame is intended to
suggest that women have by this point become, if not necessarily a nor-
malized presence in the field of record production, then certainly a visible
one, and one that is also quantifiable in terms of a body of recorded work
that is regarded as significant. Another indicator of their ‘arrival’ by this
time is the increased commentary concerning women within the record-
ing industry that begins to appear from the early 1990s (see, for example,
Jepson, 1991; Philips, 1993; Lont, 1995; Bayton, 1998). A key observa-
tion that arises from the present survey is that women were involved in
music production practice from a much earlier time than has generally
been documented. For example, they were active as field recordists in the
acoustic era of recording using some of the first sound capture technolo-
gies, were working in recording studios as early as the mid-1930s, and
were making significant contributions to the evolution of record produc-
tion aesthetics from the 1950s onwards. In order to usefully contextualize
the activities of the women in question I have aimed, where possible, to
situate their careers relative to developments in record production practice
as they are commonly articulated in the established histories of the field.
I have also made an attempt to distill, where relevant, their particular phi-
losophies of record production and provide some indications of how they
were regarded in the critical literature.
A more general aim in undertaking a survey of this nature is to raise
awareness of the earlier contributions of women in the field of record pro-
duction per se to address what appears to be a significant gap in historical
knowledge. While this is certainly (as far as I am aware) the first academic
chapter to attempt a narrative of this scope concerning women’s historical
presence within the field, it by no means claims to be fully comprehensive
11
12 Mark Marrington
within the limited remit of a book section (I again emphasize that the chap-
ter is in the nature of a sketch). Rather, it attempts, in the manner of a lit-
erature review, to assemble certain facts derived from currently available
information in a way that enables connections to be conveniently made,
provokes insights, and suggests a basis for future research. In particular
my concern has been with foregrounding the creative accomplishments
of notable women who have worked in the recording industry, rather than
interrogating sociological factors via frameworks deriving from critical
theory or gender studies. Having said that, there is no reason why the
survey should not usefully inform the perspectives of writers working in
these areas in the future.
FEMALE RECORDISTS IN THE EARLY PERIOD
OF RECORDING
The idea of ‘music production’ has evolved considerably since the inven-
tion of the first recording devices and has implied a range of practices
and processes over the decades. For the purposes of this chapter, music
production begins with the appearance of the first sound capture tech-
nologies in the 1880s and 1890s, a period commonly referred to as the
‘acoustic’ era of recording. At this time women played a significant role
in exploring the potential of these new technologies through their work
as field recordists. Field recording – that is, the practice of using mobile
recording equipment (beginning with the phonograph) to capture sound
events, musical or otherwise, on location – was essential to the develop-
ment of the recording industry in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries, being by far the most convenient and flexible means of acquir-
ing and amassing a stockpile of recorded material that could be marketed
commercially. Field recordists were by turns the first recording engineers,
producers, and A&R personnel, and were highly valued for their entre-
preneurial outlook and willingness to cast the net widely for material
suitable for commercial or documentary use.
1
Also of importance were
their interpersonal skills – in an era when recording was still regarded
as a novelty, it often took considerable powers of persuasion to encour-
age musicians to commit their performances to wax. Historical studies of
recording typically highlight figures such as Fred Gaisberg and the Sooy
brothers (Gelatt, 1977; Fischer, 2012; Burgess, 2014) as early pioneers
of commercial recording activity with mobile technology. In the area of
documentary field recording, however, women appear to have played a
more significant role. American ethnomusicologists Alice Cunningham
Fletcher (1838–1923) and Frances Densmore (1867–1957), for example,
were among the earliest pioneers of documentary field recording in the
1890s, being noted in particular for their recordings of Native American
Indian song.
2
Densmore, who for much of her career recorded using a
Columbia Graphophone (a rival machine to Edison’s original Phono-
graph), made more than 2,000 cylinder recordings in her lifetime (Hof-
mann and Densmore, 1968). One of the most important field recordists of
13 Women in Music Production
the mid-twentieth century was Laura Boulton (1899–1980), active from
the 1930s, who spent 35 years of her life traveling the globe recording
musicians in places as far afield as Africa, India, Southeast Asia, Japan,
and the Arctic. Her 30,000 or so recordings, many of which were issued
by RCA-Victor and Folkways Records, today constitute a substantial con-
tribution to the recorded archives of global musical culture.
3
Boulton’s
autobiography (1969) reveals that, like Gaisberg, she operated both in an
A&R-like capacity in her systematic search for recording opportunities
and as a producer in her psychological approach to ‘coaching’ her record-
ing subjects to give their best performances. Andrew Cordier, in his fore-
word to Boulton’s autobiography, commented that
she had a capacity to develop a quick and easy rapport with her hosts,
whoever they might be, and thus elicited from them not only warm
cooperation in the rendition and recording of music, but, as well, a
ood of folk habits which gives music a meaningful setting.
(1969: xiii)
Like many other recordists whose careers straddled the early evolution of
the recording industry, she also mastered a range of technological media,
from Edison wax cylinders
4
to discs to magnetic tape (Hart and Kostyal,
2003). As Boulton stated in her autobiography, “I seem to have lived
through the history of recording for I think I have tried every method and
material known” (1969: 27). Field recordists such as Boulton, Densmore,
and later contemporaries such as Henrietta Yurchenco
5
(1916–2007),
illustrate the synthesis of the creative and technical aspects of music pro-
duction unique to the early period of recording that were later to become
separated as the recording industry became increasingly systematized.
There is also an interesting parallel here between their activities and the
present context of women engaging in autonomous ‘self-production’ with
current forms of mobile recording media (laptops, DAWs etc.), as pointed
out by contemporary writers such as Wolfe (2019), which may merit fur-
ther exploration.
WOMEN AS STUDIO-BASED PRODUCERS AND
RECORDISTS: TWO EARLY INSTANCES
Women first begin to become involved in studio-based record produc-
tion from the 1930s onwards, both in the capacity of producers and engi-
neers. ‘Producer’ here refers to a role that had by this time crystallized to
entail a range of responsibilities, among the more typical of which were
decisions concerning who and what was to be recorded (essentially an
A&R remit), the organization of recording sessions, and the employment
of musical expertise during the recording process to critique standards
of performance and interpretation. In some cases producers also contrib-
uted ideas on how a recording ought to sound, although the achievement
of any particular objectives in this regard usually required collaboration
14 Mark Marrington
with specialist recording personnel – the engineers (or recordists) – who
possessed the relevant technical know-how. The demarcation between
these two quite specific territories of music production practice remained
pronounced until the 1960s.
The routes by which women entered the field as producers were var-
ied and often the result of quite specific circumstances. For example,
Toronto-born Helen Oakley Dance (1913–2001), arguably the first female
jazz producer, worked as a journalist for Down Beat and as a concert pro-
moter for jazz artists. In 1934 she had moved from Canada to the United
States to seek out the live music scene, establishing the Chicago Rhythm
Club as a vehicle for promoting public concerts with such luminaries as
Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, and Fletcher Henderson. Her recog-
nized expertise within the field coupled with her immersion in the live
scene were instrumental in securing her first recording sessions at the
Brunswick label’s studios in Chicago, with artists such as Paul Mares and
his New Orleans Rhythm Kings (Placksin, 1982). Many of these sessions
were funded by the income generated from the concerts Dance promoted.
However, her big career break as a record producer came when she moved
to New York in 1936 to work in A&R for Irving Mills’ short-lived Mas-
ter and Variety labels. In this role Dance instigated and produced numer-
ous recording collaborations between many different jazz artists of the
era. Ward and Huber (2018: 84) state that her remit lay in “assembling
experienced, often extremely well established recording artists, supplying
them new material and new session-mates to inspire their creativity, and
allowing them to record in new combinations that rarely threatened prior
contractual obligations”.
In regard to the engineering context, it was much more unusual to find
women working in technical areas such as sound capture, mixing, or disc
cutting during this period, mainly due to the nature of the hierarchical
systems that governed employability in studios at this time. This is sum-
marized by Kealy (1979), who uses the expression ‘Craft-Union mode’ to
refer to an ethos of engineering practice that crystallized during the 1940s
in which recording was undertaken by specialists and governed by particu-
lar rules and regulations. The Craft-Union context of professional engi-
neering can be seen to have directly informed the career of Mary Shipman
Howard,
6
a notable female recordist active from the early 1940s until the
early 1950s.
7
Howard was a classically trained musician who from a young
age had also been fascinated by electronics and sound: “since I always
loved acoustic mechanical things the process of translating a sound wave
into an electrical impulse and back into sound I got into recording” (Perlis,
1974: 209). Eager to pursue a career in recording, Howard moved to New
York in 1940 and applied for an engineer’s position at NBC (National
Broadcasting Company) but was barred from accessing such a role on the
grounds of her gender. As Howard recalled: “it was unusual for a woman
to be a recording engineer, particularly as far as the union was concerned”
(Perlis, 1974: 209). Instead, Howard was hired as a secretary, but this was
a short-lived role – with the increased need for manpower overseas fol-
lowing the entry of the United States into the war, the union reversed its
15 Women in Music Production
decision and engaged her as a disc cutter. This enabled Howard to gain
valuable studio experience through, for example, the opportunity she had
to assist on the groundbreaking series of recordings made by Toscanini
with the NBC Symphony Orchestra for RCA Victor (Perlis, 1974).
Howard appears to have become quickly dissatisfied with the employ-
ment ethos of NBC, however, and shortly after the war established her
own recording studio at 37 E. 49th St., New York. By the end of the 1940s,
she had left NBC to make this the main focus of her recording activity. To
complement her own disc-cutting skills, she hired sound recordist Don
Plunkett (1924–2005), later a founding member of the Audio Engineering
Society, as Chief Recording Engineer (Benzuly, 2005).
8
The typical ‘Ser-
vices Offered’ by Howard’s studio, as listed in Radio Annual 1949, were:
O-the-air and o-the-line recordings. Commercial records, transcrip-
tions, all studio facilities. Package shows and spots. Tape recording
and editing facilities. (Tape To Records – Records To Tape.) Recording
all audio ends of TV shows.
(Alicoate, 1949: 765)
In addition to offering general recording services to the industry, How-
ard also produced and released records by a small number of popular
musicians on her Mary Howard Recordings (MHR) label. These were cut
to 78 rpm disc, the dominant format until the early 1950s, and featured the
company’s distinctive music-themed logo. A flavor of Howard’s recording
work can be heard on her first commercial release, the Chittison Trio’s
Album No. 1, recorded in 1947, whose six sides capture the vibrancy of the
trio performing jazzed-up arrangements of classical pieces. In the same
year, she also recorded the popular African-American singer Ethel Waters
(1896–1977), performing standards by Gershwin, Berlin, and others to
piano accompaniment.
9
Howard is also notable for the informal record-
ings she made in 1943 of the composer Charles Ives playing excerpts from
his Concord Sonata for piano, which have since come to be regarded as an
important historical document.
10
Howard’s uniqueness as a female recordist brought her to the attention
of Newsweek (Anon, 1947) and the trade literature, such as Audio Record
(1948), which provide a revealing document of her views on the recording
profession. In particular, she advocated for the improvement of recording
techniques in the USA, and was keen to raise awareness of the importance
of the recording engineer to the success of the production process. In a
1948 interview for Audio Record, she argued for an holistic approach to
production in opposition to the prevailing Craft-Union set-up:
Unfortunately, the interest and ingenuity of the recordist has often
been overlooked. Recording is not a dull craft at all if engaged in all
its technical phases. There seems to be a prevalence in large organiza-
tions for specialization cutting technicians, studio technicians, main-
tenance, etc. which often results in poor recording because of lack
of interest or information in all phases of the recording operation. If
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