Methodology & Editorial Standards: The  Big List of Women Composers

Purpose and Scope

Donne’s Big List exists to correct a historical failure documented extensively in feminist musicology: for generations, women who composed music were excluded from the conservatories, publishing houses, and patronage networks that determined whose work was printed, catalogued, and preserved for later study. This is a discovery and archival database, not a curated canon: its purpose is to document the existence, attribution, and, wherever the historical record allows, the surviving repertoire of women composers across periods, genres, and geographies. Every entry represents verified attribution: documented proof that a woman existed and composed. Donne does not evaluate, rank, or certify artistic merit, and does not claim the authority to do so. What this list establishes, proof of existence and authorship recovered from an archival record shaped by that exclusion, is not a smaller claim than an aesthetic one. For composers erased from that record, it is the precondition for any aesthetic judgment of their work, including a positive one, becoming possible again.

Inclusion Criteria

Entries fall into one of two clearly labeled categories:

1. Documented Repertoire Entries A composer qualifies for this category when a verifiable, attributable body of compositional work can be confirmed through the sourcing standards below. This may consist of multiple shorter works or a single substantial work of documented scope (for example, a song cycle, a symphony, or an opera); the standard is verifiability of attribution and authorship, not the number of pieces. A composer whose surviving, sourced output is small in volume but confirmed in authorship qualifies on the same terms as one with a larger catalogue.

2. Historical Existence Entries For composers whose existence and compositional activity are attested in at least one primary source, or one peer-reviewed or institutionally maintained secondary source, but whose works have been lost, destroyed, or otherwise not survived (for example, figures such as Sappho), Donne includes an entry to preserve the historical record of their existence and activity as composers. These entries are explicitly labeled as such on the site, distinguishing “attested existence” from “verified surviving repertoire.” This distinction exists because part of Donne’s research mission is documenting historical erasure itself; omitting these figures would repeat the erasure the Foundation exists to correct.

Self-submitted entries (living composers submitting their own listing) are never added automatically. Every self-submission requires independent corroboration and final approval from Gabriella Di Laccio MBE (Soprano, Researcher and Founder of the Donne Foundation in 2018; appointed MBE for services to music and gender equality). Works of untraceable communal or folk origin, whose individual authorship cannot be established through the sourcing standards below, are not included. This does not exclude works originally published under a male relative’s or collaborator’s name where subsequent scholarship has since established a specific woman’s individual authorship; such works are eligible once that authorship is verified through the sourcing standards below.

Donne is an inclusive organisation. Living composers are included on the basis of self-identification as a woman; historical composers are included on the basis of how they were documented and understood as women within the record of their own time, rather than a category imposed retrospectively.

Sourcing Standards

• Living composers: Verified via a minimum of two independent, corroborating sources drawn from: the composer’s official website, a publisher or rights-holder listing, or a recognised performing-rights organisation record. Where only one such source exists, the entry is held pending a second corroborating source before publication.
• Historical composers: Verified against recognised reference sources, including Grove Music Online, the International Encyclopedia of Women Composers, IMSLP, RISM (Répertoire International des Sources Musicales), the Archiv Frau und Musik (Frankfurt am Main), the Sophie Drinker Institut, and comparable peer-reviewed or institutionally maintained catalogues. Wikipedia may support but does not by itself satisfy verification.
• Source conflicts: Where sources disagree on attribution, dates, or the number of surviving works, primary sources take precedence over secondary sources, and peer-reviewed or institutionally maintained catalogues take precedence over general reference sites. Unresolved discrepancies are noted on the entry rather than silently reconciled.
• Excluded sources: AI-generated content, and any source that cannot be independently traced to a documented human author or institution, is not accepted as verification of a composer’s identity, dates, or works. This exclusion reflects Donne’s broader research position on the risk of AI systems propagating unverified or fabricated attribution at scale.

Verification Process

Entries are reviewed by trained volunteer researchers following Donne’s documented verification methodology. Where sourcing is ambiguous, incomplete, or contested, the case is escalated to Gabriella Di Laccio and Eric Ruijssenaars, MA History, University of Leiden (Lead Researcher, who applies that standard to individual source assessment and oversees ongoing review and revision of existing entries).

Only fully verified entries are published to the public list. Donne’s research team continually reviews additional candidate composers; a composer’s absence from the current list reflects the stage of an ongoing verification process, not a determination that she does not qualify. Verified entries are added on a rolling basis as review is completed.

Limitations

This database reflects the current state of documented, corroborated evidence, which is itself shaped by centuries of unequal archival preservation. Absence from this list, or placement in the Historical Existence category rather than Documented Repertoire, indicates a gap in the surviving historical record: not a judgment on a composer’s activity, output, or significance. Coverage is necessarily uneven across regions, periods, and genres in proportion to what has survived and been catalogued; this is a known limitation of archival research generally, and one that Donne’s ongoing work aims to address rather than obscure.

Corrections and Disputes

Donne welcomes corrections, additional source material, or challenges to any entry. Submissions can be directed to info [@] donne-uk.org and will be reviewed against the sourcing standards above before any change is made.

Living Document

This database is under continuous review. Entries are revised as new scholarship, source material, or corroborating evidence becomes available. This methodology statement will be updated to reflect material changes to editorial practice.