Тhe amateur music playing phenomenon and female musical creative work in 14th - 15th centuries

The article is devoted to the amateur music playing phenomenon and its influence on the appearance of women-composers in the music culture of high society. It stresses that women from different European countries took an active part in this musical activity almost from the very beginning. It focuses the reader's attention on the fact that the formation of amateur music playing tradition became an additional powerful stimulus for the development of a profession of a composer. This period is connected with the appearance (but only in court circle) of enlightened dilettantes, and also a composer status itself. That was when secular music compositions also written by women appeared. The characteristic of musical and creative activity of women - enlightened dilettantes - and partially reconstructed picture of their social status are based on indirect evidence (iconography, a few documentary reports) and on some scanty information of women-authors` lives. I fact the composing activity of aristocrats in the 15th century was not totally reflected in the historic documents of that time. The personality of Christine de Pisan, one of the most famous women-composers of that period, is in focus.