This chapter presents an understanding of compositional practice based fundamentally on sound and space, and looks at a range of case studies that explore the harmonic, timbral, and material consequences of this approach. The chapter concludes by arguing that the variety of approaches discussed succeed because the concern with sound permeates every stage of compositional thinking and does not just manifest in specific compositional techniques.

Chapter 4 discusses the situation of contemporary female composers and poses the question of the extent to which they are ‘still exceptional’. Ranging across a wide range of figures, Astrid Kvalbein considers how contemporary women, such as Kaija Saariaho, Jennifer Walsh, and Lotta Wennäkoski, explore feminist themes and provide gender critiques through their works; the tendency for women, including Judith Weir, Olga Neuwirth, and Du Yun, to engage with wider societal issues; the strategies women, such as Unsuk Chin, Gabriela Lena Frank, and Liza Lim have adopted to respond to an increasingly globalised world; and how composers such as Natasha Barrett and Jana Winderen have explored environmental issues through their music.