This collection of analytical essays on music by women composers from Hildegard of Bingen to the twenty-first century, presents detailed studies of compositions written since 1960 by Ursula Mamlok, Norma Beecroft, Joan Tower, Sofia Gubaidulina, Chen Yi, Kaija Saariaho, Libby Larsen, and Elisabeth Lutyens. Each chapter opens with a brief biographical sketch of the composer written by the editors, followed by an analysis of a single representative composition linking analytical observations with broader considerations of music history, gender, culture, or hermeneutics. The essays are grouped thematically into three sections, the first focused on pitch design, the second on musical gesture, and the third on music and text.