For Denise Von Glahn, listening is that special quality afforded women who have been fettered for generations by the maxim ""be seen and not heard."" In Skillful Listeners, Von Glahn explores the relationship between listening and musical composition focusing on nine American women composers inspired by the sounds of the natural world:Amy Beach, Marion Bauer, Louise Talma, Pauline Oliveros, Joan Tower, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Victoria Bond, Libby Larsen, and Emily Doolittle. Von Glahn situates ""nature composing"" among the larger tradition of nature writing and argues that, like their litera