Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, found at 1 Cor. 14:26 mentions hymns sung when Christians gathered. Christ and his disciples sang hymns at the last supper. Of course, the earliest churches were in homes or small private venues. Early reports say singing was most common at meals, whether Eucharist or agape. Hymns, in the early church, referred to praises to God, as distinct from the already established Psalms. But there’s no documentation of women’s presence in liturgy until the 4th century. Before then, women, traditional caretakers of the home, most likely had a large say in the events there, and most likely sang hymns composed either on their own or by others. The hymns were of anonymous authorship and often spontaneous. Just as Psalm singing often involved a call and response, so too many of the hymns involved call by a lector and response from the people. Does all this sound somewhat like the somewhat secret gatherings of slaves in the American South and the evolution of the Afro-American spiritual?
As the years passed, informality gave way to more formality. The Constantinian Settlement of 313 allowed for larger public meetings with more singing. Women’s part in public life was already closely circumscribed. The church added its own restrictions. Women were policed with regulations on clothes, hair, makeup, jewelry and talking. Ambrose of Milan warned virgins of sighing, clearing their throats, coughing, and laughing during liturgy. Pope Gregory’s reforms led to priest centered scholas where singing was the central focus. And where scholas developed, congregational responses disappeared. This nearly silenced women in parish and cathedral churches. The dominant musical form of call and response morphed into a chant by a schola cantorum and a silent congregation. Group singing by monks and nuns led the way. Of course, women could not sing except in their own cloisters. There, they sang filling all musical roles and contributing their own compositions and developing their own musical traditions. Think of the liturgical plays by Hildegard in the 12th century as a later example.
The music of the 6th and 7th centuries is unknown, mostly due to the barbaric invasions. Hymn texts were copied without notation beginning in the 7th century and the earliest surviving notated hymns are in manuscripts of the 10th century. Even then, notation was generally primitive or non-existent. The first extant hymnaries with extensive notation are from the 11th century. We might have the words of mostly anonymous poets and composers, but the music is unknown. Chants, music to the divine offices, and hymns were certainly sung, but the composers, whether male or female, were never known.
It was not until the dawn of modernity that we know very much of women’s music. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) wrote on the fundamentals of musical practice. She wrote poetry and songs for liturgical occasions. In the Roman Catholic Church, women’s singing, where it was possible at all, was defined as non-liturgical. No need to give women any credit for the liturgy, is there?
So yes, women and music existed together in the early church. We just don’t know about most of them due to social constraints, political events, and the lack of musical notation.