Filled the leisure time of the women.

"...the greatest challenge faced by females of the leisured classes was how to be leisured..." -Richard Leppert

Educated them, but did not threaten men's positions.

An upper-class woman was expected to be educated, but not so much as to be dangerous to her husband. Music, a sedentary activity, did not develop the woman's mind. For this reason, musical ability increased a woman's matrimonial stock..