Ship of Fools: Female composers

Thread: Female composers Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by EtymologicalEvangelical (# 15091) on :

I have a reasonable interest in classical music, but it occurred to me the other day that there were no women in the list of composers I listened to. In fact, it rather alarmed me that I couldn't actually think of any anyway!!

[Hot and Hormonal]

I've googled this problem, and it seems I am not alone in my ignorance, since other people have asked the same question, and it has been noted that the Proms have not featured many works by women.

Can someone please help me out, as I would really like to take an interest in this.

Can you recommend any works by female classical composers (pre-20th century please)?

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

Straight off the top of my head: Roxanna Panufnik, Judith Weir. Earlier: Amy Woodforde-Finden, Hildegard of Bingen, Amalia of Quedlingburg, Nadia Boulanger, Avril Coleridge-Taylor, Elizabeth Poston

Posted by Hedgehog (# 14125) on :

quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
Straight off the top of my head: Roxanna Panufnik, Judith Weir. Earlier: Amy Woodforde-Finden, Hildegard of Bingen, Amalia of Quedlingburg, Nadia Boulanger, Avril Coleridge-Taylor, Elizabeth Poston

Yeah, but that is just off the top of your head...

[Which is my ironic way of saying that I am deeply impressed that you could run off such a string of names! I don't see an "applause" smilie, so I will have to go with [Overused]

]

Posted by Organ Builder (# 12478) on :

Just a few others, although recordings and sheet music aren't always easy to find. All of these are 19th and early 20th century:

--Fanny Mendelssohn. Felix felt her talent to be the equal of his.

--Clara Schumann. It's mostly going to be piano music, but she remains under-rated and underexposed, in my not-so-humble opinion.

--Dame Ethel Smyth. Some of her choral and orchestral works are breathtakingly lovely. If you can lay your hands on a recording of The Wreckers or Mass in D you will wonder why you have never heard more of her work.

--Mrs. H.H.A Beach. She's American, but she was rich enough and talented enough that she was able to have a career. She has some wonderful anthems that still show up from time to time.

Posted by blackbeard (# 10848) on :

Barbara Strozzi.

Posted by Bene Gesserit (# 14718) on :

Looks like I've got some listening and learning to do! Thanks, EE, for asking the question and thanks to those who've answered so far. I've got YouTube open on another tab with the Wreckers Overture playing... It is rather lovely.

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

... If you're looking for classical sounding stuff there are a couple of lesser-known 20th century Brits - Kathleen Benning (who also wrote some anthems, though not particularly distinguished) and Elizabeth Fordham. From the world of film music there's Debbie Wiseman and Melissa Hartman

Posted by Metapelagius (# 9453) on :

Dame Hilda Tablet? [Biased]

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Metapelagius:
Dame Hilda Tablet?

Of the rather less famous duo of Hinge and Tablet, would that be?

Posted by ArachnidinElmet (# 17346) on :

You might have listened to music by women composers without realising it; Imogen Holst and Ursula Vaughan Williams arranged an awful lot of other people's compositions.

Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :

Here is a list of female composers. A lot are pre-20th century, but the list includes those born later, too.

When I was younger, Cécile Chaminade was a great favorite of mine!

Posted by Gee D (# 13815) on :

A couple of names from her are Anne Carr-Boyd and Peggy Glanville-Hicks. Perhaps not in the Clara Schumann class, but not far behind, and I'd put them well ahead of Dame Ethel Smyth.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

Sally Beamish is well-kennt in Scotland.

Posted by Taliesin (# 14017) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Gee D:
A couple of names from her are Anne Carr-Boyd and Peggy Glanville-Hicks. Perhaps not in the Clara Schumann class, but not far behind, and I'd put them well ahead of Dame Ethel Smyth.

I realise this is heaven not purg, but I do find this irritating. Anne Carr-Boyd is a completely different style and era to Ethel Smyth, so why even put them in the same sentence? It's like dismissing Claude Debussy as a suggestion because you prefer John Ireland. I prefer the Wreckers to the Millenium rag, actually, but Anne Carr-Boyd can still stay in a suggested list of 'female composers' which was a fairly broad request. doncha think?

Posted by Ricardus (# 8757) on :

Alma Mahler wrote a number of Lieder, although I confess I don't know anything about them.

Posted by Ricardus (# 8757) on :

For 'salon music' one can also add Lili Boulanger, sister of the aforementioned Nadia, and the unpronounceable Tekla Bądarzewska-Baranowska (thank you Wikipedia), most famous for A Maiden's Prayer.

Posted by Metapelagius (# 9453) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:

quote:
Originally posted by Metapelagius:
Dame Hilda Tablet?
Of the rather less famous duo of Hinge and Tablet, would that be?

No, that would be Hinge and Bracket.

Dame Hilda was a far more serious composeress (sic), the inventor of musique concrète renforcée . Notable, too, was her all-female cast opera Emily Butter, set in a department store. This is a useful source of information about her life and oeuvre.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Metapelagius:

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:

quote:
Originally posted by Metapelagius:
Dame Hilda Tablet?
Of the rather less famous duo of Hinge and Tablet, would that be?
No, that would be Hinge and Bracket.

They were the rather more famous duo.

Nowadays of course it would be Dame Hilda iPad.

Posted by Metapelagius (# 9453) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:

quote:
Originally posted by Metapelagius:

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:

quote:
Originally posted by Metapelagius:
Dame Hilda Tablet?
Of the rather less famous duo of Hinge and Tablet, would that be?
No, that would be Hinge and Bracket.

They were the rather more famous duo.

Nowadays of course it would be Dame Hilda iPad.

I don't think that Dame Hilda would have cared for the sort of 'fame' enjoyed by the other Dame Hilda and Dr Evadne.

quote:
Blessed with a private income, Dame Hilda can remain independent of the whims of public taste and has no need to write down to an audience. "My parents, Sir Eric and Lady Tablet," she said, "exist on the Charles Morgan level, even in conversation. So I don't need to cajole or wheedle the public into liking my work, and problems of popularization do not arise. It's far more important for me to find a librettist than to find an audience." Dame Hilda went on to discuss her differences with Mr. Harold Reith, who provided the text of Emily Butter, her first opera, which was heard at Covent Garden a few years ago. "I was invited to compose something for the International Festival of Democratic Composers, so I asked Mr. Reith to write twenty-four Songs of Common Life that could set to fulfil the commission. He did do, but I found that he had seriously, very seriously, misunderstood the meaning I attach to the word 'common'."

- from an interview published in The Times in 1960.

Posted by Barnabas Aus (# 15869) on :

From Australia, we can also list Margaret Sutherland, Dulcie Holland, Miriam Hyde, and most recent of all Elena Kats-Chernin. All of these fine female composers have selections of their work available, some easily accessible through Amazon.

While Anne Carr-Boyd is of a different era than Dame Ethel, and thus the comparison may be invidious, I would agree with GeeD that Peggy Glanville-Hicks is a more skilled composer than Dame ethel.

Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on :

Mrs. H H A Beach, mentioned above, was quite a remarkable musician. She was born Amy Cheney, studied in Germany, became an accomplished pianist. IIRC she was the first woman soloist to appear with the Boston Symphony.
After her marriage to Dr. Beach, he insisted that she no longer perform in public, so her musical skills turned more to composition.
At the end of her life she lived in NYC, and was designated 'composer in residence' at St. Bartholomew's Episc Church.
Her most frequently (probably) performed anthem is 'Let This Mind Be in You,' some of which sounds like out-takes from 'Turandot.' There is also an extensive and elaborate Magnificat, and the 'Grand Mass in E-Flat' (which I have conducted).
BTW, many program annotators and those of a feminist persuasion insist on listing her works as by Amy Cheney Beach, but the composer signed her works 'Mrs. H.H.A.Beach,' so that's what I always use.

(I realize that this is probably TMI, but I got carried away.)

Posted by Inger (# 15285) on :

I would recommend the Hyperion CD of Piano Trios; one by Fanny Mendelssohn, the other by Clara Schumann, with the Dartington Piano Trio.

It's available from Amazon

Both pieces are very enjoyable.

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