Women unsungs

[Lew]

Hello everyone.

Having just listened to Emilie Mayer's 5th symphony, I thought I'd find out more about her and came across this rather interesting website about women composers. Although most seem to have flourished in the 20th century, there are some 19th century women who look as though they might have something interesting to offer us.

http://67.220.225.100/~oboe3583/ambache/wWomen.htm#Different

Click on the 'back to navigation page' at the top left for lists.

Lew Lewis

[thalbergmad]

Very interesting and a lot of new names to me. Thanks for this link.

A few missing that have provided me with some enjoyment on the piano, being Marie Jaell, Terresa Carreno and Julie Rive - King, the latter having written some rather pleasing transcriptions.

Let us never forget our female "Unsungs".

Thal

[TerraEpon]

One missing from that list is Mel(anie) Bonis -- a very lovely composer who reminds me somewhat of Faure.

There's also an oboe virtuoso-composer whose name completely slips by me (Edit: Whoops, checking I found I was thinking of Marie Grandval, who IS there)

And Sophie Menter, who wrote the nice Hungarian Fantasy that used to be attributed to Liszt.

[thalbergmad]

A few weeks ago, i was messing around with some variations by Leopoldine Blahetka that i thought in the Herzian mould.

There is a clip on youtube of a polonaise by the same composer, but my speakers appear not to be working at the moment.

Thal

[Martin Eastick]

Yes - Blahetka does indeed show some promise, if you like Kalkbrenner (which I am not ashamed to admit that I do!) -perhaps on one of his better days! I have her Concertstuck for piano & orchestra (piano solo part only however - if the orchestral parts survive this could be a useful "filler" for a future Hyperion release!). Also, some of her piano solo & instrumental works have been reprinted by Hildegard Publishing if anyone is interested...

Re Sophie Menter: does anyone know if the waltz it is claimed that she composed for a young Claudio Arrau (she cannot have heard him play at the age of 18, as is mentioned in one source, because Menter died in 1918 when Arrau was born in 1903!) - and was 'recorded' by him on piano -roll in 1919, has been reconstructed. The same source mentioned above states that the unpublished manuscript has disappeared without trace. This piece is a wonderful example of late 19th century virtuoso pianistic extravagance which I would be extremely pleased to have a printed score of! (and perhaps other like-minded members also?)

Finally - may I take this opportunity to recommend Rosalind Ellicott (1857-1924)to anyone who has not come across her - it would seem that most of her music did not get published (including a Fantasie for piano & orchestra performed at the Crystal Palace in 1895) and that which did seems to be incredibly hard to track down. However, I did stumble across the scores of both piano trios some 15 or so years ago - and consequently No2 in D minor was recorded and issued on the Meridian label about 4 years ago. Obviously, any further information as to the whereabouts of any of her manuscripts would be more than welcome.....

[thalbergmad]

Hello Martin,

I do have a scan of the Menter Waltz. It was reconstructed by Takashi Hayashikawa. I can see no copyright markings, but would prefer to have the permission of the Site owners before posting a link.

If possible, i would love to see the Blahetka Concertstuck you mention if you ever get around to digitalising it. Collecting works for piano and orchestra is my passion and i do not have this one, nor do i remember seeing it on any of my "hunts".

Regards

Thal

[Gareth Vaughan]

Does anyone know where Rosalind Ellicott's MSS are - or must we assume that, like most of the works of Dora Bright, they are lost. Our women composers have been dreadfully neglected and it does seem that far too much of their music has been allowed to disappear altogether. Dora Bright and Lilian Elkington are two cases in point. But there are so many more...

[jimmosk]

I can't believe that excellent page has not even a mention of Dame Ethel Smyth, whose Serenade in D Major I honestly feel Brahms would have been proud to have written. Listen to a few clips from it here: http://www.amazon.com/Ethel-Smyth-Concerto-Orchestra-Serenade/dp/B000000AYX

-J

--
Jim Moskowitz
The Unknown Composers Page:  http://kith.org/jimmosk/TOC.html
My latest list of unusual classical CDs for auction:  http://tinyurl.com/527t7

[Jonathan]

Hi All,
Oddly, on this very topic, earlier today in the car on the way to work I was listening to Fanny Mendelssohn's 3 pieces for piano duet (on a CD coupled with her brothers own transcription for 4 hands of his 2nd Piano Trio, Op.66) - really charming and fun little pieces, well worth a listen. 

I've also got a recording of her piano cycle "The Year" played by Laura Skride which is also well worth a listen too!

[Hovite]

I can't believe that excellent page has not even a mention of Dame Ethel Smyth

I my opinion, she is the greatest female composer.

[edurban]

Marvelous Ethel Smyth!  Anyone who has been fortunate enough to hear The Wreckers will attest to its brilliance.  It is the work of a true dramatic composer, a woman born to write operas of the most heaven-storming sort.  Oddly, most of Dame Ethel's other operas are rather light in tone, although the Mass is certainly in her h-s mode.  The only complete recording of the Wreckers is still available as a reissue from Archiv--and it's a good one, Sir Charles Grove and Dame Ethel herself recorded the overture, and there are excepts from a staged performance (a reduced orchestra version) on Youtube.  The rather irritating New York Times review of American Symphony's concert performance a few years back is here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/02/arts/music/02wrec.html
The audience reaction that day was overwhelming; I had tears in my eyes at the composer's triumph.  Writing effective operas is not quite the same thing as writing great music (or Zandonai and Giordano would be great composers) but the Wreckers is tremendously effective and very often great.
David

[Gareth Vaughan]

I agree wholeheartedly. The Wreckers is a great opera - really splendid stuff. You can hear how the sea music influenced Britten.
Her dramatic choral piece "The Prison" remains unrecorded - now that is a work of genius.

[Amphissa]

Nina Makarova - the wife of Aram Khachaturian, studied composition under Myaskovsky and Gliere at Moscow Conservatory. Most of her works have never been recorded, but her Symphony in D minor, which was written 5 years after her marriage, then revised some years later, is a solid composition.

Zara Levina - much more prolific than Makarova and better represented on disc. Two piano concertos and assorted chamber music have been released. Most were on the old Melodiya label.

However, Levina's Piano Concerto No. 2 and Makarova's Symphony in D minor appear on an old Russian Disc CD that is worth a listen, if you can find a used on floating around.

Makarova was quite the beauty. I can see why Khachaturian married her.

[Ilja]

Personally, I've always had a soft spot for Amy Beach; her Gaelic Symphony is really quite something, in a Parry-esque sort of way.

What do you lot consider the best-known orchestral work by a woman composer? I'd say probably Clara Schumann's piano concerto, or did I overlook something very obvious?

[TerraEpon]

Schumman's PC is almost certainly it, yes. Chaminade's Flute Concertino may be a close second, though, as pretty much any flute player past high school will know of it.
Beach's is probably the best known symphony, though (we even covered it in music history class in college).