Ethel Smyth - The Prison

[Mark Thomas]

So, he didn't think much of it, then? Makes Hurwitz sound positively benign.

[Alan Howe]

Oh dear...

[britishcomposer]

shows what can happen when a woman is inspired by a male pseudo-philosopher (whether his name be Brewster or another) instead of God.

Sexism coupled with bigotry.
For what has Ethel Smyth fought all her life?!

[Alan Howe]

Bigotry, indeed. But is the music actually any good?

[Gareth Vaughan]

Well, I think we should decide for ourselves when we hear the music. I, personally, am not impressed by the tone of this review. It does smack of a certain brand of bigotry.

[Mark Thomas]

Most of us would be appalled by the everyday attitudes of many people in the recent past, I'm sure, never mind centuries ago. It's best to treat such things as historical documents and form our own judgements on the music when we hear it.

[Wheesht]

I absolutely agree.I did find another contemporary review, from the Illustrated London News – The World of Music, November 21, 1931. It doesn't really describe the music either, though:

DAME ETHEL SMYTH AND EINSTEIN

   Our foremost woman composer, Dame Ethel Smyth, did what no other English composer has done—that is, draw a letter from the famous scientist, Professor Einstein, on the subject of women artists; and this week she has achieved the distinction of having her big choral work, "The Prison," performed for the second time in London within twelve months. It is far easier for an original composition by a living musician to find a first performance than a second; so it is no mean achievement to have such a big work performed twice in such a short time and under such favourable conditions. The Philharmonic Choir, founded by Mr. Charles Kennedy Scott, is one of the finest choirs in the country, and when it sang in Beethoven's "Choral Symphony," about a year ago, under the famous conductor Otto Klemperer, from Berlin, he was enthusiastic about its performance.
   Einstein is a great lover of music and an amateur violinist, so I wish he had said something about Dame Ethel Smyth's music in the letter from him which she recently published, for her work presents something of a problem. Personally, I am not persuaded, in spite of its second performance, that "The Prison" is one of her best compositions. In choosing this nineteenth-century semi-rhapsodical poetic prose of H. B. Brewster to set, Dame Ethel Smyth, to my mind, tackled a very ungrateful subject. The notion of the spirit of man imprisoned in fleshly bars struggling to be free was a favourite one with multitudes of people during the past century, and, like all ideas that have been strong and influential, it is the form rather than the idea that becomes dated and worn out. To me, Brewster's poetical prose seems often banal and platitudinous, with its echoes of Walt Whitman and other humanitarian writers of the period. This much may be said for the composer: that she has done her utmost to put life into these dead words, and in this work she shows all her own energy, even if her invention is not always quite happy. The singing was good, and the soloists, Mr. Keith Falkner and Miss Elsie Suddaby, were excellent. It cannot be said that the composer, with her very angular and stiff beat, excels as a conductor, but she always secures a vigorous and alert performance.
W. J. Turner

[rosflute]

I was fortunate enough to attend a performance of Smyth's 'The Prison' in Berlin, a few years ago. It is an excellent and moving work and, being so late in her output, displays the product of all her musical influences, including Debussy. I also have a copy of the score and a private recording of the live concert.
The general idea of the  "The Prison" is a discussion carried on by four people round about a manuscript which one of them has found, and which is supposed to have been left behind by an escaped Prisoner. This is really an allegory, in which the Prison represents the Self, According to the Prisoner the only ' success ' that matters is somehow, anyhow, to find your way out of that Prison. For Ethel the work also had a profound personal quality, her love for Walter Brewster whose ghost, she said, 'is always near me'.
I would thoroughly recommend it as a work, although along with others, I would question the use of 'The Last Post' in the concluding moments of the work. But, of course, it is difficult for us to understand listening to that melody in its then contemporary post-war context.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Thank you, Ros, for this helpful and illuminating post. I am really looking forward to hearing this work at long last.

[tappell]

Without wishing to appear pedantic, it is Henry Brewster not Walter. In her memoirs, Ethel Smyth states that the prison is based on The Prison: A Dialogue (1891)by Henry Bennet Brewster, but that she compiled the libretto herself from that work.

[eschiss1]

full score browsable here by the way. (Originally (c) 1930 it says on the title page.)

[BerlinExpat]

Ignore the above review, read this one:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/aug/06/ethel-smyth-the-prison-review-brailey-burton-experiential-orchestra

IMHO it is an absolute disgrace or perhaps even scandalous that no British performing group managed to produce the first recording of this significant work. Is the music industry still so male dominated that it couldn't conceive a woman could write such a sensuous work. Perhaps the title is unfortunate, but I feel that The Prison is Ethel Smyth at the height of her powers. In fact a mistress work to be gender correct!

[Alan Howe]

Not a very complimentary review here:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2020/Sep/Smyth-prison-CHSA5279-JW.htm

[eschiss1]

Given the origins of the term masterwork (Wikipedia: "Originally, the term masterpiece referred to a piece of work produced by an apprentice or journeyman aspiring to become a master craftsman in the old European guild system. His fitness to qualify for guild membership was judged partly by the masterpiece, and if he was successful, the piece was retained by the guild.") - I'll stick with masterpiece rather than mistress, I think.

[Alan Howe]

The gender-correct version of masterwork for female composers is........................masterwork.