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Thanks everyone. I suspected as much regarding russian composers of the romantic era. However I'm really happy you mentioned Alla Pavlova, because I did not know her and I think this piece could be a good piece if we can convince the orchestra that it's worth it to rent the parts.

Hey,

I'm looking into everything you mentioned, thank you all very much.

At the moment I'm looking for something very specific that would have a chance to be played soon in concert if it fits the criteria : we need a rather short piece (~10 min) written by a female russian composer of the romantic era (or style), for orchestra and solo violin. Any ideas ?

Hey everyone,

Let me try and answer everything.

Gareth : I've looked at Luise Adolpha le Beau but unless I'm mistaken her only known orchestral works have been published and recorded (can't find it on the top of my head, but I remember decided there was nothing to work on from her). Maybe some chamber music, I'll have a look. Agathe Backer-Grondahl on the other hand, I knew about her but I didn't see thosee two manuscripts. Thanks !

I'll look into Dora Bright, thanks !

Double A : I'm actually interested in both orchestral and chamber works. I was actually looking for pieces to play with my amateur orchestra and realized it was really hard to get anything written by women. A symphony is a huge project but I'm not alone, I have other "volunteers". Thanks for your work on Mayer, it's amazing ! I'm only a beginner in this game. I'll try to check out the piano trios

Monju : I actually know the person who edited the two Marie Jaëll concertos. Indeed, I don't think they made the scores available but I'd love for them to be accessible because these concertos are so great. I will ask and keep you posted here. Thanks for the info and for your work on "Les Heures"

Ah yes, I was being naive about those copyright issues. To be fair it's not easy understanding what's perfectly legal, tolerated, frowned upon, etc. Thanks for the clarifications though !

And it is definitely a delicate issue. I wasn't really planning to go near composers who are not in the public domain but there's not that many manuscripts available for the 19th century.

btw if you want me to remove a couple of the Mayer manuscript symphonies (some of which I uploaded/mirrored-with-slight-tweaks-from-SBB) from IMSLP (I see since that, that while the manuscripts were uploaded by libraries, there may be some copyright issues since they have been published in typeset form recently, and as to others you may be working on doing the same) I will do so - sorry about.

On the contrary, I'm actually working on her 1st symphony and I'm glad the manuscript is on IMSLP. Copyright issues are a bit of a puzzle for me. I was under the impression that if a piece is in the public domain and the manuscript is legally available (as I assume it is when uploaded by librairies), I can publish it in typeset form whithout any other constrain. But I might be wrong.

Actually I think it's also the case for non public domain pieces, for instance : if Gareth were to send me the scans of Lilian Elkington "Out of the mist" manuscripts, it would be legal for me to upload a typeset version of them, as long as I do so under the right license. But I might be completely mistaken, maybe you guys know more than me about this.

I believe there is an entire project to edit the works of Johanna Senfter, but so far, they only have managed to release one of her symphonies (the 4th). It would be interesting to contact the people working on the project to see what else they have managed to complete in performance-worthy editions.

Thanks, I'll take a look !

I am sure you are aware of this but I think it needs to be answered:  Furore Verlag and Hildegard Publishing both specialize in this sort of repertoire.  Plus there is IMSLP.  Given all this what do you plan to do or how do you think you will complement these already existing efforts?

Yes, I know about those two and I greatly appreciate their work. Actually, one thing I haven't made clear is that I want to volunteer my time for this, i.e. do it freely. The goal is indeed to put the scores on IMSLP. I'm not looking to create a publishing company at this point, and I don't think I will want to.

The point you raise about the money issue is a good one, and that's also the core of my project : I want to make the scores available and useful for amateur musicians and ensembles.

Overall I realize this is quite a difficult balance : I don't want to ruin the work of actual publishing companies by re-doing it for free, but I do believe that something can be done even if it's in the end only a few pieces. I recently put the orchestra parts of Emilie Mayer's Faust Ouverture on IMSLP (only the complete score was there). It's not great because that's the first transcribing "job" I did (and on Musescore), but it's a start and I'm also working on her first symphony, the manuscript of which being on IMSLP.

Contributors to this forum will be able to add other names to this list. In the case of Dorothy Howell I can put you in touch with her niece who has all her MSS, and with Freda Swain I know who has all her MSS. Also, somewhere in my collection I believe I have photocopies of the MS score and parts of Lilian Elkington's "Out of the Mist".

I wish your project well. Please let me know if I can be of assistance.

Thanks Gareth, that's great ! I'm aware of most of these composers, although not all of them so that's already an addition to our database. I am working on Emilie Mayer manuscripts as I mentioned, and I will do some research on the others. Thank you very much !

Hey everyone !

I hope I'm not posting in the wrong place. Let me explain in a few words who I am : I'm the co-founder of ComposHer, a collective that works to promote classical music written and played by women. One of the things we would like to do is actually edit works by female composers to make them more available to the general public. Of course, we focus on pieces which haven't been edited yet or which need a more modern edition than the one available. In my research about female composers in general, I often find myself on this forum, where I did find some extremely precise and useful information, so I thought I would come and ask directly :

Do you have in mind interesting female composers from the romantic era, and specific pieces that need to be edited ? I'm interested in anything : works for choir, orchestra, chamber music ... anything !

I realize that some of you might be trying to do the same things, or working in similar ways to find and promote forgotten works. I do not wish to insinuate that I'm the first to try and do that, on the contrary, I came here to see if people with more experience and years of research could help me in my project. I'll welcome any input !

Thanks so much for your help !

Marie, for ComposHer