Music Meets Drama

  In late March I received an e-mail asking me to review pianist Jennifer King’s recording, Souvenance .   I highly recommend listening to this recording, not just once, but many, many times. Congratulations to Jennifer on a beautiful presentation of Romances, Nocturnes and a Meditation composed by eight women composers. https://www.jenniferkingpiano.com/ https://lnk.to/souvenance You can buy or stream the recording on almost any platform.  Enjoy! Here’s my review: Nineteenth century French Impressionist painters created works of art depicting night.  Their use of darkly hued colors affects our senses.  Not to be outdone, French Impressionist composers took up the word “Nocturne” and began creating short works, that similar to the paintings, created the sense of night employing the colors a pianist infuses in their playing.  Jennifer King’s newly released CD; Souvenance is a delectable presentation of Nocturnes, Romances and a Meditation composed by ...

  It only took me three years to complete this particular Gena project.  Three years, yet, I kept at it even though I did take extended breaks at times to work on other Gena projects that needed attention.  Three years……   Yes, for three years I transcribed Gena Branscombe’s letters to her publisher, The Arthur P. Schmidt Co. of Boston.   Held at the Library of Congress, the Schmidt business books, letters to/from all composers they published, photos and more are in the stacks available for research.   Five years ago I photographed every letter Gena Branscombe wrote to Mr. Schmidt, Miss Emery, Miss Allen, Mr. Austin and others at the company.     From December 1910 to December 1951 Gena wrote hundreds of letters to these people.   Forty-one years of handwritten letters almost impossible to decipher at times because of her terrible penmanship and she always wrote in haste….even she admitted that.     In two different lette...

  Ludwig van Beethoven, Jean Sibelius, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, JS Bach, Frederic Chopin, Anton Bruckner, Robert Schumann, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Johannes Brahms, Luigi Boccherini, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Hector Berlioz, and Richard Wagner.  What do all of these composers have in common?  First, they are all men and second, they have statues of their likeness in public squares across Europe and some in the United States.    Chris Wiley, of London, England, recently posted on Facebook that a statue of composer/suffragette Dame Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) had been unveiled in her home town of Woking, England.   The unveiling, appropriately, was held on International Women’s Day, March 8 th .     Dame Ethel Smyth’s legacy as a composer and suffragette is exemplary for those of us who have come after her.   She studied at the Leipzig Conservatory.   She   met Clara Schumann and J ohannes Brahms.   She composed instrumental...

An e-mail from Allison Charney arrived in my mailbox asking me how to pronounce Gena Branscombe’s first name.   She went on to explain that with her colleague and friend, Donna Weng Friedman, the two would be hosting four one-hour radio shows featuring women composers entitled -   Her/Music:Her/Story.   The shows were broadcast on WQXR on four consecutive Friday evenings at 9 PM starting on September 13 th .    The first show celebrated the 200 th birthday of pianist/composer Clara Schumann (October 13, 1819 – 1896).   Allison and Donna took us on a journey discussing Clara’s life as a piano prodigy, wife to composer Robert Schumann, mother of eight children and composer.   Interspersed with their informative discussion were examples of Clara’s music - piano, instrumental and vocal.   The second broadcast was the Three B’s: Lili Boulanger (1893-1918), Gena Branscombe (1881-1977) and Amy Beach (1867-1944).   How c...

Women Composers………………. What a pleasure it was in early September of this year to read that young Jessy McCabe, a student at the private Twyford Church of England High School in London, England, stood up to exam boards for the A level music tests.  Among the 63 composers listed on the exam, not one of them was a woman nor were women composers listed on the syllabus for course work.  In Miss McCabe’s estimation, something had to be done and it was her responsibility to correct the wrong done to women composers.  She began a journey to change the way advanced music courses were taught.  She received an apology from the exam board and an assurance that women composers would be included in her music classes.  This young lady had taken a course entitled, “Fearless Futures” which raised the subject of gender inequality.  Her eyes were opened to the role of sexism in all facets of our everyday life.  With her determination to see an end to this so...

Dame Ethel Mary Smyth (1858-1944) Born in London, Dame Ethel Smyth was determined from a young age to become a composer.  Her musical talent granted her admission to the Leipzig Conservatory of Music where she met the leading composers of the day, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky and Grieg!  Through her composition teacher she was introduced to Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms.  Not a bad start for a student in the music world! Her compositions include songs, piano works, chamber music, choral pieces, a Concerto for Violin, Horn and Orchestra, a Mass in D and two operas, "The Wreckers" and "Der Wald" which was performed at the Metropolitan Opera.  Deafness prevented her from composing any other major works or ever hearing her music performed and accepted by adoring orchestra and audience members.   Unfortunately for Dame Smyth and all other women composers, their music was always labeled as that of a "woman composer" and not as artistically vi...