Music Meets Drama

  ·          Women Composers on Women Composing "I have never been able to understand women composers who do not wish to be called women composers. I understand their argument but it seems so superficial to me. Our strength lies in our identification with women and music."   Beth Anderson, Composer #BringingBackBranscombe Photo credit:    Molly Sheridan, NewMusicBox. B B

I will be featuring quotes from women composers about their journey, their perceptions of being a woman composer and how the world perceives their works.  Enjoy!   I start with Miss Branscombe, of course.     “Composers are people born with some sort of sensitive inner mechanism that picks up sounds – vibrations – which other people do not hear.   Composers feel that there is a Realm of Music, a place where it exists in its perfection, and that they can tune in to it, as it were. Composers feel that they’re just channels, humanly speaking, through which the music flows.   And the truly great composers are those born with a mechanism so good that they hear more clearly than lesser composers.” And the truly great composers are those born with a mechanism so good that they hear more clearly than lesser composers.” Gena Branscombe speech presented at Beta Sigma Phi circa 1957 #BringingBackBranscombe

One Eye Publications has released Gena Branscombe's " Violin and Pianoforte Volume 2 " and the Suite for Piano, " When Joan of Arc was a Little Girl. " These wonderful pieces of music are available for sale NOW! http://www.oneeyepublications.com/. #BringingBackBranscombe #OneEyePublications #ViolinPianofortepieces #WhenJoanofArcwasaLittleGirl #PianoSuite #WomanComposer #GenaBranscombe

 Over the past 27 years wonderful musicians have contacted me asking about the music of Gena Branscombe.  Most often these musicians are singers wanting suggestions for programming Gena’s songs for their recitals. It’s an absolute joy to share this repertoire with them and offer to coach the singers on the interpretive style.  Nearly two years ago I was told that mezzo-soprano Jade Espina had performed Gena’s “Lute of Jade” song cycle.  Listening to her sing these songs with great attention to phrasing and understanding of the text while gorgeously sung was a thrill.      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXGxfcogRh0 Several weeks later Jade and I spoke by phone.  What a great conversation we had.  Jade assured me she loved performing the song cycle and in the future would definitely be programming more of Gena’s songs.  She was helping The Gena Branscombe Project lay the path to having Gena’s 150 songs considered for recitals! ...

  “I feel I must fight for (my music), because I want women to turn their minds to big and difficult jobs; not to just go on hugging the shore, and afraid to put out to sea. ”   Dame Ethel Smyth –  1902 letter to her collaborator Henry Brewster Yes, Gena Branscombe and Ethel Smyth met.   During the Summer of 1935, while Gena was visiting her daughter in England, a visit was arranged between the two composers. There must have been a shared tea with a discussion of women composers of their era! #BringingBackBranscombe

May 2026 has been bursting with wonderful news for women in music.   First came the Pulitzer Prize in Music awarded to Gabriela Lena Frank for her work “Picaflor: A Future Myth,” a 10-movement symphonic work.   The composer drew on Incan mythology telling the story of a hummingbird trying to save a future world from ecological disaster.   Commissioned and premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra, the performance was conducted by Marin Alsop. The work was grounded in her California experience living on a farm near Mendocino close to the devastating Camp fire of 2018.   While receiving the news of her Pulitzer Prize award, Ms. Frank was at the Metropolitan Opera where rehearsals for her opera “ El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego , ” were happening prior to its opening.    The Pulitzer Prize in Music was established in 1943 with the first award going to William Schuman.   Ms. Frank joins the ranks of great women composer Pulitzer winners among them are...