Music Meets Drama

As prolific a letter writer and correspondent as Miss Branscombe was, it never ceases to surprise me when one of her letters appears on E-bay for sale.   For many years the owner of the letter held onto it.  They or someone processing their estate made the decision to put it up for sale.  Maybe there was hope that a Branscombe family member or someone with knowledge of the writer would purchase the letter understanding the importance of its message. An undated letter of Miss Branscombe’s was listed on E-bay and, of course, I acquired it.  The address at the top of the letter is 180 Claremont Avenue, New York, NY where she resided with her family after their return to the city from Mountain Lakes, NJ.  The salutation is to a Miss Diane. The first paragraph acknowledges that Gena knew Diane’s mother and that she had driven by their “fine old place” belonging to the family.  Apologies are said for Diane’s mother not feeling well.  There is...

Beginning in 1880 and continuing into the mid 20 th century, Musical Courier was the weekly classical music trade magazine.  Nearly every angle of the classical music world was covered from obituaries, laws and legal business in the world of music, scholarly articles on music and instruments.  African-American music and women’s rights were topics of interest as well as the Nazi influence on European culture.  Composers as well as performers were chosen to be featured on the cover.  Publicity of this kind was and is priceless for a musician’s career.  Promoting performances of her work, Youth of the World , Gena Branscombe was featured on a 1933 cover of Musical Courier .  Now added to my Gena collection is an original framing copy of the cover.   By 1890 Musical Courier had its own British version and in 1897 the publisher, Mr. Marc Blumenberg, split the magazine into two editions; one being for musical news and the other fo...

“Christmas Festival ~ MacDowell Club of Mountain Lakes”  -  a green program held together with gold colored thread.  Delicate and fragile inner pages spell out a concert given by the MacDowell Club chorus conducted by Gena Branscombe.  The concert was presented on Tuesday evening, December 20, 1932 at 8:30 PM at the Community Church House.   The performance was given nearly 85 years ago during the height of the great Depression.  Established in 1896, MacDowell Clubs formed to honor American composer, Edward MacDowell (1860-1908).  At the height of their popularity there were 400 such clubs across the United States.  In the ensuing years the number of clubs has dwindled to only five remaining clubs; Mountain Lakes, New Jersey being one of them. The MacDowell Clubs were community organizations where lectures were presented by renowned people of their day, concerts of piano or vocal literature were performed, some chapters est...

The recent announcement that the opera,  Angel's Bone,  composed by Du Yun had won her the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Music is cause for the continuing celebration of women's musical accomplishments. My sincere congratulations go to Du Yun and past Pulitzer Prize winning women composers, Jennifer Higdon (2010), Caroline Shaw (2013), Julia Wolfe (2015), Shulamit Ran (1991), Melinda Wagner (1999) and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (1983).  These composers' Pulitzer Prize winning compositions span the musical genres of Violin Concerto, Oratorio, Symphonies, Partita for 8 Voices , Concerto for Flute, Strings and Percussion and now an opera.  Our assignment as supporters of women composers is to listen to their music, celebrate their works and educate, educate and educate continuously that women composers be heard without gender barriers. Along with the Pulitzer Prize for Music announcement, there have been other articles recently written about and by women composers. ...

As we come to the end of Women’s History Month 2017, for me it has been a month of discovering women composers of the Romantic and Impressionist era.  I made it my goal to go to YouTube each day and find an unknown, to me, woman composer. I started by putting in the name of French composer, Louise Farrenc (1804-1875) in the search area.  I had known her name from my music history classes.  Several times I listened to her Symphony #3 then went on to her Symphony #1 and chamber music .  Over and over I kept asking myself why her symphonies are not performed by all orchestras whether conservatory or professional.  These works are lyrical, full of emotion and major pieces of music that should be performed.  YouTube then brought up composer Dora Pejačević (1885-1923), an Hungarian/Croatian composer.  I listened to her Symphony #4 in F# Minor and her Piano Concerto in G Minor .  Again, the question……….why are her works not perfor...

During the month of March, we acknowledge and celebrate the accomplishments of women of historical importance and those of today's world who carry the torch to make an impact on our society.  Thousands and thousands of women's names should be added to an honor roll of some sort! The first International Women's Day began here in the United States in 1911.  By 1978, the Sonoma, California school district celebrated a Women's History Week that surrounded International Women's Day on March 8th.  The following year, Sarah Lawrence College held a conference about women's history.  President Jimmy Carter, in 1980, declared the week of March 8th as National Women's History Week.  A year later, Senator Orin Hatch and Representative Barbara Mikulski co-sponsored the first Joint Congressional Resolution proclaiming a Women's History Week.  By petitioning Congress in 1987, the National Women's History Project had March declared as National Women's...