Music Meets Drama

  For Gena Branscombe the years 1919-1920 were ones of deep sorrow, depression and a time for her compositional creativity to be a healing agent following the deep loss of her 3 year old daughter Betty.   As I have written in the past, her largest work ever, Pilgrims of Destiny , was composed during these years.   Though Miss Branscombe’s 150 art songs lead the number of compositions she wrote, there were also piano and choral works, chamber music and instrumental pieces including her Sonata in One Movement for Violin and Pianoforte.   This is a tour-de-force piece that was denied publication because it was deemed too difficult by publishers.   The one movement sonata opens restless seeming to seek out its development then settles into three contrasting thematic groups.   It is florid and extroverted based in the late German romantic style.  Making its way to the concert stage, the sonata’s first performers used the original manuscript loaned ...

In 2018 two recordings were released that included works by Gena Branscombe.   Orchestral music of American composers from the late 19 th century and early 20 th century represents one of the CDs.   The second recording features the piano music of 13 American women composers.   American Romantics III garnered the Lansdowne Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Reuben Blundell, the Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music.   Recording the music of David Stanley Smith, Carol Busch, Edward MacDowell, Charles Wakefield Cadman, Cecil Burleigh, Ludwig Bonvin and Gena Branscombe – not all the composers are familiar names to everyone, the music is beautiful and a tribute to  the wide range of American music.   Congratulations.   Gena’s piece on this CD, “A Memory” was originally composed for violin and piano.   As a gift to the founder, Edwin Fleisher, of the Philadelphia Symphony club, composer William Happich arranged...