Music Meets Drama

The 19 th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified 96 years ago today, August 18, 1920.  This is the amendment that guarantees the rights for all Americans to vote regardless of their sex.  YES! Celebrate ladies and gentlemen, yet, keep in mind this Constitutional amendment did not happen overnight.  Strong men and women believed in and fought for the suffragette movement.  They never lost sight of their ultimate goal, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” During the mid 1700s women were allowed to vote in certain states.  Slowly from the 1770s through to the 1790s, states began to rescind those rights.  The United States Constitutional Convention of 1787 allowed that women’s voting rights would be left to the individual states. In 1848 Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony convened the first convention for women’s rig...

About a month ago one of my “Google Alerts” caught my eye….a piece of Gena Branscombe’s sheet music was for sale on Amazon.  To my surprise, an original publication of “Spirit of Motherhood” was available.  I quickly purchased it.  The music arrived a few days later in beautiful condition.  In today’s world the words may seem sentimental or even out-of-date and the music may be a little over-the-top dramatic, yet at the time it was composed, poet Louise Driscoll (1875-1957) and Gena Branscombe were giving tribute to the most difficult job in the world – motherhood. In 1923 the New York State Federation of Women’s Clubs held a pageant showcasing the progress women had made in the past 50 years.  “Spirit of Motherhood” was performed by the Women’s Club chorus.  Imagine the progress made for women from 1873-1923. This was a celebration honoring women’s suffrage, the work their leaders Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone and Susan B. Anthony had or...