Transnational Smyth: Suffrage, Cosmopolitanism, Networks

This thesis examines the transnational entanglements of Dame Ethel Smyth (1858–1944), which are exemplified through her travel and movement, her transnational networks, and her music’s global circulation. Smyth studied music in Leipzig, Germany, as a young woman; composed an opera (The Boatswain’s Mate) while living in Egypt; and even worked as a radiologist in France during the First World War. In order to achieve performances of her work, she drew upon a carefully-cultivated transnational network of influential women—her powerful “matrons.” While I acknowledge the sexism and misogyny Smyth encountered and battled throughout her life, I also wish to broaden the scholarly conversation surrounding Smyth to touch on the ways nationalism, mobility, and cosmopolitanism contribute to, and impact, a composer’s reputations and reception. Smyth herself acknowledges the particular double-bind she faced—that of being a woman and a composer with German musical training trying to break into the English music scene. Using Ethel Smyth as a case study, this thesis draws upon the composer’s writings, reviews of Smyth’s musical works, popular-press articles, and academic sources to examine broader themes regarding the ways nationality, transnationality, and locality intersect with issues of gender and institutionalized sexism. Such intersections have the power to shape labels of insider/outsider and influence whose music gets performed, studied, and remembered.Master of Art

James Blachly

Grammy winning conductor James Blachly brings his Experiential Orchestra to MSU to join forces with the MSU Symphony Orchestra in an evening of immersive music making. In true Experiential Orchestra style, the audience members will surround and be surrounded by the orchestra in creative ways as the combined ensembles present works by the Cali School Artist-in-Residence Jessie Montgomery, excerpts from Dame Ethel Smyth\u27s opera, The Prison, and William Dawson\u27s 1934 Symphony No. 1, Negro Folk Symphony, the composers only symphony.https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/cali-immersive-residency-2021-2022/1009/thumbnail.jp

The Late Works of Dame Ethel Smyth: A Musical Microcosm of Interwar British Culture

This paper examines the late musical compositions of Dame Ethel Smyth in the context of British society and culture between the two World Wars. It focuses on Smyth\u27s large-scale works, especially her operas The Boatswain\u27s Mate (1914) and Entente Cordiale (1923-1924) and her oratorio The Prison (1930). Using these works as examples of the composer\u27s mature style, I draw attention to a number of Smyth\u27s original artistic choices as well as her sophisticated use of social commentary. Also considered in this research are certain anticipated roles for women as composers at the time, Smyth\u27s other passions and pursuits, and her interactions with her contemporaries. Her activities as a composer reflected an evolving social landscape for British women in addition to new musical developments

“When a woman speaks the truth about her body”: Ethel Smyth, Virginia Woolf, and the challenges of lesbian auto/biography

As professionals who encountered first-hand the invidious barriers within patriarchal society that hindered career women, Ethel Smyth and Virginia Woolf both used their published writings to pursue lifelong crusades against the under-representation of females in their respective disciplines. This article compares the different strategies by which the two artists strove to tell the truth about their experiences as women, and considers the corresponding implications for Smyth’s musical output. While the egotistical Smyth candidly recounted stories relating to herself, Woolf excised overt authorial presence from her texts, instead invoking fictitious, protean narrators to reflect the collective unconsciousness of Womanhood. Woolf’s encouragement and criticism of Smyth’s literary endeavours are examined in the context of her biographical theories and feminist critiques, and of the lesbian proclivities of both women. Their published writings and personal documents suggest that Smyth actively appealed to the very autobiographical strategies that Woolf persistently counselled her to subvert, in order to compete with the (heterosexual) patriarchy on equal terms. She apparently held this option to be the only available one through which to insinuate herself within the canonical traditions specific to music, as distinct from those of literature

Schumann, Holmes & Smyth

This article looks at the relationship between Clara Schumann, Augusta Holmès, and Dame Ethel Smyth and how their knowledge of one another’s place in history informs our understanding of their compositional output. The canonic significance attributed to Clara Schumann and the idea of “the first woman to compose large symphonic works” will be discussed in relation to modern writings on female canons in creative writing. In addition, this essay will present an analysis of the feminist and political implications of Augusta Holmès’s opera La Montagne Noire and Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Wreckers. How Smyth and Holmès chose to depict the women in these operas will be examined against feminist musicological criticism of the genre and the composers’ own politics

Ethel Smyth's Mass in D : a performance-study guide

Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) was well-known in her native England and in parts of Germany, and her music was acclaimed during her lifetime. Today, she is relatively unknown, her music seldom performed. Unfortunately, much of her music is out of print. The purpose of this document is two-fold. First, it is hoped that the reader will gain an awareness of and an appreciation for Smyth's work. Second, the document is designed to draw attention to one work in particular, her Mass in D. This document is organized in the form of a critical/ analytical performance guide for the Mass in D. The material included should prove helpful to a conductor planning a performance of the Mass in D. The Mass is in print and has recently received several performances

The organ music of Ethel Smyth: a guide to its history and performance practice

This document provides a thorough biography of Dame Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) in reference to her organ works and an analysis of the works themselves. A performance practice guide concludes the document, with the aim of making her works more accessible. The performance practice guidelines address articulation, phrasing, tempo, ornamentation, and registration, based on the performance practice of the day and organs she may have known

Dame Ethel Smyth\u27s Concerto for Violin, Horn, and Orchestra: A Performance Guide for the Hornist.

Dame Ethel Smyth\u27s Concerto for Violin, Horn, and Orchestra (1927) is a welcome addition to the horn concerto repertory. Moreover, Smyth\u27s Double Concerto has the added distinction of being the first significant piece for horn by a female composer. The Double Concerto was first performed May 5, 1927, in the Queens Hall, London by the renowned Aubrey Brain, horn, and Jelly d\u27Aranyi, violin, with Sir Henry Wood conducting. The Concerto consists of three movements, each featuring beautiful thematic material that is expanded and exchanged between the two soloists and within the orchestra. The Finale is a heroic movement that makes use of hunting motives, a style of horn writing popular since at least the time of Georg Philipp Telemann. This monograph will focus on preparation strategies for performing the horn part of Smyth\u27s Concerto. The first chapter will provide biographical and historical information on Ethel Smyth and her Double Concerto. The second chapter will provide an analysis to help assist the performer in understanding the piece. It will include a discussion of topics such as form, harmony, motives, and rhythms. The third chapter will be a practical guide for the horn player. It will provide teaching methods and exercises for developing multiphonic techniques, suggestions for coping with the awkward passages marked con sordino, as well as a variety of alternate fingerings for stopping. A description of Aubrey Brain\u27s instrument and sound will suggest an appropriate timbre for this piece and a discussion of seating arrangements will address issues of balance

Ethel Smyth (1858 - 1944)

In dieser Arbeit geht es um die britische Komponistin Ethel Smyth (1858 – 1944). Die bibliographischen Kapitel zeigen, dass sie aus einer unmusikalischen Familie stammte und nur durch Hartnäckigkeit ihren Weg ans Leipziger Konservatorium fand. Das Studium entsprach jedoch nicht ihren Vorstellungen, weswegen sie es nach nur einem Jahr wieder beendete und Privatunterricht bei Heinrich von Herzogenberg nahm. Ihre große Leidenschaft war die Oper, die jedoch im 19. Jahrhundert eher den männlichen Komponisten vorbehalten war. Trotzdem komponierte Ethel Smyth insgesamt sechs Opern, welche alle öffentlich aufgeführt wurden. Die Komponistin führte ihr Leben gegen jegliche Konventionen und wollte sich auch musikalisch nicht auf Grund ihres Geschlechts einschränken lassen. Immer wieder versuchte sie die Benachteiligung von Musikerinnen zu thematisieren und verfasste darüber Artikel und Bücher in denen sie auf diese Missstände aufmerksam machte und dabei versuchte diese zu bekämpfen.This is a paper on the British composer Ethel Smyth (1858 – 1944). The biographical chapters demonstrate how she succeded to attend the conservatory in Leipzig although her family wasn’t talented musically. The studies weren’t quite what she was expecting, so she quit and took private lessons with Heinrich von Herzogenberg. Her passion was the opera, which in the 19th century was reserved for men. Nevertheless Ethel Smyth composed six operas, all of them were staged. The composer lived in a very unconventional way and didn’t want to be restricted musically because of her sex. Off and on she tried to raise the issue of discrimination against female musicians. She wrote several articles and books to call attention to these grievances and fight the bias

"Wie ich Suffragette wurde.": künstlerisches und politisches Selbstverständnis der englischen Komponistin Ethel Smyth (1858–1944)

"Die englische Komponistin Ethel Smyth setzte sich ihr Leben lang für Frauen und ihre Rechte auf die unterschiedlichste Art und Weise ein. So engagierte sie sich als Suffragette in der militanten WSPU, komponierte Werke mit feministischem Inhalt, unter anderem die Hymne der Suffragetten, den March of the Women, und veröffentlichte zahlreiche Schriften über die Benachteiligung von Frauen im englischen Musikleben. Für ihr Selbstbild als Komponistin spielt ihr Gefühl von Benachteiligung durch Dirigenten, Komitees und die Presse beziehungsweise Männer im Musikbetrieb allgemein eine ganz entscheidende Rolle. Letztendlich sieht sie sich als Pionierin und Vorreiterin für die nachfolgende Generation von Komponistinnen und Musikerinnen, die sie durch diverse persönliche Gefallen und musikpolitisches Engagement zu unterstützen versucht." (Autorenreferat)"Throughout her life, the English composer Ethel Smyth stood up for women and their rights in diverse ways. For instance, she became involved in the militant suffrage organisation WSPU, composed music of feminist content, including the hymn of the suffragettes, the March of the Women, and published a large number of writings about the discrimination of women in England’s musical life. The fact that she felt discriminated by conductors, committees and the press, or rather men in the world of music in general, had an important role to play in regard to her self-image as a female composer. Ultimately, she regarded herself as a pioneer and trailblazer for the next generation of female composers and musicians, whom she tried to support by doing them diverse personal favours and by pursuing an independent cultural policy." (author's abstract