Women Composers of the World

On Wednesday 5th March I was honoured to perform as part of Blackburn Cathedral’s regular Wednesday recital series, with Zak accompanying. It was an extra special recital as it was the week of International Women’s Day. As Music Administrator at the cathedral, I’ve been enormously proud to have helped arrange multiple events celebrating International Women’s Day over the past two years, but I was even more honoured to have been a part of those events myself. The vocal recital for IWD last year included works by female composers from around the UK, so this year we went a little further afield and travelled the world through the brilliant works of female composers. While preparing for the recital I came across some spectacular facts about each composer so I couldn’t resist writing a blog post to share them with you! I’ve included the full concert programme and lyrics at the bottom of the post, as well as the link to a YouTube playlist with recordings from the recital.

We began the recital in England, with a set of Four Shakespeare Songs by English composer, singer and conductor Betty Roe, who was born in London in 1930. She began composing in her teens during World War II and has since written over 300 solo songs, as well as choral and sacred music, musicals, operas and instrumental pieces. In 2011 she received an MBE for services to Classical Music and Composition.

The pieces we performed were settings from William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, Othello and Henry VIII. The first one was especially fitting for the recital as it calls for women to forget deceitful men in order to be happy. The music includes voice, flute and piano so we were very grateful that John Robinson, Director of Music at Blackburn Cathedral was able to step in to accompany on piano so Zak could play the flute part.

The next pieces were also close to home, with music by Welsh composer Grace Williams and Irish composer Alicia Adelaide Needham. Williams, who was born in Barry in 1906, is generally regarded as Wales’s most notable female composer and was the first British woman to score a feature film. Needham, born in 1863, also has incredible achievements to her name. A committed suffragette and composer of over 700 works, she was the first woman to conduct at the Royal Albert Hall, London, and the first female president of the National Eisteddfod of Wales (in 1906). The pieces we performed by them are strongly connected to their home countries, both through the music styles and lyrics.

We next went further into Europe and explored the works of Cecile Chaminade of France and Clara Schumann of Germany. Chaminade was born in Paris in 1857 and experimented in composition from a very young age, writing pieces for her cats, dogs and dolls. Chaminade received numerous honours including from the Académie Française in 1888 and 1892, the Jubilee Medal from Queen Victoria in 1897 and the French National Order of the Legion of Honour in 1913, a first for a female composer.

Schumann is a name I’m sure you’re all familiar with, probably largely due to Robert Schumann, but you’d have to say Clara Schumann is also one of the most well-known composers and pianists of the romantic era. Clara was born in Leipzig in 1819 and from an early age her musicals skills were managed closely by her father. She made her concert debut at age 9, followed by numerous tours across Europe, culminating in her being named a Royal and Imperial Austrian Chamber Virtuoso, Austria's highest musical honour. She was the main breadwinner for her family and the sole one after her husband was hospitalized and then died. She gave concerts and taught, and she did most of the work of organizing her own concert tours.

Both Schumann and Chaminade were prolific composers of piano and vocal works in particular, and we performed one each of their many songs.

There is so much more of Europe you could explore through female composers, so I would encourage you to check out more yourself, especially the likes of Boulanger, Mendlessohn or Strozzi, but unable to fit it all in the recital, we then headed over to Japan. The next composer Hiromi Uehara was born in 1979 and is known for her fusion of multiple genres such as classical and jazz. At age 14 she played with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and later played at the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony in 2021.

We veered off from the art songs to feature her piano piece, Somewhere, which I like so much I really wanted to include, and not just to give me a break! When describing this piece, Hiromi said “When someone who is very important to you passes away, you feel sad and lost. Actually, the person is always around you even after they are gone, always looking after you, wishing for your happiness, forever as a spirit.”

After that beautiful piano solo from Zak, we continued our journey around the world with our next two pieces by Edewede Oriwoh of Nigera and Modesta Bor of Venezuela. Not only is Oriwoh a prolific composer, she also has a PhD in Cyber-Physical Security, has organised Composers in Conference and is active in promoting African Composers, launching an African Composers website and Facebook page.

Modesta Bor was born in Venezuela in 1926 and graduated with a degree in composition in 1959. She continued her studies at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and in 1960 won her first National Music Prize with her Sonata for Viola and Piano. After completing her studies she returned to Venezuela to work as a composer, teacher and choir director, becoming head of the music department at the Central University of Venezuela.

The pieces of Oriwoh and Bor that we performed are slightly different to some of the more Western classical art songs but still have some really interesting features. Oriwoh’s Ave Maria draws on lots of call and response patterns, while Bor’s Amolador features lush harmonies and melismas.

Amolador is actually the nearly extinct trade of a travelling knife-sharpener. For centuries roving tradesmen have wondered neighbourhoods in countries such as Portugal and Venezuela, all with their own unique call, song or cry to announce their arrival. This song describes their work but could also be a rendition of some of the songs that they would sing themselves to announce their arrival.

We continued our journey north to the United States of America. Again, there are so many female composers which I would have loved to include if we had more time: Amy Beach, Margaret Bonds, Caroline Shaw, but instead I chose a couple of pieces by Florence Price. Price was born in 1887 in Little Rock, later moving with her family to Chicago to escape Jim Crow conditions in the deep south.

According to her daughter, Florence really wanted to be a doctor but felt the difficulties of becoming a woman doctor at the time were too formidable. Instead, she became that even greater rarity—a woman composer of symphonies.

Price had a difficult personal life, with financial struggles and abuse by her husband resulting in her getting a divorce at age 44. She became a single mother to her two daughters and to make ends meet worked as an organist for silent film screenings and wrote songs for radio ads. During this time, she lived with her friend Margaret Bonds, one of the composers I just mentioned, and together they began to achieve national recognition for their compositions and performances.

Price has often been noted as the first African American woman to be recognised as a symphonic composer. She was the first African American woman to have her works performed by a major US orchestra, and her compositions were also performed by the Women’s Symphony Orchestra of Chicago, a well-known orchestra which uplifted women composers and performers. In 1940, Price was inducted into the American Society of Composers and in 2019 the International Florence Price Festival announced its inaugural gathering celebrating her music and legacy.

With over 300 works it was hard to choose which piece of hers to perform. I couldn’t decide on one in the end so we did two short vocal solos: Forever and Fantasy in Purple.

To finish, we travelled back to England with the premiere of one of my own pieces. I compose for lots of different instruments and styles and you can find all of them on my website, YouTube or social media, but this piece is slightly different to the ones I performed so far in the recital. As it is a new song it hasn’t yet been recorded or shared but I thought it was especially fitting to end the recital anyway. You may know that I’ve been very involved in the cathedral’s International Women’s Day events and I’m very committed to making the world more gender equal, so to fit that theme and the theme of the recital, my final piece questioned what role I, and we, can play in history to reach that goal of gender quality.

(To stay up to date with my newest releases, including this piece, you can subscribe to my website or follow me on social media.)

Programme

YouTube Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMpqCG-kFxUi2uiW-ngqiDUCxYdv6R3e-

Four Shakespeare Songs – Betty Roe (England) (b.1930)

1. Sigh no more

Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more, Men were deceivers ever;

One foot in sea, and one on shore, To one thing constant never.

Then sigh not so, but let them go, And be you blithe and bonny,

Converting all your sounds of woe into Hey nonny, nonny, nonny.

Sing no more ditties, sing no more, Of dumps so dull and heavy;

The fraud of men was ever so, Since summer first was leavy.

Then sigh not so…

2. Come away, death

Come away death, And in sad cypress let me be laid;

Fly away breath, I am slain by a fair cruel maid,

My shroud of white, stuck all with yew, O! prepare it, O! prepare it,

My part of death no one so true did share it.

Not a flower sweet, On my black coffin let them be strown;

Not a friend greet My poor corpse, where my bones shall be thrown.

A thousand sighs to save, Lay me O where sad true lover never find my grave, to weep there.

3. The willow song

The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree, Sing willow;

With his hand in his bosom, and his head upon his knee,

O willow shall be my garland.

He sighed in his singing, and made a great moan, Sing willow,

I am dead to all pleasure, My true love she is gone,

O willow shall be my garland.

Take this for my farewell and latest adieu, Sing willow,

Write this on my tomb that in love I was true,

O willow shall be my garland.

Sing all a green willow, aye me the green willow must be my garland.

4. Orpheus with his lute

Orpheus with his lute made trees, and the mountain tops that freeze, bow themselves when he did sing:

To his music, plants and flowers ever sprung: as sun and showers there had made a lasting spring.

Everything that heard him play, e’en the billows of the sea, hung their heads, and then lay by.

In sweet music is such art, killing care, and grief of heart, fall asleep or hearing die.

The Vale of Llanberis – Grace Williams (Wales) (1906-1977)

In the vale of Llanberis is the home that I love,

Near the cool, rushing river and the mountain above;

There the gorse and the heather grow wild ‘neath your tread,

And the rowan trees are laden with their berries so red;

And from Snowdon’s high summit in the clear morning light,

The view in its splendour will ravish your sight.

O, I long for my homeland, for the sunset’s soft glow

On the wild, craggy moorland and the valley below,

For the scent of the evening, the mist and the dew,

For the fresh breeze of morning and the sky clear and blue.

O, whenever I wander through lands far apart,

The vale of Llanberis lies close to my heart.

Irish Lullaby – Alicia Adélaide Needham (Ireland) (1863-1945)

Oh, to and fro on my bosom of love, like a bird on the bough of the white hazel swinging;

While a hush-o falls from the skies up above, and a lullalo are the fairies singing.

Sleep, Sthoreen bawn, sleep on till dawn, Peace to my heart your sweet breath bringing.

Oh, weeshie handies and mouth of the rose! My share of the world in his warm nest is lying,

While a hush-o falls as the blue eyes close, and a lullalo on the night wind dying.

Sleep, flow’r of love, sleep, cooing dove, Softly above my heart’s glad sighing!

A-lanna machree, cling closer to me, now the daylight has flown, and the pale stars are peeping,

While a hush-o falls o’er the land and the sea, and a lullalo from the far hill’s creeping.

Sleep, Sthoreen bawn, sleep on till dawn, Angels their watch above you keeping.

Plaints of Love – Cecile Chaminade (France) (1857-1944)

‘Tis love bright flower divine, has a day to bloom in fine,

But as a rose doth it vanish; like a sunlit sky of dawn

It glows in splendour at morn, that the coming night doth banish.

‘Tis love fair daystar so bright, entrancing season of delight,

Not long our bosom may cherish; a fragile plaything of time,

‘Tis born of Spring at her prime, and with Autumn doth perish.

‘Tis love’s triumphant song, thrills the heart so sweet and strong,

Yet cares do follow unsleeping! Facile and wanton in wiles,

Tho’ he greeteth us with smiles, he forsaketh us in weeping!

Sie Liebten Sich Beide – Clara Schumann (Germany) (1819-1896)

Sie liebten sich beide, doch keiner

Wollt’ es dem andern gestehn.

Sie sahen sich an so feindlich

Und wollten vor Lieber vergehn.

Sie trennten sich endlich, und sah’n sich

Nur noch zuweilen im Traum.

Sie waren längst gestorben

Und wussten es selber kaum.

They loved one another, but neither

Wished to tell the other;

They gave each other such hostile looks,

Yet nearly died of love.

In the end they parted and saw

Each other but rarely in dreams.

They died so long ago

And hardly knew it themselves.

Somewhere – Hiromi Uehara (Japan) (b.1979)

Ave Maria – Edewede Oriwoh (Nigeria) (b.unknown)

Ave Maria, Gratias Plena,

Benedicta Tu in mulieribus,

Et benedictus fructus ventris tui Jesu.

Sancta Maria, Mater Dei,

Ora pro nobis Nunc et in hora, Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace,

Blessed art thou amongst women,

And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

Pray for us now and in the hour, Amen.

Amolador – Modesta Bor (Venezuela) (1926-1998)

Amolador, amuela.

Silba tu silbato silba, hasta que silbar te duela,

Hasta que estén amolados,

El silbo de tu silbato y el filo de mis tijeras.

Mira que tengo que ha cer pañales y

pañoletas

Para el niño de mis noches, y el niño de noche

buena.

Amolador, amuela.

Grinder, grindstone.

Whistle your whistle, until whistling hurts,

Until they are ground,

The whistle and the edge of my scissors.

Look, I have to make diapers and scarves.

For the child of my nights, and the child of

Christmas Eve.

Grinder, grindstone.

Forever – Florence Price (USA) (1887-1953)

I had not known before “Forever” was so long a word.

The slow stroke of the clock of time I had not heard.

‘Tis hard to learn so late. It seems no sad heart really learns

But hopes and trusts and doubts and fears and bleeds and burns.

The night is not all dark nor is the day all it seems but each may bring me this relief: my dreams.

I had not known before that “never” was so sad a word.

So wrap me in forgetfulness I have not heard!

Fantasy in Purple – Florence Price (USA) (1887-1953)

Beat the drums of tragedy for me. Beat the drum of tragedy and death.

And let the choir sing a stormy song to drown the rattle of my dying breath.

Beat the drums of tragedy for me, and let the white violins whirl thin and slow,

But blow one blaring trumpet note of sun to go with me to the darkness where I go.

Pave The Way – Abigail Birch-Price (England) (b.1999)

Are you a Frida or are you a Jane, will your creativity make your name?

Are you an Ada or maybe a Florence, will you do all that you can in the name of science?

I want to know who I will be, will I be anything like her or just like me,

I want to know what I can do, to make a difference for her me and you,

Our lives will say we paved the way.

Are you a Rosa or Harriet, will you revolutionise the world around us?

Are you an Eva or maybe Michelle, will you lead to make a better place to dwell?

I want to know…

Are you Serena or are you a Billie, will you use your sport to fight for equality?

Are you an Emma or maybe an Oprah, will your fame inspire movements made just for her?

I want to know…