French born Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944) was arguably one of the best known women to compose music in her lifetime and was extremely popular in America. Known for her salon pieces, Chaminade also scored many large works.

She was able to achieve a strong music education despite her father’s disapproval. She performed some of her earliest works for Georges Bizet and gave her first formal concert at age eighteen. Nearly all of her salon pieces were published in her lifetime and she toured France, England, and the United States in her lifetime. Chaminade was well respected in her lifetime – Ambroise Thomas said of her, “This is not a woman who composes, but a composer who is a woman.”

Though her list of compositions include over 170 opus numbers, the piece she is primarily known for today (and still, on great occasion, heard) is the Flute Concertino (op. 107) composed in 1902. However, much of her work is still available and in the public domain.

Below is one of many recordings made and posted by enthusiastic musicians on YouTube – this of an etude for piano:

Sunday, March 20th, marks the 11th anniversary of the death of Vivian Fine (1913-2000) and the loss of a truly great American composer. Fine was a prolific composer who completed over 140 works in a 70 year career. Ranging in instrumentation and genre, Fine was known well for her chamber pieces, but also composed ballets, works for voice and for large orchestras.

Born in Chicago, Fine was a piano prodigy at five, began composing at fourteen, and made her professional debut as a composer at sixteen. She was a student of Ruth Crawford, was a part of Aaron Copland’s young Composers Group. Her talents, recognized far and wide in the list of awards and acclamations she received in her lifetime, were sadly silenced after Fine was in a car accident and died on March 20, 2000.

More information about the life, work and music of Vivian Fine can be found on her official website, which continues to honor her legacy. Also available are two interviews with Fine conducted by Elizabeth Vercoe and originally printed in the Journal for the International Alliance for Women in Music . Fine’s scores are held at the Library of Congress.

Her final large work was a multimedia opera titled “The Memoirs of Uliana Rooney” – a somewhat autobiographical story about a female composer in the 20th century. In an interview with the New York Times in 1989 (and repeated here) Fine was quoted as saying,

I hope the term ‘woman composer’ will be dropped soon. I think we are in a better place than we were 20 years ago. Women are accepted in literature, painting and sculpture. We don’t talk of ‘poetesses’ anymore. And women performers as soloists – singer, pianists, violinists – have been accepted for a long time.

Unfortunately, the scarcity of women’s work being heard in concert halls throughout the country continues to reinforce the need to highlight the significance of women creating music. But we are all certainly working towards a time when that distinction can evaporate.

Below is an example of Fine’s orchestral writing, Alcestis, written for Martha Graham:

The life of Francesca Caccini (1587- after 1641) provides another example of a woman fortunate to be born into a family supportive of her musical pursuits. Caccini’s father was an accomplished musician, composer, and educator and gave his daughter every opportunity that she could have hoped for as a young woman period living in Italy in the early Baroque period. Her education and inspiration resulted in her opera La liberzione di Ruggiero, which is largely accepted as the first known opera composed by a woman.

For a significant portion of her life, Caccini was in service at the Medici court as a composer, performer, and educator. In 1614 she was reportedly the court’s highest paid musician. She composed several works for the stage beyond La liberzione di Ruggiero, but they have all been lost to time. Some of her surviving works are solos or duets for voice. After Caccini left her role as court musician in 1641 she disappeared from public record.

Suzanne G. Cusick, musicologist and professor at NYU, recently published her work on the life and music of Francesca Caccini titled, Francesca Caccini at the Medici Court: Music and the Circulation of Power . The book provides the reader a biographical history as well as an accurate account of what the role of a court musician entailed during Caccini’s lifetime.

Below is “Lasciatemi Qui Solo” for soprano and lute:

Though she is often remembered as the only female member of Les Six, the history books often neglect the life and work of Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983) beyond that point.

French by birth, she changed her name from Taillefesse to Tailleferre as a young woman in protest to her father who refused to offer his support in her interest in music. She did receive support and encouragement from her mother, and Tailleferre studied at the Paris Conservatory, which is where she met Francis Poulenc, Darius Milhaud, Arthur Honegger and the other fellows who with Tailleferre would make up Les Six. She spent her life traveling between France and the United States, composing wherever she was and exploring a wide range of genres and orchestrations. The 1920’s and 1930’s where especially important decades for her large and experimental works.

She was a rather prolific composer, and continued to create new works until her death – an extensive list of her compositions can be found here. Much of her work is still being published today. In 1992 The Women’s Philharmonic made the first recording of Tailleferre’s Harp Concertino – the CD was reissued in 2008 and is available for purchase through the WPS store.

Tailleferre often drew from nature for inspiration. The work below for solo piano is titled Fleurs de France (1930):

Everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s day – so why not listen to some music that was inspired by celtic roots?

The first to come to mind is Amy Beach’s Gaelic Symphony:

But not to be neglected is Margaret Ruthven Lang’s “Irish Love Song”:

And while you listen to some music that draws from Irish roots, you can read this article Jane O’Leary (herself a composer) published in the journal for the International Alliance for Women in Music on the women composers of Ireland. Then you can stop by the Contemporary Music Centre of Ireland to read and listen more about the current music making that is happening on the Green Isle, including the work of O’Leary and her colleagues.

Happy listening!

Today is the 346th birthday of Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre. Born in Paris March 17, 1665, was a child prodigy who, at the age of five, gave a harpsichord concert for King Louis XIV. She continued as a court musician until her marriage in 1684, but continued to give concerts and teach, becoming a well respected educator and composer in Paris. She died in 1729 in Paris, but left numerous compositions – most of which were published in her lifetime.

Her compositions include works for harpsichord, chamber pieces vocal works, and two operas one of which is still extant. Her trio sonatas are some of our earliest examples of French sonatas. She continues to be recognized as one of the most accomplished women in the Baroque period; recordings of two of her works for keyboard are available through the WPA store.

Here is an example of her vocal writing:

As I mentioned at the beginning of this month, every month is Women’s History Month at WPA, as it is in every feminist community.  There are many concerns and mixed feelings about what it means to separate one month for the recognition of one group – and understandably so.  If we remember the works of women in March, does that mean we get to go back to neglecting them in April?  Certainly not – but that is more than likely the case in the general public.

This March there have been several notable “celebrations” of women’s work in music by different radio stations and publications.

WGBH in Boston has been featuring the contributions of women to classical music each weekday morning in the 7 o’clock hour.  Shame that it isn’t featured in a later program when more listeners might be listening (though, I suppose there might be at least a few sitting in rush hour traffic….)  WGBH also did a feature on Nadia Boulanger in honor of Women’s History month, though the cynic in me is quick to note that Nadia is mostly remembered as the teacher of many famous male composers.

Amanda Angel of WQXR in New York City compiled a list of the “Top Five Women Composers” to counter Tommasini’s list of top ten composers that neglected any women.  On WQXR’s list are Clara Schumann, Fanny Mendelssohn, Amy Beach, Hildegard von Bingen, and Lili Boulanger.  Though the effort is commendable, the piece lacks some careful fact checking and depth that is deserved on the topic.  But, I am rather biased.

Certainly the best piece that I have (at least as of yet) seen featuring women composers in March is by Fiona Maddocks of The Guardian.  The opening paragraph sets just the right mood:

Try this test. Write down all the women composers you know of. No, don’t run away. Given the nature of this column, stick to contemporary classical. Too hard? OK, include anyone, past or present, who has written religious, symphonic, chamber, vocal, choral, operatic, electro-acoustic works. To make it simple, film and TV scores are allowed too. Still zero? You’re in distinguished company. The Guardian‘s 100 Most Inspiring Women this week, marking the 100th International Women’s Day, featured not one.

Though, the candor that Maddocks shares with readers shouldn’t be surprising – Maddocks is familiar with the topic of women in music, having written a biography of Hildegard von Bingen.  Her piece, which I highly recommend, not only recognizes the continued absence in programming (specifically in the UK), but also the efforts that are being made.  For example, Sue Perkins, who won the reality-TV conducting competition several years back, conducted an all-women’s orchestra in a performance of Ethel Smyth’s “The March of the Women” as the final performance of the Women of the World conference held last weekend.  Maddocks concludes her piece with a list of eight young composers to look out for.

Certainly, we are working towards a time where it is not necessary to highlight the gender (or race, or nationality, etc.) of the composers that are being performed.  The challenge that Maddocks presented to her readers clearly demonstrates that we are not yet even close.  Till then, our work continues.

Pauline Viardot, like many other women featured this month, was fortunate to be born into a musical family. Born in Paris in 1821, Viardot (nee Garcia) has Spanish ancestry. Her parents were opera singers and fostered her talents as a singer, though she was also a highly accomplished pianist. Throughout her lifetime she was a student of Liszt and Reica, and a friend of Chopin and Clara Schumann, sang under Berlioz and knew Jenny Lind. She was also on friendly terms with Tchaikovsky and Rossini, who visited her home. After she retired from the stage, Viardot taught at the Paris Conservatory. She died in Paris in 1910.

More information about Viardot can be found through the Tchaikovsky Research Center, which includes a more detailed accounts of the time and correspondence that Viardot shared with Tchaikovsky. Viardot’s papers are held at Harvard.

Though known primarily as a performer, Viardot composed actively. Her compositional output was primarily songs, and often arranged the instrumental works of other composers (including Chopin, Haydn, Schubert, and Brahms) as songs. Though she never actively pursued the role or title of “composer”, as most of her works were written to be used as educational tools with her students, her work was praised highly in its time. Included in her oeuvre are several salon operas and chamber works.

Here is Cecilia Bartoi performing Viardot’s “Hai luli”:

Lili Boulanger’s life ended tragically on March 15, 1918 – 93 years ago today. The younger sister of Nadia Boulanger, Lili was a child prodigy and accomplished a great deal in her short 24 years. Born and raised in Paris to a musical family, she repotedly tagged along with her older sister to music classes even at the age of five. She later studied with Gabriel Fauré Her talents were fostered from a young age, though she was always sickly.

Lili’s greatest achievement in her short lifetime was being the first woman to win the Prix de Rome. The winning composition was Faust et Hélène, cantata for mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone and orchestra. Though Lili was only able to complete a handful of compositions, her ability and craft as a composer are clear in her writing and remind the listener of the true loss of her early death. Recordings of her works are available, including a performance by the Women’s Philharmonic available in the shop.

Nadia promoted the works of her younger sister throughout her lifetime, and there is quite a lot of joint scholarship being done on the Boulanger sisters. More information can be found at the Centre International Nadia Et Lili Boulanger.

Lili’s last completed composition was Pie Jesu which she dictated to Nadia from her bed. Below is a recording of the work as conducted by Nadia in 1949:

I recently wrote about the news from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra that they are making a concerted effort to include and recognize the contributions of women musicians in their 2011-2012 concert season.  Just days after the BSO news was announced, I learned that the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra is making similar strides in their programming.  The press release can be found here.

It is notable that this is the inaugural season for the RPO’s new Music Director, Arild Remmereit.  Christopher Seaman, Remmereit’s predecessor, was not known to embrace works by women in his programming – according to the League of American Orchestra reports the Rochester Philharmonic has only performed three works by women in the last ten years – (Higdon’s Blue Cathedral; Larsen’s Notes Slipped Under the Door, and Tower’s Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman).  This season, however, the RPO will perform eight works:

• Amy Beach’s Symphony No. 2, “Gaelic”
• Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel’s Hiob (Job)
• Gabriela Lena Frank’s Three Latin American Dances
• Peggy Stuart Coolidge’s Blue Planet
• Karen Tanaka’s Rose Absolute
• Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor
• Sofia Gubaidulina’s Two Paths: Dedication to Mary and Martha, Concerto for Two Violas
• And a newly commissioned piece by Margaret Brouwer

In my eyes, Remmereit has created a fantastic season including a more diverse representation of women’s work through history and nationalities than likely has ever been seen in a professional orchestra’s programming.  We can only hope that the effort and thought that was part of the artistic choices for the 2011-2012 season will carry through future seasons, and that Remmereit and the RPO will continue to perform diverse programming.  If this is how Remmereit is approaching his first season in Rochester, I am anxious to see what future concerts will hold!