#ethel smyth

[mournfulroses]

 Virginia Woolf, from a letter to Ethel Smyth written in January 1935

[antigonick]

My own brain is to me the most unaccountable of machinery—always buzzing, humming, soaring roaring diving, and then buried in mud. And why? What's this passion for?…

—Virginia Woolf, in a letter to Ethel Smyth, December 1932 (in Letters)

[billboard-hotties-tourney]

Jean Ritchie (1922-2015) solo Songs: "One Morning in May," "Black is the Color" Propaganda: "every male country artist is borrowing from her and they don't even know it. ridiculously talented, committed to teaching appalachian folk songs and the dulcimer, wonderful catalogue of songs full of sorrow and whimsy"

Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) composer Works: Soul's Joy, Intermezzo (Mid Briars and Bushes) Propaganda: see visual

Visual Propaganda for Jean Ritchie:

Visual Propaganda for Ethel Smyth:

[sixty-silver-wishes]

happy pride month to virginia woolf and ethel “giant crab” smyth

[mikrokosmos]

Classical Pride

I know I'm too late for Pride Month. And I wasn't planning on posting much this year related to Pride, mostly because the category of "queer composers" includes a large span of styles and eras where the sexuality or gender identity may not necessarily be relevant to the music.

However (at the very least here in America) the political atmosphere has made queerness "controversial" again, and whenever there's a vocal effort to erase queerness and insist upon a heteronormative view of culture, history, biology, psychology, morality, etc. it only ever leads to real world harm for all of us.

So I don't think Pride Month should end just because the corporate calendar is ready for the next marketable holiday or season; don't be afraid to say "Gay" or "Trans" or "Queer", we exist and have always existed and here are some contributions to classical music history (with a few significant Jazz composers).

This list is a mix, mostly music by LGBT composers (either those who self-identify, or those who were alive before the category was articulated but evidence shows they could be classified as "queer"), and some that are on queer subjects (i.e. the only Bach piece here is an aria he wrote for a cantata where the sun god Phoebus (Apollo) mourns the death of his lover Hyacinth, and accepts that through love he is never truly dead).

If there are any LGBT composers, or thematic works, that you think should be included, please let me know!

[lesser-known-composers]

Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) - Der Wald: I. Prologue ·

BBC Singers · BBC Symphony Orchestra · John Andrews ·

[incorrect-composer-quotes]

If famous composers watched The Witcher

Tchaikovsky: Oh please, they are so gay for each other.

Chopin: If you say so.

Tchaikovsky: Excuse me, but lovely bottom?

Mozart: The question is not whether there is a heterosexual explanation for the lovely bottom, it's whether anyone would want a heterosexual explanation for the lovely bottom. Though the witch definitely has a lovelier bottom.

Tchaikovsky: Exactly. Anyway, I wouldn't mind being the one with the chamomile.

Ethel Smyth: Speak for yourself. I prefer the witch.

Chopin: I'm sure the actors would prefer to date people with one whole brain, not one shared brain cell. 

Liszt: Oh I like the witch. But if I had to pick one of the guys it would be the bard. He's kinda cute, especially when he's being all snarky. Though the witcher has his moments.

Tchaikovsky: That actually explains a lot.

Ethel Smyth: I hate to break it to you but that ship has sailed, wrecked and sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

Liszt: What.

Paganini: I like the bard, too. And the witcher. And the witch. And the other witch. Everyone is hot. Help.

[thatnerdyqueer]

yall im writing a musical about Dame Ethel Smyth, a classical composer and suffragette that randomly had affairs with Emmeline Pankhurst and Virginia Woolf (?)

is this something the people are interested in? Would you watch/listen?????

[lyrics365]

Nachtgedanken

Es rauben Gedanken Den Schlaf mir, o Mutter Kommen und wecken mich Kommen und gehen! Trauergedanken Von Freudentagen; Aufdämmern die Plagen Die Freuden versanken Die Träume jagen Vorüber, o Mutter Kommen und wecken mich Kommen und gehen! Es wird mein Bette Dem Kampf zur Wiege Dem bösen Kriege Zur friedlosen Stätte Von Schatten ich liege Beängstig, o Mutter Kommen und wecken mich Kommen und…

[contemporaryclassicalfan]

CD ‘She composes like a man’: Tine Thing Helseth ironises male gaze

The Norwegian Trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth showcases 14 women composers on CD 'She Composes Like a Man'.

Norwegian trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth (Oslo, 1987) regularly plays as a soloist with orchestras such as the Vienna Symphoniker, Liverpool Philharmonic and Oslo Camerata. In 2007, she formed the all-female brass band ten Thing. With this ensemble, she released the CD She Composes Like a Man, is entirely dedicated to female composers, no fewer than 14 of them. From the calibrated Fanny Mendelssohn…

[remelemmostmaraholdonlaksz]

Ethel Smyth (1858-1944)

[hozierandrew]

My own brain is to me the most unaccountable of machinery—always buzzing, humming, soaring roaring diving, and then buried in mud.

Virginia Woolf - Letter to Ethel Smyth, 28th December 1932

[opera-ghosts]

OTD in Music History: British composer and suffragist Dame Ethel Smyth (1858 - 1944) -- the first female composer ever to be granted a damehood (in 1922) -- is born in London. Few figures in musical history have led a more colorful life than Smyth. After a bitter fight with her father over her desire to pursue music, Smyth was allowed to study composition at the Leipzig Conservatory. Although she left after only a year (disillusioned with what she considered to be the low standard of teaching), her attendance there put her into contact with luminaries including Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897), Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893), Antonin Dvorak (1841 - 1904), Edvard Grieg (1843 - 1907), and Clara Schumann (1819 - 1896). Upon her return to England, she also formed a friendship with Sir Arthur Sullivan (1842 - 1900) in the final years of his life. Smyth's extensive body of work includes two notable operas: "The Wreckers" -- which is considered by some critics to be the most important English opera composed during the period between Henry Purcell (1659 - 1695) and Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976) -- and "Der Wald" (1903), which for more than a century stood as the only opera by a woman composer that had ever been produced at New York's Metropolitan Opera (until Kaija Saariaho's "L'Amour de loin" was premiered in 2016). Smyth’s final major completed work was a vocal symphony entitled "The Prison" (1931); by the mid-1930s, she had gone almost completely deaf. Smyth was also a historically important British suffragist (who served two months in prison for her political activism) and she was openly gay at a time when that was highly unusual. At age 71, she fell in love with famed writer Virginia Woolf (1882 - 1941). Woolf, nearly 25 years her junior, was both alarmed and amused by the situation, comparing it to “being caught by a giant crab." The two women eventually settled into a close platonic friendship. PICTURED: A 1931 autograph letter written and signed by Smyth to a friend, concerning musical activities.

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

Late for the asks but here's one: fantasy cast for an opera you haven't fantasy casted yet

okay i just decided to put my massive playlist of stuff and fantasy cast the first thing that came up, so:

dame ethel smyth’s the wreckers:

pascoe: gerald finley

thirza: sasha cooke (yes i know she’s already done the role BUT IT WASN’T FILMED)

mark: allan clayton

avis: ying fang or jacquelyn stucker

[thearbourist]

The DWR Friday Musical Interlude - Ethel Smyth Sonata in A minor, op. 5