Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944)
“I think that life has been hard on women; it has not given them opportunity…. Woman has not been considered a working force in the world and the work that her sex and conditions impose upon her has not been so adjusted as to give her a little fuller scope for the development of her best self…. There is no sex in art. Genius is an independent quality. The woman of the future, with her broader outlook, her greater opportunities, will go far, I believe, in creative work of every description.” — Cecile Chaminade, composer
Amy Beach, 1867-1944
Some weeks ago, I attended a morning chamber music recital at Teatro Monumental of Madrid, Spain, with a good friend of mine Julio César Setién. The recital was sponsored by Radio Clásica and it included piano quintets by Spanish composer Enrique Granados (1867-1916) and american composer Amy Beach (1867-1944). Truth be told, I really attended the concert because I just wanted to listen to Amy Beach’s piano quintet opus 67. Some time in the past, I had read some reviews about this American composer, but I had never listened to her music. So, the first time I listened to it was that morning at Teatro Monumental and I must say her quintet really impressed me! This led me to find out a bit more about her and her music in the following days. I ended up discovering three other female composers worth mentioning along Amy Beach: the French Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944) and the two British Rebecca Clarke (1986-1979) and Dorothy Howell (1898-1982).
Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979)
The reason why I ended up connecting the dots amongst these four female composers was that I found two recordings which I strongly recommend: one of them from year 1995 on ASV with works by Amy Beach (Piano Quintet opus 67) and Rebecca Clarke (Piano Trio and Viola Sonata) and another one on Hyperion from 2017 with piano concerts by Cécile Chaminade, Amy Beach and Dorothy Howell. I really loved Chaminade’s work “Concertstück”. Really powerful! But I couldn’t say less of Beach and Howell piano concertos. If you really want to enjoy romantic piano concerts, this recording on Hyperion is a must buy.
Dorothy Howell (1898-1982)
I can’t help but thinking that history or rather we, the listeners or performers, owe a lot to some women who seem to have tiptoed around the world of music, a world historically dominated by men. Their works have been relegated in the best of cases to a second place or, simply put, to mere anecdotes in music history. I find it very difficult to try and summarise the lives of these women in a few lines, the same way I find equally imposible for me to summarise the lives of many other male composers. I do not want to fall into positive discrimination towards women. I really think the music of these four women is worth performing and listening. Their works have nothing to envy from those of their male contemporaries. Their music is very high quality and it is up to us, those who perform or listen to music, to honour those women who once decided to dedicate time and effort to compose music. The best way to honour them is by performing and listening to their music. And this is not so easy, because there are still very few recordings of their works and musicians do not include them in their concert programs. Let’s demand their music! Let’s honour them!
Michael Thallium
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