Music of female composers.
This article is a critique of a concert held at the Viva Society in London, held on Thursday, March 18, 1965, at the Commonwealth Institute. In this criticism of the concert, the journalist mentions essential aspects in the performance of the concert. The program was designed to perform only works by English female composers. The article’s main statement tells us that the music written by female composers is absolutely the same as that composed by men. The journalist even subtly mentioned that other critics usually are undervaluing women’s intellectual work, indicating that the results lack inspiration and that it is a thought that is implicit in the difficulty and even the challenge of building a program with these characteristics. However, the journalist made a contrary opinion indicating that the concert offered a lot of pleasure for its audience in an intense way. The composers selected for this concert were Elisabeth Lutyens’s, Ruth Gipps’s, Elizabeth Poston, Phyllis Tate, Thea Musgrave, and Ethel Smyth. The words described in each work offer the ideal of intellectualism, virtuosity, expressiveness, and a great connection with the public. All-female composers were born in the 20th century, and indeed for many of us, their names are the first we hear them.
We are more familiar with the characters of other composers in earlier times, such as Anna Magdalena Bach, Clara Schumann, Fanny Mendelssohn, Francesca Caccini, Barbara Strozzi, among others.
Women have been taken into account in interpretive tasks mainly; such is the case of Jacqueline du Pree (Cellista), Hilary Hann (Violinist), Martha Argerich (Pianist), Cecilia Bartoli (Mezzosoprano), Ana Vidovic (Guitarist), among others. However, in composition and conducting, its essential role has not been recognized, but fortunately, this situation is changing. Some directors with a tremendous international career that I can mention in this short writing are Keri-Lynn Wilson (Canada), Alondra de la Parra (Mexico), Lina Gonzalez Granados (Colombia), Marin Alsop (United States), Inma Shara (Spain), among other. Within the composition, I would like to mention Sofia Gubaidulina (Russia), Jacqueline Nova (Colombia), Amparo Angel (Colombia). As composers for my instrument, the guitar, I want to mention Matilde Salvador (Spain), Gloria Villanueva (Spain), Jana Obrovska (Czech Republic), among others. Finally, I want to emphasize that historically we owe women intellectual recognition in many professional fields. As musicians and performers, we must include music written by female composers in our concerts. I think that women have a very high sensitivity in the creation and interpretation and that she is challenging to imitate.
