Women composers of the 19th-21st centuries: Orchestral and chamber music (part 2 of 4)
Parisian born Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983) remains one of the most noteworthy women composers of the early 20th century. Her compositions include: Three Etudes for Piano and Orchestra, Violin Concerto, Concerto Gross for Two Pianos, Saxophone Quartet and Orchestra, four full-length ballet scores, additional works for orchestra, the Sonata for Harp and other chamber music, as well as various works for musical theatre. She was extremely active in the post-World War I world of the arts in Paris. These were the decades of the “ex-patriots,” which included the post-impressionistic composer Maurice Ravel, author James Joyce, Aaron Copland, and Nadia Boulanger with Paris as the “center of the artistic universe,” especially the world of music. In addition, the young composer Tailleferre was the sole woman of the Parisian group of composers later know as “Les Six” which had a major artistic impact in Paris, the city that had evolved and was touted as the most seminal and vital artistic environment in Europe.
The orchestral works of English composer Doreen Mary Carwithen (1922-2003) have been performed by the London Symphony and other orchestras around the world. The first major performance of her first orchestral overture was in 1947 and conducted by legendary conductor Adrian Boult at Covent Garden. This was followed by Concerto for Piano and Strings (1948), the overture Bishop Rock (1952) and a Suffolk Suite (1964).
The prolific Scottish-American composer Thea Musgrave (b. 1927) studied at the University of Edinburgh and later the Conservatoire in Paris with Nadia Boulanger before coming to the United States in 1970 to teach at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She conducted the premiere of her Concerto for Horn and Orchestra with the Scottish National Orchestra in 1971 and followed this with the composition of her Viola Concerto in 1973. In 1974 she received the Koussevitsky Award for her composition Space Play, a concerto for chamber ensemble which premiered in Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York. Performed by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the concerto received critical acclaim.
Her musical style, language and sense of the dramatic are nowhere more evident than in her works for orchestra. Thea Musgrave continues to create powerfully intense, new sounds in such works as: A Concerto for Bassoon and Low Strings (1975), Introitus Concerto for Piano and Chamber Orchestra (1978), Stimmen Symphony in 12 movements (1986), Figures of Time for large orchestra (1994), Concerto for Viola and Orchestra (1996), The Rider on the White Horse for large orchestra and organ (2002), The Deceitful Face of Hope and Despair for flute and orchestra (2005), Feast During a Plague for large orchestra (2006), In Tempus Praesens concerto for violin and orchestra (2007), Glorious Percussion concerto for percussion and orchestra (2008), and Fachwerk concerto for bayan and strings (2009).
Russian composer Sofia Asgatovna Gubaidulina (1931) experimented with orchestral and chamber ensembles and studied composition during the tenuous times of the Soviet Union’s application of “Soviet Realism” to the arts and the creative restrictions that were placed upon composers. Despite this repressive ideology Gubaidulina composed a number of works which distinguished her and brought her to the attention of the Soviet Union’s most important composer, Dimitri Shostakovich. Later works such as her Concerto for Viola and Orchestra and the cello concerto Canticle of the Sun dedicated to the great cellist Rostropovich demonstrated her creative intensity.
Australian born Peggy-Glannville-Hicks (1912-1990) was a student at the Royal College of Music in London with the preeminent English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. She composed Etruscan Concerto for piano and chamber orchestra (1954), Concertino Antico for harp and string quartet (1955), and Meditation for Orchestra (1965). She was commissioned to compose a score for the ballet The Masque of the Wild Man for choreographer John Butler for the first Spoleto Festival in Spoleto, Italy and this followed with a number of other ballet commissions. Her compositions for chamber ensembles and solo instruments are a creative landscape for musical artistry. Ultimately she became a major figure in American music with the League of Composers, promoting young musical artists while serving as the Director of the Composers Forum, and serving as a music critic for the New York Herald Tribune.
American composers such as concert pianist Joan Tower (b. 1938) often combine careers in composition and performance. Her Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman remains one of her most significant works. By contrast, her Concerto for Orchestra, based upon the melodic theme of America the Beautiful, paints a sonic picture of the landscape of America. Later works such as Sequoia for orchestra (1981) and concertos for piano, clarinet, flute and violin with orchestra mark her significant output during the latter decades of the 20th century. In addition she has created solo chamber works such as Clocks for guitar, Wild Purple for viola and Ascent for organ.
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (b. 1939), is distinguished as the first woman ever to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 1983 for her Symphony No. 1. With four Grammy nominations including the 1990 nomination for her Symphony No. 2 and a 1996 nomination for her Symphony No. 3, the Arturo Toscanini Music Critics Award and a host of other accolades, her prolific musical output and creative genius thrusts her into the spotlight as one of our most important and respected composers in the United States. Her works have been performed by most major orchestras in the America and around the world. Pierre Boulez, conductor of the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, brought her music to public attention with her Symposium for orchestra which he conducted at the prestigious Julliard School of Music in New York in 1975.
She was named “Composer of the Year” in 1999 by the publication Musical America. A consortium of 27 symphony orchestras commissioned her to compose Millennium Fantasy for piano and orchestra which was premiered in September of 2000 by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. In honor of the premier, the Mayor of Cincinnati issued a proclamation naming September 23, 2000 “Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Day.” Her career continues to grow as USA Today recognized her String Quartet No. 2 as the “Best New Chamber Piece” of 1998 and she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004.
Other orchestral composers include Anne Dudley, the first female English composer to be associated with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Concert Orchestra in 2001. She premiered her first commissioned work for the BBC Symphony, Music and Silence, for the orchestras’ 50th Anniversary Concert in the Royal Festival Hall in 2002.
The Romanian-born German composer Violeta Dinescu (b. 1953) has created an impressive body of work for orchestra and chamber ensembles as well as other musical genres. Her works for symphonic orchestra and orchestral ballet scores are extensive. Her first orchestral scores Verwandlungen (1978), Anna Perenna (1979), Memories (1980), Akrostichon (1983), Map 67 (1987), Fresco (1989), Kybalion (1991), Niutao (1992), ora x (1995) and Vortex – Wolken I, II, und III (1998) were integrated into an artistic output from 1985-1998 of orchestral ballet scores. From 1975-2001 she also composed dozens of chamber works for a wide range of instrumental ensembles. She has been awarded numerous prestigious awards for artistic musical composition from the Romanian Composers Union, GEDOK International Composition Competition, International Competition for Composers and the G.B. Viotti International Music and Dance Competition. In addition, she has been an Executive Board Member of the International League of Women Composers since 1985.
Libby Larsen has composed a significant body of orchestral music and an extensive amount of chamber music for a colorful array of instruments and voices as well as electronic sounds such as Argyle Sketches for guitar and Song Concerto for alto voice, soprano saxophone and chamber orchestra. Suzanne Ciani, composer and recording artist, is a pioneer in the field of electronic music and sound design. She has been nominated for and has received numerous awards, including: Grammy nominations in 2000 for Turning, in 1996 for Dream Suite, in 1991 for Hotel Luna and in 1988 for Neverland, and the 1992 Keyboard Magazine award for “Best New Age Keyboardist.” In 1987 the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, New York Chapter awarded her the “Most Valuable Synthesizer Player Award.”
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